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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/30057-0.txt b/30057-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e7dc839 --- /dev/null +++ b/30057-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6354 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30057 *** + +[Illustration: Cover of All-Story Weekly] + + +ALL-STORY WEEKLY + +VOL. XC + +NUMBER 2 + +SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1918 + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +[Transcriber's Note: This novel was originally serialized in four +installments in All-Story Weekly magazine from November 2, 1918, to +November 23, 1918. The original breaks in the serial have been retained, +but summaries of previous events preceding the second and third +installments have been moved to the end of this e-book. The Table of +Contents which follows this note was created for this electronic +edition.] + + + +Table of Contents + + +November 2, 1918 + + I. THE CAVE OF TERRIBLE THINGS. 193 + II. DOLORES RECEIVES HER DIADEM. 196 + III. THE GROVE OF MYSTERY. 200 + IV. THE PIRATES' BARBECUE. 203 + V. MILO SIGHTS A SAIL. 206 + VI. THE PARTY FROM THE YACHT. 209 + + +November 9, 1918 + + VII. THE ATTACK ON THE FEU FOLLETTE. 466 + VIII. DOLORES DELIVERS JUDGMENT. 469 + IX. THE SULTANA DECIDES SEVERAL THINGS. 472 + X. A REED SHAKEN BY THE WINDS OF PASSION. 475 + XI. PASCHERETTE UNVEILS HER PURPOSE. 477 + XII. SANCHO SETTLES HIS ACCOUNT. 480 + XIII. DOLORES FLOATS THE FEU FOLLETTE. 488 + + +November 16, 1918 + + XIV. YELLOW RUFE'S FINISH. 697 + XV. THE FIRES OF THE FLESH. 701 + XVI. PEARSE ENTERS THE CAVE OF ALADDIN. 704 + XVII. THE TREASURE TEST. 707 + XVIII. PASCHERETTE DEALS AGAIN. 711 + XIX. WHILE VICTORY HANGS IN THE BALANCE. 715 + + +November 23, 1918 + + XX. DOLORES DEMANDS A DECISION. 147 + XXI. THE SLUMBERING SAVAGE. 150 + XXII. THE FLIGHT OF THE FEU FOLLETTE. 153 + XXIII. STUMPY FIRES THE MAGAZINE. 155 + XXIV. MILO CROSSES THE BAR. 157 + XXV. THE TOLL OF THE GODS. 159 + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE CAVE OF TERRIBLE THINGS. + + +A great unrest brooded over mountain and forest; the blue Caribbean lay +hushed and glaring, as if held in leash by a power greater than that +which ordered its daily ebb and flow. + +Men moved or stood beneath the trees on the cliffside in attitudes of +supreme awe or growing uneasiness, according to their kind: for among +them were numbered Spaniard and Briton, creole and mulatto, Carib and +octoroon, with coal-black negroes enough to outnumber all the rest--and +it was upon these last that profound awe sat oppressively. + +Apart, followed by a hundred furtive eyes, Dolores, daughter of Red +Jabez, ranged back and forth before the mighty rock portals of the Cave +of Terrible Things, like some magnificent tigress hedged with foes. +Beyond those portals Red Jabez, Sultan of pirates, arbiter of life and +death over the motley community, lay at grips with the grim specter to +whom he had consigned scores far more readily than he now yielded up +his own red-stained soul. Red Jabez was dying a death as hard as his +lurid life had been. + +Beyond those rock portals none save Jabez and Milo, the herculean +Abyssinian slave, had ever passed. Dolores, next in line, was in +ignorance as deep as her meanest slave, concerning what lay beyond the +great mass of rock which formed the door, and which Milo alone could +move. She knew, as did every one, that the great chamber of Red Jabez +held some vast mystery; she suspected, as did the rest, that it +concealed wealth beyond dreams; deep down in her soul she hoped that +inviolate chamber held for her the means of emancipation; but of this +hope, none knew save herself. For Queen of Night though the white men +called her, Sultana though she was named with fear and submission by the +blacks, though her power was second only to that of Red Jabez, and +barely less than his, a canker gnawed at the heart of Dolores, the +canker of a suspicion that her power was but a paltry power, her freedom +but a caged freedom. + +Somewhere beyond the great ocean that stretched away before her eyes +lay a world she knew nothing of; yet since her earliest childhood her +keen mind had told her that the silk with which she was clothed, the +jewels that encrusted her dagger-hilt, the ships whose pillage had +yielded up these things, must come from lands far distant, more +desirable than the maroon country of Jamaica. More, her ears attuned to +the whisper or roar of the sea, the sigh or shriek of the winds, carried +to her the mutterings of men long held in leash, who now saw in their +chieftain's death the realization of their own wild dreams of riches and +release. All these things told her that the great, strange world beyond +the sea-line was something for her to strive for; not for the rabble who +called her queen. + +She paced back and forth, a splendidly lithe, glowing creature of beauty +and passion, every movement a grace, each grace such as befitted a royal +woman conscious of mental and physical perfection. Her hair surrounded +her face and shoulders in a lustrous, rippling cloud, through which +peeped a bare arm and breast stolen from the goddess of beauty; her +tunic of quilted Chinese silk hung from one shoulder by a strap +fashioned from the ribbon of the Star of Persia, and fastened by the +star; her strong, slender waist was girdled with a heavy gold cord that +supported a long, thin dagger, no toy, in a jeweled sheath; the hem of +her single garment rang with gold sequins to the movement of her +smoothly muscular knees; her high-arched feet were protected from thorns +and shells by sandals of red leather. + +As the moments passed, and no sign came from within the cave, Dolores +restrained her impatience with increasing difficulty. The men scattered +around were not of such stuff; they felt the impending crisis settle +heavily upon them, and white and black alike drew together for the +comfort of close touch. From time to time a hardier spirit uttered his +thoughts aloud, yet always with a glance of uncertainty toward Dolores. +They had reason to glance that way; for every man had tasted of the +queen's justice, which rarely erred on the side of mildness; many of +them had experienced her terrible competence to carry out a sentence in +person. Of them all, not one but knew that in Dolores he owned as queen +a woman who need yield nothing of prowess to any man: her knife was as +swift, her round wrist as strong, her blazing violet-black eyes as sure +as any among them. Not a man could ever forget the offending slave whom +she had thrashed with her own hands, disdaining assistance, until the +wretch tore loose and fled screaming to the cliff to pitch headlong into +the shark-infested sea; nor could they forget her unhesitating dive and +terrific struggle to recover him and her completion of the interrupted +punishment when she had brought him back. + +Yet the stress proved too great, even in face of these memories, and a +tall, powerful Spaniard, heavily earringed, handsome, with a swart, +brutal beauty, delivered a scorching oath to the heavy air and exclaimed +fiercely: + +"A curse on this babe's play! Must men stand here like whipped curs +until a slave commands us enter? Come! Who'll follow me past that door? +I'll know what lies behind this mummery if I choke it from old Jabez's +withered neck as he dies." + +The man stepped forward two paces, glaring defiantly at Dolores, waiting +for men to follow. An uneasy shuffling of feet was his only answer for a +moment; then his eyes shifted with cooling ardor at sight of Dolores. +For a breath after he had ceased speaking, the girl stood like a +splendid statue, except for the glitter of her eyes and a slight +quivering of her limbs; it was as if she awaited some response; then her +face relaxed into a contemptuous smile, and her crimson lips parted to +reveal her even, gleaming teeth. She laughed, a rippling little laugh +like the tinkle of steel links, and with a single gliding movement that +permitted no avoidance she swept to within two feet of the now +frightened ruffian. + +"Yes? Yellow Rufe would choke words from a dying man!" she cried. +"Nothing that lives and can stand on two feet is in danger from such as +he. Peace, slavish dog!" she panted, flinging out a gleaming hand and +seizing him by one earring. "Thus I mark curs that seek their food among +the dead!" With the words Dolores's right hand flashed upward, +knife-armed, and across Rufe's cheek glared a crimson cross; into his +eyes leaped the fear of death. + +"Now go!" she said imperiously, pushing him away. "Let no man forget +that while the life is in Red Jabez he holds thy lives in pawn. When his +spirit goes, ye shall reckon with me!" + +Rufe staggered away, half incredulous that his punishment had fallen +short of death. His companions led him apart with many a backward glance +of apprehension at the authoress of his discomfiture, and a deep, sullen +muttering rippled through the crowd. Dolores resumed her solitary pacing +without another thought for the hardy rascal she had so swiftly and +effectively softened. Her eyes were ever bent toward the great rock; her +thoughts were centered on a vague, mysterious instinct which whispered +to her that with her first admission into that frowning cavern the +mantle of fierce old Red Jabez would fall upon her, and with it would +come power that a Czar might envy! A Czar's power, indeed, but with all +of a Czar's cares and more; for Czar never ruled over subjects like +these. + +A sudden hush fell upon the place; the mutterings ceased as if tongues +were stricken stiff. Rufe, with his head now enwrapped in crossed +bandages, stared toward the great rock with a wavering expression in his +smoldering eyes, an expression that hovered between reluctant +submission, reawakened cupidity, and dawning hope. Dolores stood +motionless, imperious in every line and feature, her heavy eyelashes +veiling the eagerness in her eyes, her red lips curved in royal +indifference. + +The great rock was turning. + +Slowly, yet with the flawless regularity of a millwheel, the mass of +stone was rolled upward and to one side; it rested at last on a ledge, +balanced perfectly, ready to fall again at the touch of a finger; and in +the aperture appeared the human agent of its opening. + +Milo, the giant Abyssinian, guardian of the rock, custodian of the Cave +of Terrible Things, bone of contention for the jealous and terror of the +strongest, filled the entrance with his colossal frame and looked out +with a calm dignity that made the whites cringe with hatred. Slowly, +with stately grace, the giant advanced until he stood before Dolores, +and in his coal-black eyes shone the light of limitless devotion. He +knelt, kissed the sequins on her tunic's hem, then, with both hands +pressed to his forehead, he bowed his face to the earth at her feet. + +"Rise, Milo," said Dolores, gently, and her breath caught painfully as +she spoke. She knew what the slave came for; every man in that community +of pirates, wreckers, escaped slaves, and convicts knew as well as she. +All had awaited this moment, knowing when it came that the mystery of +the cave would be a mystery no longer to at least one of them: all knew +that the summons meant the passing of the old pirate who had brought +them together, ruled them with blood and iron, and forced from them a +homage none of them would render to his Maker. + +"My Sultana, it is time," said Milo, rising and waiting. He needed to +say no more. + +"Lead me to my father, then," replied the girl, and stepped after the +giant with sure step and resolute face, giving no heed to the renewed +shuffling and congregating of her people, nor to Rufe, who again stood +out before the rest and addressed them in fierce tones. + +Dolores entered the great hewn-rock doorway and in spite of her stout +heart and steel will she thrilled in every fiber. At the end of the +frowning passage, whose ruby lamps but accentuated the gloom and +imparted to it an infernal glow, lay the great chamber that only the +chief might enter. What would she find there? Her father, yes, and +dying! Otherwise this summons had never come. The death must be upon him +now; the fierce old sea-king had held his throne-room inviolate through +many bouts with the grim Reaper, knowing his own strength to conquer. +But now he had called, and Dolores sought the unknown with a curiosity +that beat down fear. + +Behind her a heavy thud echoed along the rocky walls, and the outer +light was cut off by the falling of the great stone. In a moment Milo +stood beside her and, taking her hand in his, led her along the utterly +invisible floor until she stood before a massive door. Her feet sank +into the pile of heavy carpets; her nostrils quivered to the delicate +odors of burning spices; at the top of the door a great jeweled lantern +cast a rich, yellow light down the panels, and the girl gasped +involuntarily at the sight revealed to her. Each panel was formed of +scales that overlapped like a serpent's; the scales were roughly +hammered gold and silver, richly chased, and studded thickly with +gems--without any conjecture she knew them to be precious vessels that +should have graced an altar, split, perhaps with a bloody cutlass, and +beaten out into irregular plates to gratify some grim humor of the +terrible old corsair in the long ago. Neither hinges, handle, lock, nor +latch appeared on the surface; apparently the door was solidly embedded +in the mighty rock itself. The giant laid a hand on the side of the +door-frame, and Dolores waited with impatience for admission. For all +her schooled self-control her eyes glinted with astonishment when Milo +stood aside and bowed low, saying: + +"Enter, my princess!" + +Without a sound the massive door had vanished, sliding up and out of +sight in the dark recess of the roof, leaving smooth, steel-lined slots +at sides and bottom that reflected the polish of scrupulous care. +Dolores stifled her surprise, and moved toward the heavy velvet hangings +which still barred her way. These, too, were swept aside with no visible +effort, and the girl stood on the threshold of the chamber of mystery. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +DOLORES RECEIVES HER DIADEM. + + +In a great canopied bed, taken from some rich looted Indiaman, Red Jabez +lay motionless as an effigy in stone. His tall, powerful body was +sharply outlined in coverings of silk and rare lace; the arms and crest +of a ducal house were worked into the pillows that supported his massive +head. His drawn, haggard face was surrounded and all but covered with a +great mane of vivid red hair; his silken shirt, wide open at the neck, +revealed a massive chest, whose tide of respiration had all but ceased +to run. Only his eyes, fierce yet, held token of lingering life; it was +as if the vital spark was concentrated into one final blaze of +tremendous brilliancy. + +The fierce eyes moved swiftly at Dolores's entrance, and one might have +said a film of tenderness swept for an instant over the hard glint in +them. It was gone as swiftly as it came, and the stare settled +unwaveringly upon the stupefied girl. For stupefaction had gripped +Dolores in that first entry into the great chamber. Her wildest dreams, +and they had been at times fantastic, had never showed her anything +measurably approaching the scene that smote her eyes now. For the moment +death, Red Jabez, her destiny, everything melted into the visionary +beyond and left her capable of no volition. + +The great bed stood in the center of a vast cavern; sides, roof, floor, +every inch of the rock itself bore proof of the handiwork of hundreds of +cunning craftsmen; but the furnishings filled Dolores's eyes to the +exclusion of all else. Divans and chairs, cabinets and tables carried +the mind far away to the realm of emperors and kings; vases from China +and Greece stood on stands of boule-work; a tall ebony-and-ivory +clock-case, in which ticked sonorously a masterpiece of Peter Hele, +stood between two gorgeous pieces of Gobelin tapestry. And around her +and above, Dolores's amazed eyes lighted upon gems of the painter's art +such as few collections might boast. The entire ceiling was covered with +a colossal "Battle of the Amazons," by Rubens, each figure thrown out in +startling distinctness, full of voluptuous life and action; the walls +were mantled by vast golden frames holding the best of Titian, Correggio +and Giorgione, Raphael and Ribera. And jewels flashed everywhere; +cunningly placed lamps, themselves encrusted with the reddest of rubies, +the subtlest of green emeralds, flooded walls and furnishings with a +soft yet searching light which seemed to be carefully calculated to +accentuate those things whose beauty demanded light, yet to leave the +eye unwearied. + +"The hour has struck, my Sultana," said Milo anxiously, and Dolores +shook off the spell and approached the great bed. Red Jabez closed his +eyes as she leaned over him, and his lips now alone gave evidence of +life. The girl, reared among the wildest of desolate isolation, knowing +no softening ties of family, her impulses and emotions those of a +beautiful animal, and increasingly so because of her station among the +rabble that called the dying man chief, stared down at her terrible +parent without a trace of visible regret: rather in her eyes shone the +triumph of a victor about to enter upon a conquered kingdom. But the red +pirate was speaking, and she bent her ear to catch his words. It +required no physician's knowledge to perceive in his damp face all the +signs of imminent dissolution. + +"Dolores, my traverse is run," whispered Jabez. The effort all but stole +his breath. He paused; then summoning all the tremendous will that had +dominated his frame when surging with strength, he told what he had to +say in short sentences, nursing the flickering spark to force his +speech. "Never leave here, girl. Let no man go, either. The world has +forgotten me and all of us; but memory is tenacious--it will revive at a +hint; every throat that pulses with hot life here--yes, my daughter, +even your fair throat--was measured years ago--a rope awaits every one. +But here--" + +"Yes, father?" Dolores shivered in the pause; the silence chilled her. +The giant Abyssinian stood at the head of the bed, and now moistened the +dying lips with wine. Red Jabez strained convulsively, snatching at his +throat, and resumed with weaker voice. + +"Here I have been king; here you are queen; all these things you see, +and many more, are yours; life and death are in your hands to give or +withhold. Keep the steel hand, though you wear the glove, Dolores. You +have learned power; with the greater power you take from this chamber, +and with Milo, let nothing, no man, stir your fears. Keep this chamber +as I have kept it; it is your strength; when danger threatens to beat +you down, here you will find--" + +The fluttering whisper ceased. The old pirate lay rigid. Dolores, having +heard so much, yet so little, hovered over the bed in an ecstasy of +unsatisfied hunger for more; Milo stood by, a magnificent statue in +living bronze, his eyes set in a steady blaze on the face of his master. +Once more the blue lips moved. Dolores darted down with eager ear, her +hands clasped as if in supplication. + +"Milo--tell," came the whisper, and with it went up the soul of Red +Jabez to face a tribunal more dread than any earthly judge his body had +eluded. And the tall clock ticked his knell. + +Dolores flung herself down on the bed, patting the dead face with +nervous fingers; but she was dry-eyed, no filial despair raised tumult +in her breast, her pleading was for the impossible--for the dead lips to +speak--and when she was refused her plea, she sprang from the couch in a +paroxysm of royal fury: + +"Now, by the powers of evil, he shall lie uncoffined until those +secretive lips read me the riddle they have half told!" she cried, +pacing between bed and wall with uplifted arms and hard, glittering +eyes. She suddenly paused in her wild walk, turned swiftly, and reached +the bedside with the same subtle, gliding sweep that had carried her +before Yellow Rufe; it was a characteristic movement with her--a +compound of the gliding dart of the tiger-shark and the silent-footed +pounce of its jungle brother. Milo roused from his dejection and sprang +from his knees with amazing promptitude, but he had yet to round the +bed-foot when the splendid fury stood panting over the corpse. + +"Speak!" she cried, shaking the coverlet savagely. Milo, with horror in +his shining face, gently removed her hand, then stood before her with +bowed head, his cavernous chest heaving wildly. + +"Fool! Leave me!" she snapped, and struck the slave with all her savage +force on the cheek. Milo's face turned gray for a flashing instant, then +the doglike devotion that filled his heart shone through his eyes, and +he knelt at the furious girl's feet, his head to the ground. In a moment +he stood up and, laying a hand reverently upon Dolores's shaking +shoulders, he gazed deep into her eyes. She shivered again at the +uncanny hint of volcanic might effused by the giant--volcanic, yet +quiescent for the moment. His lips opened to speak; and she sprang to +the reaction. Now a fresh fury seized her at the slave's temerity; she +flung off his hand, and snatched forth her dagger. + +"Strike, Sultana," said Milo simply. He drew aside the strap of his +leathern tunic, baring his heart. "Strike, but first suffer thy slave to +release thee from this tomb." + +"Release? Tomb? What talk is this?" gasped Dolores, her dagger held +poised aloft, her lips quivering. + +"A tomb it is if thy servant falls, Sultana. None save I can open the +great door. Close it? Yes, any might close it. Come, I will lead thee +out of this awful presence; then at the gate thou shalt send Milo to his +master who loved him." + +Slowly Dolores slipped her dagger into the sheath, and her face was +bowed in confusion. All her life, the giant slave had tended her, +guarded her steps and her sleep, taught her the exercises that had made +her feared by all the turbulent crew outside; and she was now permitted +the saving grace of remembrance. She gave him her hand, and allowed him +to place it upon his head, always his favorite means of expression when +she followed an outburst of rage with contrition; and in softer tone she +begged for an answer to the riddle that had been left with her. + +"Come, Sultana," Milo said, once more laying a hand on her shoulder, +this time without resentment from her. "Thy father, the Red Chief, left +much to be told; I will tell thee all, but not now. Patience, princess," +he pleaded, catching the warning glint in her eyes, "dost thou hear +nothing? Listen attentively--no, not in here, outside--bend thy ear to +this tapestry; 'tis before a cunning sounding stone through which voices +may well be heard on the cliffside. Listen." + +Dolores listened with bad grace, for she regarded this as a subterfuge +of the giant's, and resentment was very ready to rise in her again. But +in a moment her indifference vanished; she grew alert; her body tensed, +and her limbs quivered; the glitter of a queen in righteous anger +lighted her eyes, and she raised an unnecessary hand to impress silence +upon the slave. + +"Hast hear this before now?" she demanded in a vibrant whisper. + +"Since thou entered, Sultana. It could be nothing but rebellion; yet was +I loath to burden my chief with this trouble in his hour of passage. But +I know now that it has risen to heights which demand swift action; +therefore I have made thee aware of it." + +"'Tis that villain Rufe again!" muttered Dolores, still pressing her ear +against the tapestry. The murmur of a hundred voices came clearly to +her, and above all sounded the high-raised shout of one who harangued +the rest. At periods the murmuring became a howl, and the triumphant +note in it left scant room for doubt as to the nature of the address. +The girl, faced with the responsibility of decided action, no longer +able to depend on the wisdom and terrible power of Red Jabez, stepped +from the wall with panting heart and parted lips, but with no trace of +fear. Uncertainty moved her; uncertainty as to the resources of the +great chamber, whose mysteries had scarcely begun to unfold for her ere +the curtain was dropped again. Her stout spirit decided for her. + +"Come, lead me out, Milo," she ordered, drawing herself royally erect +and slipping her dagger around nearer her hand. "We must cool that +rabble before the fire spreads further. Take a weapon, open the door, +and follow me." + +"It is the decision of a fit daughter of my chief," replied Milo, his +great frame expanding to the bounding energy that surged through him. +Unknown to her, his eyes had never left Dolores while she was making her +decision; now joy and ardor suffused and transfigured him. Slave he was, +yet it was he who looked the royal part in that instant. + +"Wait but a breath," he said, and reached in two gigantic strides a +massive oaken chest heavily fastened with wrought iron. Lifting the lid +with reverence, he took out a plain gold circlet and returned to +Dolores. + +"Thy father bade me make this and keep it until thou wast my Sultana, +indeed," he said. He raised the heavy, dull-gold band, and placed it +upon Dolores's brow with the courtly homage of a born noble. It fitted +to perfection--as indeed it should, since the loving fingers that had +fashioned it had crept around the girl's sleeping head many times to +that end--and feminine vanity would not permit Dolores to ignore the +fit. She stepped over to a long gilt-framed mirror, and her beautiful +face grew dark and her violet eyes dusky at the glorious reflection that +gazed out at her. + +"It is well, Milo; I thank thee," she smiled. "Now to scatter the rats +that gnaw at my walls. Lead out quickly." + +Milo entered the passage, raising the plated door and letting it fall +after them. He disdained to carry a weapon; but Dolores was content, for +she had witnessed what those huge hands could do. As they approached the +great stone at the entrance, the sounds outside rang through the +corridor, and the sharp reverberations that accompanied them at +intervals told of an assault on the rock itself with pikes, crowbars, or +other smaller rocks. Milo stooped to the sill of the rock, and placed +his hands beneath it. + +"Stand away," he whispered, and strained his arms. "Let thy servant go +out and silence this clamor--" + +"Open quickly!" she interrupted him, imperiously. "It is not for the +slave to precede the sovereign. Peace, and open." + +Her hand was on her dagger, her head was raised proudly; every inch and +line of her figure irradiated splendid strength and surety; Milo heaved +at the rock, and smiled blissfully. This was indeed how he had dreamed +of his Sultana when she should come into her own. + +He heaved steadily, and the great rock rose from one side, rolling up +and up until it balanced on the ledge; but Milo knew there was some +agency at work that hindered the raising of it; never before had it been +a task to bring sweat to his brow, and now he dripped from every pore. +The rock refused to balance without his hand upon it, and he dared not +take his shoulder away to look over the top lest it fall and crush him. +He cast an appealing look toward Dolores, who was impatiently waiting +for him to stand clear, and she stepped past him to the outside. She was +greeted with a roar of derision that echoed far down to the sea. + +"Peace, dogs of the devil!" she cried with one hand upraised. A roaring +guffaw answered her. Then a burly ruffian, one-eyed and marked by a +great cutlas-scar that ran from his chin across his broken nose and +ended somewhere among the roots of his hair, stepped forward with a +smirk of confidence, and made a mock curtsy. + +"Queen o' the pirates, we salute ye!" he said. Then threw away all +pretense, and swore a ripping curse to the destination of his soul. +"Come, my girl," he shouted, "the game's played to a finish. Th' old +buck is dead, an' we want some o' them pretties he hid away inside. +You're a nice gal, I don't deny, and we ain't going to harm ye if ye +don't hinder us; but we ain't playin' kings an' queens no more. Come +now, let the big feller take us in, and say no more about it, for have +our fling, we will." + +The mob had edged nearer, until now they surged around the entrance so +close to Dolores that she felt the breath of the leaders. She noticed +with sharp wonderment that Yellow Rufe was not among the foremost; but +she was given no time to surmise, for the mob pressed on until she was +forced either to risk an advance or give ground. A little shock rippled +through her when she turned swiftly to see how Milo fared, and found him +gone. The mob saw it, too, and seethed about her with hungry faces. + +"Come on, lads!" they howled. "Milo's gone inside to open up the loot +for us." A grimy hand snatched at the girl's tunic, and in a flash the +entrance was choked with fiercely striving shapes. + +With a gasping cry of fury Dolores struck aside the bold hand, and with +a panther-spring she was upon him. One slender, brown hand, strong as a +steel claw, gripped his throat; the other hand gripped a glittering +dagger that swept like the arrow of fate to his heart and dropped him a +log at her feet. Just for a breath the crowd paused in awe; then +hoarsely growling they packed forward again, and Dolores found herself +fighting desperately against men maddened into steel-armed wolves, +thirsty for her blood in payment for that split. She more than held her +own by sheer skill and suppleness for a space; but assailed from all +sides save the back she speedily felt her limbs growing heavy and +awkward, and a cutlas sang above her bent head when her foot had failed, +leaving her without guard or avoidance. + +Then she knew that she had been permitted to win her spurs. For the +threatening cutlas was caught in mid air by a huge bare hand, wrenched +from its owner's grasp, and returned point first into the assailant's +breast. And Milo's deep voice rang in her ear: + +"Step into the passage, Sultana, and swiftly. Have a care for the body +on the floor, but tarry not. To pause is to die!" + +She felt herself drawn inside, the battle seemed to leave her isolated, +the passage was as still as a cloister after the turmoil outside, and +she stumbled along in the dim red glow, barely avoiding tripping over a +body on the floor which a glance showed her to be a corpse. This was the +man who had tried to crush back the rock door on Milo. + +Dolores spurned the body with her foot, and abruptly turned back, in a +rage to think that she had permitted the giant slave to order her into +skulking security. She halted as swiftly as she had turned; for in the +aperture at the end of the passage the huge form of Milo stood, both +hands raised, and in them a cask was poised. A queer, spluttering sound +at first puzzled Dolores; then she made out a short, hanging fuse +depending from the cask, and it spluttered as it dwindled, flinging +sparks around the giant's bowed head until the point of fire seemed +ready to disappear in the bung-hole. + +"Treasure for dogs!" roared Milo. "Divide it among thee!" The great rock +thudded down as the cask hurtled out into the mob; the next instant the +cavern shook and quivered to a terrific explosion; a moment after the +earth might have been dead for all sound in the passage; yet another +moment and the outer world rang with cries and shrieks, curses and +entreaties, and Milo bowed low to his mistress and said: + +"Now if my Sultana deems fit, it is time to show this scum of the earth +their sovereign." + +"Wait, Milo," replied Dolores, shuddering slightly at sight of him. The +giant was streaked and splashed with blood; for in those moments when he +stood defenseless before casting his infernal machine, a dozen cutlases +and knives had sought his life. + +"Pardon thy slave," he returned, sensing her meaning. "I will go thus. +'Twere not good that these dogs should know their wounds can hurt. Such +scratches are nothing. They are paid for in full." + +"It is well. Lead out again, good Milo, and fear not for me. With thou +beside me I am armed in proof." + +Again they emerged into the air, but now a deathly silence received +them. Silence broken only by the rustling of garments, as a withered old +crone shambled forward and cast herself at Dolores's feet. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE GROVE OF MYSTERY. + + +Dolores stood still, sweeping the scene of destruction with a gaze of +flinty penetration. The groveling crone at her feet affected her like +something unclean, and she spurned the old woman with her foot, stepping +aside with a gesture of disgust. Then she raised her right hand, and +cried with bitter scorn: + +"Come, my brave jackals! Come to the feast prepared for thee." She +lowered her hand and with a contemptuous smile indicated the gruesome +results of the explosion of Milo's awful bomb. + +On the edge of the forest the hardier rascals had halted; at her word +they glared loweringly at her and the impassive giant at her back; from +the shadow of the trees yellow and brown and black faces peered in +quivering terror; but none responded to her command to approach her. The +old woman on the ground alone made audible reply, and her slavish +whining enraged Dolores. With a stamp of her sandaled foot she tore from +her waist the gold cord, slipped off the dagger sheath, and fell upon +the wretched old servitor with a shower of blows. + +"Silence, old cat!" she cried, and the blows fell heavily. "Up with +thee, and away. Go quickly, and make ready the altar in the Grove of +Mystery. Cease thy bleating, old witch, and summon thy shaky wits +against the ordeal I shall put thee to. Some one among ye stirred up the +rising which resulted as ye now see. That one I shall know before +sundown, and he shall bitterly repent him. Away!" + +Dolores was astonished at seeing no sign of Rufe, but outwardly she +showed none of her astonishment. A more vital consideration was present +in the disobedience of the motley crew who as yet made no effort to come +to her call. Drawing herself fully erect when the old woman departed, +she again stretched out her hand and cried: + +"Dogs of Satan! I await your homage. Red Jabez lies dead: yet his spirit +lives in me, your queen. By so many breaths that ye flout me, by just so +many torments shall I have ye torn. Come, dogs. Kneel!" + +A hoarse murmur went up from the forest edge, and first one by one, then +in knots of half a score each, the negroes and half-breeds slunk into +the open and approached her with eyes full of panic. The whites, not so +susceptible to abstract influence, still hesitated, drawing near to each +other in growling consultation. Dolores gave them no sign, though she +watched them keenly from under her lowered lashes. She gave her +attention to the line of abject creatures who filed slowly past her, +each one stopping to grovel in the dust at her feet and passing on. +These Milo halted near by and herded into a shivering, frightened mob. +And Dolores's cool disregard of the whites had its calculated effect. +One by one they stepped out into the open as had the colored men; the +more timorous, or superstitious, came first, some wearing shamed grins, +others palpably impressed by the example of the others and shuffling on +their way uncomfortably. Last of all came the bolder spirits, and these +wore faces intended to express contempt, or at least sarcastic +indifference; but the faces changed invariably on closer approach to the +queen. Memory proved a stubborn master; in every man's breast +remembrance clamored to them to have a care how they bore themselves +before this beautiful fury they called queen. + +Still Yellow Rufe came not. + +When all had knelt, and all had been herded by the giant Milo in two +separate parties, the number was tallied, and of the whites, besides +Rufe, seven were missing. One lay inside the passage; of the rest there +were remains lying about the rocky wall to the cavern that might be +three men or six--human discernment could never decide which. + +Dolores faced her mongrel subjects again and her dark eyes blazed with +fire, her beautiful face was dark with surging blood, every line of her +lithe figure quivered as she spoke: + +"I seek the dog who stirred ye up to mutiny!" she cried. "Yellow Rufe, +if it be he, is not among ye, nor is he one of these carrion scattered +on the ground. If it be some other villain, him I will know before the +sun has stretched my shadow to the cliff. Deliver him up to me, and he +alone shall repay. Disobey, and every biting dog among ye shall swiftly +learn the price of disobedience. I wait." + +The sun was fast setting, and already the shadows had grown long. Five +minutes at most would see the shadow of Dolores's head at the base of +the great rock, and the blacks started whimpering with apprehension. +Among the whites a tremendous quiet reigned; but sullen brows here, +snarling teeth there, gave hint of their interest in the sun's progress. +Still no man spoke. Rather they looked at each other questioningly as +the minutes flew, as if the culprit were indeed not among them. + +But Dolores was wise beyond her years, wise with a wisdom bred of her +volcanic existence in such a station, and she refused to be hoodwinked +by the apparent absence of the man she sought. Her shadow touched the +rock, and without another second of hesitation she turned toward the +forest fringe, walking with majestic carriage and looking neither to +right nor left. She simply uttered one short sentence: "To the Grove!" + +Every man with dark blood in his veins followed her like a sheep, for +terrible things had been witnessed in the Grove of Mysteries: things far +beyond the understanding of such men. The sullen whites hung back +again, for their colder blood was not impregnated with the fears and +superstitions that exerted such tremendous sway over their colored +fellows. Still Dolores gave them never a look; she walked on, and the +forest closed behind her, as if she believed her footsteps followed by +every foot in the unruly crew. + +It was Milo who constituted her dependable rearguard. Milo was there, +and Milo would see to it that no skulker declined his queen's command. +There lay the reason why Dolores so placidly turned her back to men +whose dearest ambition would have been realized by the plunge of steel +between her shoulders at that moment. Milo walked around to the rear of +the hesitant mob, and without a word gripped the hindmost in his two +great hands and hurled him bodily over the heads of his mates in the +desired direction. + +"Swine!" swore a harelipped Mexican, whipping out his cutlas. "I'll see +your black heart for that!" and furiously made play to avenge insult to +his sorely handled fellow. + +The black giant turned as calmly as if his mistress had called him, and +seized the fellow's cutlas hand in one huge fist, crushing bone and +steel into gory pulp without visible effort. His lips never opened, his +tremendous chest was ruffled not one whit; Milo's eyes alone gave +warning of what he might do if occasion arose; and fooled by his obvious +carelessness, the white men closed around him, knives and cutlases +drawn, frantic for his life. + +They should have known better. Their lessons had been many and vivid; +but not a man of them all was of the caliber to learn from a slave. Milo +kept hold of his man's hand, and at the scrape of steel leaving +scabbard, he brought up his free hand and grasped the fellow's left +wrist. Then, springing aside with the resistless impulse of a charging +buffalo, he gained a clear space, and began to swing his victim by the +wrists. + +One complete circle was made with the human club, then a catlike ruffian +watched his chance and darted in with murderous knife at Milo's breast +while the dreadful club was at his back. Cool as a mountain spring, the +giant immediately let go his man, letting him fly far behind him like a +stone from a catapult. In a twinkling of an eye, the great hands that +released the one captive closed afresh on the new assailant in front, +and now the giant gave no further grace. His fingers tightened on the +man's throat and the desperate face went black. Then, keeping the fellow +ever before him, he suddenly flung him into the air by the waist, +shifting holds with tigerish swiftness, and caught him by the ankles as +he came down. He whirled the unfortunate wretch once, and three men went +down under the terrible blow; the rest scattered with furious howls, +bespattered with the blood of their comrade; but one more sight of the +unruffled giant cowed them; none attempted further knife or sword-play. +Then Milo smiled scornfully, and uttered: "Go!" and they went to the +forest like jackals before the lion. The giant saw them on their way, +and tossing his fearful weapon over the cliff, strode after them, an +awful embodiment of relentless, all but limitless strength. + +The forest lay hushed and dim beyond the fringe; whispering leaves and +crackling twigs sounded sharp as a shower of stones in the stillness. +Great trees reared their majestic heads to mingle their foliage and shut +out the light; every creeping, flying, walking creature seemed awed into +a vague murmuring that was deeper than silence. The Grove of Mysteries +was a semicircular space of cool, mossy sward, bowered in great trees +and tangled vine screens; its background was the bare rock of the +cliffside itself--actually, though unknown to the rabble, the outer +rocky wall of the great chamber--and against this stood the altar. + +The old woman had made use of her skinny limbs to good effect, impelled +by a fear that had become terror. The altar was resplendent in silk and +velvet, fashioned for an altar very different from this; but in place of +the vessels usually associated with so sacred a piece of furniture, the +Altar of the Grove was embellished with a mosaic of skulls and bones +surrounding a complete skeleton which held its head in one grisly hand. + +In the hollow eye-sockets glowed a weird fire that darted forth at +irregular intervals like glances of demoniacal hate; at the altar foot a +great censer erupted a dense cloud of pungent smoke that rendered the +altar and those about it still more vague and ghostly. And the glade was +full of cowering, slavering blacks and half-breeds, whose superstitious +terrors reached high tide with each succeeding swirl of smoke or +outflash of eye-socket fires. + +Dolores went directly to the old woman, who stood in cringing +subservience with a plain white garment in her hands. This she placed on +the girl's shoulders, fastening it at the bosom with a small skull of +jade stone whose grinning teeth were pearls, and whose eye-sockets were +empty with an awful blackness. The gold circlet was discarded, and in +its place Dolores placed on her head a turban formed from a stuffed +coiled snake, whose neck and head darted hither and thither on cunning +springs with her every motion and gesture. + +To this awesome place came the herd that Milo drove before him; and not +a man among the hardened crew was hardy enough to carry his bravado into +the Grove. Blacks and whites alike, no matter what their inmost thoughts +might be, yielded to the spell of the place the moment their feet trod +the sward and the congregation settled into the places allotted to them. + +Dolores glided out in front of the altar, and eyes glittered, dusky +throats went constricted and dry with terror when she stirred up the +brazier and was hidden for a moment in the rising volume of blue smoke +in which flashes of devilish light played incessantly. Milo stepped up +behind and above the altar, and as the smoke reeked about him vanished +seemingly into the face of the cliff. There, in an unsuspected outlet to +the great chamber, was the key to much of the magic with which Dolores +kept her turbulent crew on the borderline of fear. She flashed a glance +holding much of anxiety after her giant servitor, and busied herself +about the altar to gain time. + +She had received from his hands as he stepped up the effigy of a man in +black wax, and now she advanced with hand upraised for silence. It was +unnecessary: the silence of the dead prevailed in the Grove. With the +image held aloft Dolores was a magnet that drew all eyes inevitably. Six +inches tall, the image was a cleverly modeled composite of every type in +the motley band; and every man realized this. Placing the effigy on the +altar, Dolores seized from the brazier a glowing coal with her bare +hands and placed it behind the figure. Then she flung both hands high +and her vibrant voice pealed through the Grove. + +"Regard all men the voice of the gods! By this sacred fire shall this +image be melted; and when it is gone, out of its many likenesses shall +remain the shape of him who stirred ye to mutiny against me. That shape +I shall show ye by the power of my will. Lest ye disbelieve that I have +this power, behold! Look for proof in the smoke behind me!" + +As she spoke she stirred the incense to a dense cloud of smoke, and her +blazing eyes, turned from her people, peered through the reek for a +reassuring sign from the rock, for what she now demanded of Milo called +for superhuman swiftness and surety. As the seconds sped, she kept the +smoke swirling thickly, and her voice rang out in a weird incantation +that kept the spectators trembling with the growing suspense. + +Then a triumphant note entered her speech; the smoke rose thicker for an +instant, then dissolved; and as it vanished, high on the rocky cliff, +framed, as it seemed, in the solid rock itself, stood the grim, cold +figure of the dead Red Jabez. + +In this, her grave extremity, Milo the strong, Milo the slave, more than +all, Milo the faithful, had not failed her. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE PIRATES' BARBECUE. + + +A moment of ghastly hush prevailed, then the Grove shook from sward to +tree-tops--pandemonium broke loose and all were in turmoil. + +No need now to wait for the verdict of the wax image; no further +shifting of brazen glances, or winking of knowing eyes. Shrill voices of +terrified blacks, hoarse bellowings of the hardiest rascals who had +ever kissed a dripping cutlas, the throaty roar of men who had played +willing lieutenants to the ringleader: all pealed up to high heaven for +the culprit to come forth and taste of the queen's justice rather than +wait for her vengeance. + +"Rufe! Yellow Rufe!" they howled. They howled it until the forest echoed +with the word. + +"Peace, Devilspawn!" cried Dolores, covering the crowd with an +all-embracing smile of utter scorn. "Think ye I need to hear the name? +Go, all of ye! Fill your swinish skins with liquor, and trouble me no +more this day. When I will that Yellow Rufe appear, here he shall be +drawn, whether he will or not. And in your carousal let this thought be +with ye: Ye are dogs and slaves of dogs; by my will ye live, at my word +ye die. The Red Chief is dead; I am your law, your queen, owner of your +bodies and souls! Let any of ye seek to imitate Yellow Rufe, and Milo +shall pick your limbs apart as if ye were flies. Go now; there is rum +broached, and wine; make a barbecue, and fill yourselves to bursting +like the vultures ye are!" + +"Hello, lads, that's your sort!" roared a purple-faced ruffian with a +hang-lip. "A right proper gal is that. Give her a huzza and crack yer +pipes, lads!" + +"Bravo, Hanglip!" bellowed another of the same kidney. Spotted Dog had +lost part of an ear, and the same knife had seamed his flabby jowl into +the likeness of a bloodhound's cheek; his deeply-pitted visage completed +the ensemble, and no other name would have fitted him as well. "Bravo, +old cutthroat! Let her play queens an' fairies, if she wants to. Here's +for th' jolly grog, lads. Hey, Stumpy, start a cheer for th' pretty +wench!" + +So had the spell of the Grove left them immediately they smelled the +fleshpots. But Dolores still held the altar; and Stumpy, having a keener +memory perhaps than most of his fellows, took the warning that flashed +from her angry eyes. He shivered slightly as his gaze met hers, then, +hopping forward on his one good leg and club-foot, he swung a knotty +fist against Spotted Dog's creased jowl and growled: + +"A turn wi' that poison tongue, Spotted Dog. All hands, too, hear me +talkin'. Here's a royal feast spread for us, an' th' spreader's queen o' +th' pirates! Don't ever ferget that, lads. I ain't hankerin' fer what +Rufe'll get. Away wi' you, now, an' I'll slit th' winepipe o' th' dog as +says disrespect to th' queen." + +And so the rascals trooped down to their hut-village. Noisily, +profanely, full of horseplay and ear-burning jests; but never a voice +spoke any word that failed in its homage when Dolores was the theme. + +Snugly settled around the great rock door, the pirates' village looked +out from a broad level platform over the darkening evening sea. In the +center, its rear abutting on the rock itself, stood the great council +hall and the dwelling of Dolores. In front of this black slaves busily +heaped a great bonfire; torches were thrust into iron rings on doorpost +and tree-trunk; noisy ruffians tramped into a cool cave in the rock and +trundled forth casks and horn cups; while Sancho, the Spaniard, bent +over a whetstone, giving his knife a final edge against the arrival of +the meat. + +A venomous devil was this Sancho, and his contorted face, with the +missing eye covered by a black patch, worked demoniacally in the +gathering darkness with each leaping flame of the ignited torches. The +hand that clutched the knife was a thing of horror; two fingers and half +the thumb remained from some drunken brawl to serve the Spaniard in +future play for work or debauch; and the man, crouching low over his +stone, made a picture of incarnate hate that had no humor in it. + +"Where's th' flesh?" screamed Sancho, looking up, his mutilated thumb +running creepily along the knife-edge. + +"Whet your tusks, lads, here's the blessed manna!" squealed Caliban, a +hunchbacked terror, who kept his maimed carcass secure by virtue of his +viperish temper, coupled with an uncanny skill of the cutlas. "Milo's +our man! Huzza for Milo!" + +Out from the trees stalked the giant Abyssinian, and the shadows and +torchlight distorted him to grotesque proportions. He walked as if his +weight was nothing; yet on his great shoulders he bore a half-grown ox, +its feet hobbled, its tongue hanging from its panting mouth. Straight to +the fire he stepped and cast his burden down, turning again without a +word and going back to the rock portals. + +"Meat for men!" screamed Sancho, crouching again, knife in hand. + +"For men!" echoed Caliban ferociously, and whipped his cutlas out. +"Stand clear!" he howled, and Sancho dodged aside. The little terror's +blade sang through the air with a wicked whistle; it curved high over +Sancho, then flashed down and plunged through the throat of the ox, +pinning the beast to the earth. And when he recovered his breath the +Spaniard swooped upon the prize, and his knife completed what the dwarf +had well begun. + +Then began an orgy that must render description bald and colorless. +Casks were broached by knocking out the heads; long horns of cattle were +filled to slopping over with rare wine or powerful rum; and then up +leaped Hanglip on to an unbroached cask, cup in hand, and bellowed a +toast that set the trees, the sea, the skies clamoring with rasping +applause. + +"The next vessel as heaves in sight, lads! May her sails be silk, her +masts be gold, and her great cabin full o' rum, with a pretty wench +sittin' atop o' every keg!" + +From the fire came the odor of roasting meat, and the black night came +down outside, making of the small circle where the pirates sprawled a +blotch of infernal light, peopled with infernal shapes. But a sprinkling +of faces a shade less evil leavened the mass; for to the feast came +trooping the women of the camp: of a kidney with the men--yet women, +with women's beguilements and softnesses. + +Dolores sat alone in the great chamber, careless of the noise outside, +her beautiful face dark with somber passion. Beside her chair Milo had +placed her treasure chests; hers now, through the death of the terrible +old corsair who had amassed them. Idly she had heaped the table with a +glittering collection of gems that an empress might well have found +interest in; but Dolores frowned as at so much dross, for her thoughts +were far away. The filmiest of lace and silken shawls, jeweled +slippers, gossamer-gold head dresses, pearls and rubies from India and +Persia--all lay in confusion at her hand, and aroused no spark of joy in +her breast. From time to time her brooding eyes flashed and fastened +upon a priceless Rembrandt "Laughing Cavalier" on the wall opposite; +they flashed again when her gaze shifted to a colossal Rubens "Rape of +the Sabines"; her face lighted for an instant when her fingers in +groping closed upon a cobwebby golden net, scintillating with cunningly +wrought jeweled insects caught in the meshes, which had once graced the +all-powerful head of Pompadour. + +"Where such things are, are better!" she whispered vehemently, clenching +her strong, slender hands fiercely. "Where such are fashioned and worn +there are people worthy my power. My people! Pah!" she burst out +passionately. "My people? Dogs! Cattle! Brutes without souls! There--" +she flung a hand impetuously toward the "Laughing Cavalier"--"there is +the pirate who should call me queen! There"--with a gesture toward +Rubens's great canvas--"are men that I would command. Here, I must stay, +why? Because a dead man willed it so. May I wither eternally if I make +not my own laws. Milo!" + +She clapped her hands, and in a moment the giant was before her, +reverent awe in every line of his huge body. + +"Sultana?" + +"Are my beasts well fed?" + +"They eat like crocodiles, guzzle like swine, Sultana." + +"See that the liquor flows freely, Milo. And a word in thy ear. We shall +go from here as quickly as the fates will send a ship. Let no sail pass +henceforth." + +"Lady, that may not be--" + +"Silence! Give me no may not! When I, Dolores, will to go, who shall +stay me?" + +"Death lies beyond the horizon for thee as for all of us, Sultana. +Pirate the Red Chief was last of the band; every man who calls thee +queen is under sentence of death; the pillage of a hundred ships lies +here. Here is safety. The Red Chief's law--" + +"Peace! I am the law! Seek me that ship--and quickly. Shall I live among +such carrion, when the world is peopled with such as those?" she cried +with a sweeping gesture toward a life-size "Three Graces," by Correggio, +epitomizing feminine grace indeed. + +"Thou art fairer, Sultana," replied the giant simply; and the girl +flushed warmly for all her moody dissatisfaction. She smiled kindly upon +the slave, and said more softly: "Thy devotion pleases me, Milo. Yet is +my will unchanged. Seek me that ship. I will go from here. Stay, if thou +wilt, or art afraid." + +"Lady," returned the giant, "when the Red Chief, thy father, took me +from the slave ship he gave me liberty--liberty to serve him. He has +gone; my care is now the queen, his daughter. Going or staying, Milo +remains thy bodyguard. Pardon if I offended thee; thy father desired +what I have told thee. But the ship. This evening, at sundown, a sail +leaped in sight beyond the Tongue." + +"This evening! And ye said no word of it?" cried Dolores, blazing with +fresh anger. She leaned forward in her chair as if crouching for a +spring. + +"It passed as swiftly as it appeared, Sultana. No other eye save mine +saw it; the men know nothing--" + +"It is well, Milo. I had forgotten thy eyes were twice as keen as any +other man's. Keep that condor's vision of thine bent to seaward, and +tell no man of what comes into view. Bring me the news; I shall know how +to keep my rascals in hand. Now go and send to me a woman to serve me: a +young woman, nimble and deft; give the old woman to the cooks for +scullery drudge." + +"A woman here, Sultana?" + +"Here! What bee buzzes in thy great head now?" The giant again looked +grave; the girl's impatience surged anew. + +"Sultana, don't forget that, save thee and me, servant of the great +chamber, none may enter here and go alive?" + +"Now by the fiend, enough!" blazed the girl. "Again, I am the law! Wilt +have it imprinted on thy great body with my whip?" + +Milo made a low obeisance, departed without further speech, and in a few +moments ushered in from the bacchanalian revels a maid for his +mistress. + +"Pascherette will serve thee well, Sultana," he said, leading the girl +forward. He saw approval in Dolores's face and departed, his luminous +black eyes unwontedly soft and limpid. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +MILO SIGHTS A SAIL. + + +Day broke through a silver haze, and as the blue sea unrolled to view, +far down to the southeast, flashed a pearly sliver of sail lazily +drawing in to the coast. It was the merest streak of white against the +sky, and none but Milo's sharp eyes could have seen it. Even at that +distance, and indistinct though it was in the mist, the giant detected +the three masts crossed with yards that proclaimed the vessel a +full-rigged ship. He gazed long and earnestly, to assure himself of the +ship's progress, then hurried along the mountain toward the village. + +He strode with the free stride of a perfect creature, swinging from the +hip and covering the ground at a common man's running pace. His vast +chest heaved and fell easily and rhythmically, the golden-hued skin +rippling and flashing in the rising sunlight; every line of limbs and +torso was the outward and visible sign of abounding health; the straight +black hair falling to his shoulders framed a keen, powerful face of +Semitic mold, in which the high brow and calm, fearless eyes belonged +rather to one of the blood-royal than to a slave. And rightly, too, for +Milo, the giant, was of princely line in his own land, and his present +servitude was an accident that had yet failed to rob him of his +birthright of dignity. + +He came abreast of and above the haven where lay the stout sloop and +boats of the community, and the sounds of noisy industry about the craft +brought a frown and a sneer to his face. It reminded him too vividly of +his actual station, and violently dragged him back from the realm of +visions he had allowed himself to indulge in. The pirates were busily +overhauling their gear, filling water casks, calking dried-out seams, +and sluicing opening decks with copious streams of water, just as they +were used to do in the palmy days when Red Jabez kept them gorged with +pillage. + +Milo hurried faster, for he feared they too had sighted his ship, and +sprang down to the shore to accost surly Caliban. + +"Here, Milo old buck, stick yer beak into this, lad!" screamed Caliban, +thrusting forward a brimming horn of wine. The giant declined +impatiently, waving a hand toward the activity afoot. + +"What, won't drink luck, hey?" cried the dwarf, emptying the horn +himself. "Ain't got the news yet, hey?" + +"News? What news can such as thee have that I am not told?" demanded +Milo contemptuously. Caliban scowled viciously at his tone, but the +giant's hands were strong, and the little ruffian loved his warped life. +He flung down his horn and retorted: "We're to windward o' ye this time, +Milo me lad. Th' queen bade us be ready for a lamb headed this way, an', +sure enough, there comes a craft now, a'most in sight from here. Small +fish, true, but sweet after so long a spell o' famine." + +Milo knew that the ship he had seen could not possibly have been +detected from the village. It must be yet another craft, and, without a +word, he bounded back up the cliff and scanned the waters closer +inshore. There, sure enough, lay a beautiful white schooner, her paint +dazzling to the eye, her decks flashing with metal, her canvas faultless +in fit and set and whiteness. She was still five miles distant and +slowly edging along the coast, as if indifferent to her tardy progress. +The giant noted her exact position, then presented himself to Dolores. + +The girl was luxuriously submitting to the skilful attentions of +Pascherette; her wealth of lustrous hair enveloped her like a veil, +rendering almost superfluous the filmy silken robe she had donned. But +at sight of Milo all her feline contentment fled, and she thrust the +maid from her and stood up to receive his report. + +"A ship?" she flashed. + +"Two, Sultana. The men make ready now." + +"The men? Dolt! Did I not tell thee to keep such news for me?" + +"They saw the small vessel while I was beyond the Tongue. They have not +seen the ship I saw, nor have I told them. It is a great ship, lady; +theirs is but a small, poor thing." + +"I will see it." Dolores suddenly remembered the maid, whose presence +she had ignored. Pascherette stood apart, a small, fairylike French +octoroon, dainty as a golden thistledown; her full red lips were parted +in eager inquisitiveness, and her slim, small body leaned forward, as if +to catch every word; but at sight of her Dolores burst into knowing +merriment, for the girl's eyes told her story. They were fastened in +intense, burning adoration, not on the mistress but on Milo, the giant +slave. + +"La-la, chit!" Dolores cried; "keep thy black eyes from my property." +But more weighty matters than a maid's fluttering bosom demanded her +attention, and she commanded sharply: "Milo, summon the men to the +council hall at once. Let none be absent. Go swiftly!" Milo went, and +Dolores flashed around on Pascherette again: "And thou, hussy, take this +clinging frippery from me and give me my tunic. And, mark me, girl, thy +eyes and ears belong to me. Thy tongue, too. Let that tongue utter one +word of what those eyes see, those ears hear, and it shall be plucked +from thy pretty mouth with hot pincers. Remember!" + +Dolores put on her tunic and swept out to steal a long look at the white +schooner before entering the hall. + +Into the council hall the pirates came trooping, tarry, wet, soiled with +the estuary mud as they were, and stood in a milling mob awaiting speech +from Dolores, who entered from the rear and scanned their faces closely. +Shuffling feet and whistling breath would not be stilled, even in her +presence, for their appetites were already whetted for a victim, and the +fumes of the previous night's debauch lingered. They glared at the girl +and cursed impatiently. + +"Hear!" commanded Dolores with an imperious gesture, and every sound was +muffled, not stilled. "Hear, my brave jackals! For long ye have hungered +for employment fit for the royal corsairs ye are. Now the meal is to +hand." The hall reverberated with the clamor that went up. Cutlases +scraped from their scabbards and swished aloft; bold Spotted Dog +snatched out his great horse-pistol and blazed into the floor, filling +the place with acrid smoke and noise. Dolores's eyes flashed angrily; +she governed her fury, and went on when the uproar subsided: "Your boats +are ready?" + +"Ready and rotting wi' idleness!" roared Hanglip. + +"And ye purpose wasting powder and shot on some paltry craft of the +islands! Wait, my brave lads, I have better game at hand!" + +Now the crowd was hushed in earnest, for none of them saw more than a +frolic coming from such a small craft as the schooner. The girl went on +to tell them of the big ship that Milo had seen, and she painted it a +rich West Indiaman, loaded to the hatches with rum and powder, gold and +jewels, delicate meats and--with emphasis which she carefully cloaked +yet made vivid--dainty ladies, no doubt. + +"Take ye the sloop, then," she commanded, "and bring me no tale of +failure. Ten miles southwest from the bluff she lies becalmed. Let no +man return without tribute for me. Go now!" + +With a whoop the evil ruffians tumbled out, hurling themselves pell-mell +down to the shore, and splashing out to the boats. Their sloop, a long, +beamy Cayman-built craft, of eighty tons and twelve murderous guns that +were cast for a king's ship, could be handled by four men or a hundred. +She carried fifty men now, and she sped out of the estuary before the +faint breeze with a velocity that spelled certain doom for any +square-rigged ship she ever lifted over the horizon. + +Dolores watched them go with inscrutable face; then commanded Milo to +attend her in the great chamber. Pascherette, not yet over her fright, +hovered tremblingly near, and her mistress dismissed her with a +pacifying pat on the head, flinging, at the same time, a string of +pearls around her neck that brought mingled gratitude, greed, and +conceit into her sparkling eyes. + +"How stands the schooner now?" Dolores asked when the girl had gone. + +"She drifts slowly, Sultana. There is little wind. Yet she ever comes +nearer." + +"Milo, that is my ship!" breathed Dolores fervidly. "I have jewels and +silken trash, the richest in my store, which my father told me were +taken from such a vessel. A yacht, he called that craft. 'Tis sailed for +pleasure; trade never soils the holds of such craft; men who sail such a +vessel as that which now hovers near us are of the kind from which comes +such as that!" Once more she indicated the "Laughing Cavalier," and now +her form and face were filled with surging ambition strengthened with +ardent hope. + +"How goes our sloop?" she asked abruptly. + +"Swiftly, but with the dying breath of the wind. By noon she will be +swinging idly, Sultana." + +"Who of the boldest rascals remain with us?" + +"The noisiest dogs have gone. Sancho remains, for Stumpy cracked his +head last night in a brawl. The others here are but cattle!" The giant +uttered the words with bitter scorn. + +"Then, at noon, Milo, we move to secure my ship!" Dolores cried with +gleaming eyes. "Set slaves to move out the false Point and anchor it a +cable-length off the true. I will have a plan then to lure the schooner +on. We must not let her escape, Milo!" + +"Pardon, lady, I know a way!" + +"And that?" + +"I will swim to the schooner and command them to thy presence." + +Dolores smiled whimsically, for she was too wise to be ignorant of the +fact that such men as were in that schooner must first be caught before +they might be commanded. Yet the giant's plan suggested another to her. + +"Hear my plan," she said. "That chit--Pascherette--she's a dainty minx! +Does she swim?" + +"Like a conger, Sultana!" Milo's face lighted warmly, and Dolores +shrewdly guessed then that the petite octoroon's regard for the giant +was not altogether unrequited. + +"Then carry her abreast of the vessel, quickly, and bid her swim out to +it. Let her use some of the cunning that is in her pretty little head, +and make them wonder what else our island has to offer in dainties. +Then, ere evening, I shall have work for thee that shall complete what +Pascherette begins. Command the minx to bring forth all her fascinations +and allurements. Nay, friend, have no fear for thy sweetheart. I warrant +thee she can care for herself, if she will. Go! It is my command!" + +Milo departed, and Dolores went out to the Grove, climbed nimbly to the +cliff-top, and sat down to watch. She had a clear view of the schooner +now winging lazily along three miles away and a mile off shore; the +shore, from the point where her rascals were even now towing out a great +mass of interlaced trees and foliage planted upon stout logs to form a +false point, right along to abreast of the schooner, lay immediately +beneath her eye; the blue sea glittered and flashed under the hot sun, +unruffled by wind, and only bursting into a long line of creamy foam, +where it licked the golden sands. The tall palms nodded languorously, +their deep green heads faintly chafing like sleeping crickets; the +tinkle of the sands came up to her ears like tiny bells. + +Dolores followed with her eyes two swiftly moving figures on the shore +path, hidden from the ocean by a mass of verdure, and she smiled +cryptically. The giant Milo strode on his way like the embodiment of +force; at his side tripped Pascherette, her glossy black crown barely +reaching above his waist, her tiny hand hidden completely in his great +fist. And she kept her bright eyes raised to his great height all the +while, satisfied that her little feet should trip, perhaps, if only her +eyes tripped not from his face. + +Presently they stopped, and Dolores stood up alertly. There was but a +moment's delay, while Pascherette bound her hair more securely; then, +with a flirting hand-wave, the little octoroon darted from Milo, +wriggled through the bushes, and ran lightly down to the sea. In another +moment her small, black head was moving rapidly toward the schooner, her +golden skin flashing warmly in the sun as her arms swept over and over +in an adept stroke that carried her forward with the speed of a fish. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE PARTY FROM THE YACHT. + + +The schooner yacht Feu Follette swam sluggishly along shore, her lofty +canvas flapping in the faint air. On her spotless quarter-deck, Rupert +Venner, wealthy idler and owner of the vessel, lounged in a deck-chair a +picture of the utter finality of boredom. His guests, Craik Tomlin and +John Pearse, made perfunctory pretense of admiring the lovely coast +scenery along the port hand; but their air was that of men surfeited +with sights, tired of the languorous calm, _blasé_ of life. + +The schooner's appointments typified money in abundance. From forecastle +capstan to binnacle she glowed and glittered with massive brass and +ornate gilding; along the waist six burnished-bronze cannon stood on +heavily carved carriages, lashings and breechings as white as a shark's +tooth; over the quarter-deck double awnings gave ample clearance to the +swing of the main boom--the outer of dazzling white canvas, the inner of +richest, striped silk-and-cotton mixture. The open doors of the +deckhouse companion revealed an interior of ivory paneling touched with +gold, and hung with heavy velvet punkahs. The walls were embellished +with exactly the right number of art gems to establish the artistic +perception of the owner and to whet the expectation for more yet unseen. +But, with all this, the Feu Follette housed a discontented master and +discontented guests. + +"Oh, for a breeze!" grumbled Pearse, breaking in on the frowning +silence. "How much longer are we to drift around these stagnant seas, +Venner?" + +"The very next slant of wind shall wing us homeward," replied Venner +dreamily. "I, too, am sick of the cruise and its deadly monotony." + +Again silence, marred only by creak of gear and flap of idle sails. The +schooner barely moved now, though the western sky held promise of a +breeze later on. Then came a cry from one of the negro crew forward, +and its tenor stirred the party into mild interest. + +"De debbil, ef 'tain't one o' dem marmaids! Oh, Cæsar!" + +A ripple of panting laughter alongside brought Venner and his guests to +the rail in haste, and gone to the windless heavens was their _ennui_. A +gleaming, gold-tinted creature, a miniature model of Aphrodite surely, +arose from the blue sea and climbed nimbly into the main channels and +thence to the deck, where little pools of water dripped from the radiant +figure. She shook her small head saucily, and heavy masses of raven-wing +hair tumbled about her, provokingly cloaking the charms so boldly +outlined by her single saturated tunic of fine silk. + +"Who in paradise may you be?" ejaculated Venner, while his friends +stared with unconscious rudeness. + +"I? I am Pascherette!" laughed the small vision, and her black eyes +sparkled impudently. + +"Pascherette!" echoed Tomlin, bewildered. "Does Jamaica hold such +beauties?" He awkwardly brought forward a deck-chair, while Pearse stood +by in speechless amazement. Venner, as better became the host, ordered a +steward to bring a wrap for the astounding visitor, but the girl laughed +provokingly and declined both. + +"It is not for such as I, fine gentlemen," she said, and her sharp eyes +were roving busily about the schooner, appraising values like a +veritable pirate. "Keep thy courtesies for better than I." + +"Better than you, girl?" Venner's tone was incredulous. He was taking +mental stock of the priceless pearls about Pascherette's dainty throat. +"To be found here?" + +"If not here, where shall ye find such a one as my mistress?" +Pascherette retorted saucily. + +"Your mistress?" + +"Without doubt. I am but a slave, my lady is the queen, Dolores." + +"A queen--a white woman?" stammered Venner. + +"Oh, Venner, let us look into this!" exclaimed Pearse with unconcealed +curiosity. + +"Just what we have prayed for!" Tomlin supplemented eagerly. "Anchor, +Venner, like a good fellow. A jaunt ashore will brace us all up." + +"Nonsense!" objected the owner, albeit with a good trace of +inquisitiveness himself. "The breeze will come by evening; and who knows +what this coast harbors? A bad name sticks to this shore." + +Pascherette had wandered forward, and between sly glances aft and keen +scrutiny shoreward, she flung seductive smiles broadcast at the grinning +crew, prattling prettily to officer and man alike, as if she were indeed +a stranger to the ways of shipboard. While she made her rounds the party +aft entered into a warm dispute; their curiosity was whetted, but not +sufficiently in Venner's case, to whom the safety of the yacht was +paramount just then. They wrangled for half an hour, and the schooner +drifted on until she was within a mile or so of the outflung false +Point. Then they were again startled out of their self-possession--this +time by a cry from the girl who leaned over the bulwarks a picture of +ardent admiration for something in the water. + +Double awnings and snowy hammock-cloths restricted the view shoreward +from the quarter-deck chairs, and surprise as deep as that which greeted +the girl surged through the disputing three at a great splashing over +the side, accompanied by the boom of a voice that must come from a +powerful, free-breathing chest. + +"Room for Milo, servant of Dolores!" the hail rang out, and by the same +means as Pascherette had used, up climbed Milo, to stand motionless +before the white men, an astounding and awe-inspiring shape. + +"Another slave of the mysterious queen?" demanded Venner, when recovered +from his astonishment. "It gets interesting, gentlemen. And what is your +errand, Goliath?" he inquired of Milo. + +"I know no Goliath. I am Milo. I come to summon ye to the presence of my +queen," returned the giant with as much unconcern as if he were inviting +the pirates to a barbecue. + +A titter of amusement passed over the three yachtsmen. It was tinged +with resentment, though, and only curiosity, aroused by shock upon +shock, prevented an angry rejoinder to Milo's speech that could only +have ended one way: in physical damage to three idle gentlemen of wealth +and pleasure. + +"A summons, hey?" scoffed Tomlin. "Your queen values her rank, I think." +A dangerous gleam crept into Milo's eyes, and Pearse detected it in +time. "Venner," he said quietly, "you cannot let this adventure pass. +Here's every element of sport held up to us. Let us obey this command, +and get at least a thrill out of this humdrum cruise." + +Venner was thinking of many things, and his mind needed little making +up. He had never lost sight of those pearls of Pascherette's; his eye +could not be deceived; they were priceless. And Pearse had not failed to +notice the green jade skull-charm that depended from Milo's columnar +neck, a jade skull with pearls for teeth like the altar brooch of +Dolores. And Tomlin, for all his expressed scorn, was tingling with +ardent desire for such piquant beauty and vivacity as Pascherette's. If +such a creature were the slave, then what could the mistress be? He +assumed a more complaisant attitude, and added his vote: "A good way of +passing away this odious calm spell, Venner. Let us go." + +"Where is this great queen, my Colossus?" Venner asked. + +"I will lead thee to her presence," replied Milo. "Thy boat will take us +there in a few moments. Further on, beyond that point, the ship may lie +safely in the haven." + +Venner called his sailing master, and together they examined the chart. +It showed a sand-bar stretching off the point, a deep-water channel, +narrow but accessible, close to. + +"You can work into that anchorage?" asked Venner. + +"Yes, sir, if the air don't die away altogether. It seems good ground by +the chart." + +"Then carry the schooner in and bring up. Call away my cutter, and"--in +an undertone--"keep a good watch, Peters, this is an evil coast." + + * * * * * + +The shrill pipes reverberated under the awnings, and sailors, neat and +trim in white uniforms that contrasted beautifully with their dark +skins, ran to man the graceful white cutter. Pascherette sat in the +stern-sheets, cuddled up like a pretty kitten on a crimson silk cushion, +and Milo stood erect, as firm as if on solid ground, between passengers +and rowers as the boat sped shoreward. As the two craft separated the +schooner stood out in veritable beauty, an exquisite thing of gold and +ivory, pearl and rose. Venner's eyes lighted with pride at sight of her. +Even a long, eventless cruise had not killed the artist in him. He +touched Milo softly on the thigh and said with a smile: + +"Has your queen anything like that, my friend?" + +Milo cast a disdainful glance at the yacht, abruptly turned away again, +and replied shortly: "That is nothing." + +"Nothing!" said Venner. "Then where have you seen daintier work of men's +hands and brains?" + +"Thou shall see. Thy ship is a petty thing." + +"Now, by Heaven, Venner, he has you there!" laughed Tomlin, never +ceasing for a moment from ogling Pascherette, who purred with +contentment and smiled slyly at the frown that came to Milo's face. + +"Oh, yes, a poor thing!" laughed Pascherette, hugging her knees and +rippling over with amusement. "My mistress is a great queen. +These"--touching her pearls--"thy rigging could be formed of such, if my +queen willed." + +"And in the house of such a great queen, my girl, are doubtless other +things of beauty and worth?" put in Venner with growing sarcasm. + +"As witness this pretty wench!" smiled Tomlin, striving to fix the +girl's capricious attention, which persisted in flying ever to Milo. + +"Patience," returned Milo. "Do ye know of anything of untold worth--my +queen has that which will buy it? Have ye seen a thing of peerless +beauty--in my queen's house are many of its peers! Patience!" + +No word more would the giant utter. Like a bronze statue he stood erect, +guiding the cutter to a small landing with a silent gesture. And as the +boat swept alongside and the yachtsmen began to experience the thrill of +near expectancy, Pearse caught sight of a knot of men loitering on the +nearby slopes, and their appearance startled him. + +"Good Lord, look at those piratical ruffians!" he cried. + +His companions started, and doubt came into their faces. Then +Pascherette arose from her seat and pressed near to Tomlin, with an +insinuating, caressing movement; and that ardent gentleman exclaimed +impatiently: "Oh, never mind their looks! Come on Venner! This is what +I've dreamed of all my life! Come on!" + +Milo touched Pearse's arm, said briefly, "Come!" and that reluctant +visitor stepped ashore; while Venner, after a little twinge of +misgiving, succumbed to his curiosity regarding the hidden glories of +this strange realm, and followed the great black readily enough. + +Up the cliff they followed Milo, Pascherette running ahead and looking +backward ever and again with a seductive gesture of invitation; and in +good time they stood before the council hall, the loitering pirates +staring at them wonderingly, and from them to the graceful white +schooner just then entering the narrow channel. + +"Enter!" said Milo, and stood aside at the open door. + +The interior was dark and awfully still, and the three white men paused +on the threshold doubtfully, regarding each other with half-ashamed +faces. + +"Enter!" reiterated Milo, and curiosity got the better of them, for a +swirl of fragrance eddied out to them, and one by one, until the hall +was dotted with them, ruby and amber lights twinkled before them, +seeming to beckon them on to something mysterious in the shadows beyond +the soft lights. + +"Neck or nothing!" muttered Venner, leading the way. His friends +followed in silence. Then the doors closed behind them; but fear, doubt, +unbelief, all went to the winds at the spectacle that slowly unfolded +itself before their gaze. + +"Cleopatra reincarnated, by God!" gasped Venner. His friends could find +no words to express their sensations in that moment. + +Dolores glided out from the heavy hangings behind her chair of state, +and stood, a vision of majestic loveliness, on the dais. Clad in her +short tunic, her hair bound to her brow by the gold circlet that Milo +had made, she had calculated effects with the art of a Circe. Her +rounded arms and bare shoulders, faultless throat and swelling bosom, +radiant enough in their own fair perfection, she had embellished with +such jewels as subtly served to accentuate even that perfection. Upon +one polished forearm a bracelet was pressed, a gaud formed from one +immense emerald cut in a fashion that forced one to doubt the existence +of such a cutter in mortal form. About her neck a rope of exquisitely +matched black pearls supported a single uncut emerald which might have +been born in the same matrix with that on her arm. Her red leather +sandals were fastened, and her ankles crisscrossed, with such bands of +glittering fire as a goddess might have stolen from the belt of Orion. + +These things were revealed gradually by cunningly manipulated light +effects until Dolores blazed out entire before her stupefied guests. +They, seeking for relief from the spell, sought in her face some answer +to the riddle; but her expression was that of a being apart: +tantalizingly, inscrutably indifferent to their presence. Then Milo +advanced, prostrated himself before her, and reported his errand done. +"Rise, Milo, and I thank thee," she said, and her soft, yet vibrant, +voice sent a thrill through her waiting guests. Dolores waved a hand +toward the door. "Send Sancho in to me at once, Milo, and do ye watch +for the return of my wolves." + +The giant went out; yet the calm face of Dolores gave no relief to the +three yachtsmen; uneasiness began to sit heavily upon them, and it was +not lessened by the entry of Sancho, for such an awful impersonation of +evil in one man they had never seen before. + +"Sancho," Dolores commanded him, "it is my will that the vessel now +entering my haven be cared for as mine. See to it!" + +"The lads are hungry, lady; it is long since they tasted such--" Sancho +snarled his protest with wickedly curling lips that revealed ragged +yellow fangs. Dolores stared him down with blazing eyes, held his gaze +for a breath and uttered: "Go! See to it! Thy life is the bond!" and +Sancho slunk out like a whipped cur. + +There was an uncanny hint of dynamic force in the girl's swift +assumption of authority, and Tomlin found his throat very dry despite +the fact that he was drinking greedily of her beauty. Venner stole a +look at Pearse, and saw in that gentleman a reflection of his own rising +uneasiness. And then, at that instant of shivery doubt, Dolores smiled +at them; and in that same instant three men, with immortal souls, forgot +everything of the world and affairs in the mad intoxication of her +charm. + +"Welcome, sirs," she smiled, and stepped down to offer each a hand in +turn--not in handshake, but with an air that said plainly homage was due +to her; and whether he would or not, each of her guests raised the hand +to his lips with reverence. + +"What is your pleasure, lady?" asked Venner quietly. He was resolved to +show his friends the way into this magnificent creature's intimate +confidence; and the resolution promised interesting developments, for +each of his friends nursed a similar one. There was, even now, less of +comradeship in the looks with which the friends regarded each other. If +Dolores detected this, she made no sign. She gave a hand to Venner, led +him to the door, and smiled invitation to the others. They followed +hungrily. + +"I will give thee food and wine," she said; "then I have much to say to +thee. I have commanded that thy ship and thy men be cared for; to-night +ye are my guests. Come! But first give me thy swords. Thou'rt with +friends." They complied dumbly, dazed by her radiant charm. + +They stepped outside into the glaring sunlight; a light breeze was now +singing in the tall palms and making silvery music of the wavelets along +the shore; far away to the southwest a sliver of sail was in sight, and +to a practised eye could be made out as the pirate sloop returning. +Dolores glanced swiftly around, seeking some evidence that her commands +to Sancho were being obeyed; but she saw no man--no figure save the +ancient crone she had discarded and sent to the drudgery of the kitchen. +With a keen sidelong glance she saw that the schooner was heavily +grounded on the Point; a second glance told her that her guests were +thinking little of the schooner, for their eyes never left her face. But +notice was forced upon them, and the reason for the camp's desertion +impressed upon her, by the weird, drawn-out scream of jubilation that +issued from the old woman's withered throat an instant before her old +eyes gave her sight of her mistress and froze the cry at her lips. + +"Ha, ha, ha!" she shrieked, waving skinny arms. "That's the way Red +Jabez taught his lambs! Flesh your blade, my bully Rufe, and bring me +some of the meat!" + +Abruptly Dolores's guests swung around to follow the direction of the +old woman's arm, and the girl darted a look of fury at the scene. Out +from the point poured Yellow Rufe and a horde of strange mulattos and +blacks, and shots crackled from the schooner's rails. On the little bay +two boats filled with Sancho and his men pulled frantically toward the +fight, and the haven rang with howls of gleeful anticipation. Venner +uttered a smoking oath, and clutched Tomlin and Pearse by the arms. + +"Come fellows!" he cried. "This is treachery!" + +"Treachery? Ye wrong me, sirs!" Dolores's soft voice halted them. They +stared at her, and she gave them back look for look until she saw the +blood surge back to their faces and their eyes lose their hardness. Then +she laughed, low and sweet, and waved them back. + +"Wait. I shall preserve thy ship, and give thee back an eye for an eye +if thy men are harmed. Trust me, will ye not?" She paused a moment to +thrill them with her eyes; they stayed. They she sped down the cliff +like a deer. + + +TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month. + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE ATTACK ON THE FEU FOLLETTE. + + +By means of the floating blind the Point had been carried out across the +narrow channel until its edge rested on the bar; and the schooner lay +with a heavy list broadside on to the hard sand. Yellow Rufe and his +followers, runaways from the pirates' camp, maroons banished from their +homes for crimes against their fellows, rebellious slaves, and what not, +splashed through the shallow water and stormed the Feu Follette by way +of the jib-boom and head-rigging, while Sancho urged his boats on toward +the vessel's quarters. + +Dolores, uncertain yet as to Sancho's motives, but in no uncertainty as +to Rufe's, paused but to look around for Milo as she leaped down the +cliff. The giant was even then engaged in thwarting an inclination on +the part of the yachtsmen to follow Dolores, for, her spell gone for the +moment, Venner felt all an owner's solicitude for his property. But Milo +had been well schooled; he knew how to play upon little weaknesses; +Pascherette had told him, if he had not seen for himself, how +amorousness and cupidity formed the key-note of character in the +visitors; and now he used the knowledge to the fullest extent. The +little octoroon appeared as Dolores watched; she had hastily attired +herself in dry clothes, a single garment more filmy and daring than that +she had worn to swim aboard the schooner, and from her mistress's store +had borrowed jewels that transformed her into a beautiful little golden +butterfly. + +Dolores saw all this in a flash; she saw Pascherette take capable charge +of the three men, led them away from the cliff, and then Milo advanced +to the steep path. Turning swiftly to resume her career, Dolores uttered +a shrill, piercing cry that the giant understood perfectly, and she +plunged into the sea as he bounded down the slope to her support. + +The schooner's crew were already hard pressed; but they fought like men, +led courageously by Peters, the sailing master. As Dolores cleft the +sparkling water, speeding out to them like a gorgeous sprite of the +waves, men tugged at gun-tackles to swing a piece around to rake their +own decks, for Yellow Rufe and his ruffians had swept the forecastle +clear of defenders. And Dolores reached the vessel, climbed over the +low-listing rail nimbly as a jungle cat, at the instant when Sancho's +boats hooked on to the main-chains and took the crew in the rear. + +The pirate queen stood for a single long breath to grasp the scene in +its entirety. Panting slightly from her exertions, her blazing eyes and +heaving breast rendered her a figure of bewildering and awful +loveliness; and the Feu Follette's men paused in the fight out of sheer +amazement. + +Sancho's gaze fell on her the moment his evil head topped the rail, and +into his eyes crept an expression of detected insubordination. He sought +Yellow Rufe, but Dolores had seen all she needed to apprise her that +this was a concerted attempt to flout her authority. Then Rufe's hoarse +roar went up, and the tide of struggling men surged anew, and Sancho, +plucking up heart, rejoined with a scream. + +"Into the sea with the dogs!" he cried. "'Tis such a craft as Jabez +would love to see ye carry." + +The fight rolled aft, and Dolores was left standing alone by the midship +shot-rack. She singled out a few of her men by name, and commanded them +to rally to her side; then, seizing a cutlas from the deck, she glided +tigerishly to the main companionway, down which the pirates were now +driving the beaten crew, and the men she had picked out were shorn of +all indecision as Milo leaped on board with a bull-throated shout and +gained her side. + +"Sancho! Rufe! Have done with this play!" she cried, placing herself in +front of the blood-hungry horde. "Dogs, fall back! Have ye no memory +that ye forget how Dolores strikes?" + +Milo had picked up a handspike, and with it across his breast he bore +back the scowling rascals, smiling the while himself with quiet +contempt. But one, hardier than the rest, ran to the skylight, dashed in +the glass with his boot, and cried with outflung arm: + +"A plague upon her and her strokes. See yonder, lads--her cunning +trick--our sloop comes back empty-handed, as she well knew it would--and +here lies to your hands work that the Red Chief had reveled in. Down +with her and the big bull! Below is loot fit for bold fellows." + +Without moving from where he stood, Milo pivoted around, the heavy +handspike--six feet of true ash--rigid as a bar of iron, took the +overbold pirate at the base of the skull and spilled his brains into the +breach he had made. Growling with fury, a man from Sancho's crew sprang +to avenge the stroke with steel, and his blade creased down Milo's +sturdy ribs before the giant had recovered from his own swing. And with +the hissing slit of ripping skin Milo's debt was paid for him. Dolores, +agile as a panther, reached the pirate with her cutlas pointed, and the +steel hilt rang against his breast-bone. + +But in the momentary pause in her vigilance, a score of Rufe's ruffians +burst past her and poured below into the saloon, where renewed sounds of +combat told of the ferreting out of the beaten crew. + +"Milo, follow me!" cried Dolores, springing down the stairs herself, +careless whether her wavering half-dozen followed or stayed. Her whole +soul was sickened with the fear that this vessel, the long-wished-for +means of her release from what had become a hateful bondage, was in +danger of destruction at the red hands of Rufe's undisciplined dogs. And +swiftly approaching on the freshening evening breeze her sloop grew +momentarily clearer to the eye; it was easy to fancy she could hear the +howls of disappointed rage pealing up from her deck; it needed no second +sight to determine the side those humiliated pirates would take, when +they hove alongside another prey which promised at least a taste of +coveted loot. + +In the brief time since the pirates' entry the schooner's saloon had +become a place of desolation. All the magnificence of unrestricted cost +was there; and all the beauty of artistic selection; and over all was +the mark of the beast--blood and torn hangings, corpses and splintered +panels, chaos and sulfur smoke as the pillage started. Dolores sought +out through the smoke a breathing man in the uniform of the yacht, and +swiftly placed her lips to his ear, her mind made up to a terrible +expedient to save this vessel for herself. + +"Tell me quickly--where is the magazine?" + +The man opened his agonized eyes, saw that splendid blazing face close +to his own, and shook his head loyally. He would give his master's +enemies no assistance. + +"Speak, fool!" she hissed, shaking him. They were alone by the great +table-leg on the red-stained carpet. "I would defeat these sharks! Where +is the powder?" + +The man looked into her eyes again, and she smiled at him. It was +enough. He weakly pointed to a stout door on the starboard side, forward +of the sailing master's stateroom door, beyond which the sound of axes +already resounded. The owner's and guests' quarters were filled to +overflowing with ravenous wolves tearing and ripping in a frenzy of +pillage. At the after-end of the saloon a pirate stood over a great +cask, issuing jugs of liquor to such of his fellows as found time amid +the riot to drink. Milo gripped his handspike, waiting for a command +that should send him like awful Fate into the thick of the murderous +mob. + +"Milo! Bring me a powder-keg from that magazine!" Dolores said, still +crouching low and hidden beneath the smoke-pall. The giant entered the +room, shattering the lock with a lunge of his shoulder, and returned +bearing an unopened keg of cannon powder. + +"Place it upon the table." Then the girl rose to her feet with eyes +glittering coldly and lips pressed to a tight line. "Find me a lighted +brand--swiftly!" she said, and when the giant snatched up a splinter of +dry wood, lighting it at the steward's brazier in the little pantry off +the saloon, she swept majestically aft to suddenly confront the roaring +ruffian at the wine cask. + +"Milo, hurl this liquor cask away!" + +Milo picked up the heavy barrel as a man might pick up a cushion, heaved +it above his head, and flung it like a cannon-shot at the door, behind +which rang the greatest noise, while the pirate, whose care the wine had +been, gaped like a stranded fish. + +"Now this dog!" + +The man followed his cask before his mouth closed from his astonishment; +but as he flew his leathern lungs performed their office and warned the +pillagers of peril. Out from cabins and storerooms poured the rascals, +gorged with fine wines and delicate foods seized in their pillaging; +steamy with blood not yet dried on their bestial faces. And when the +great saloon was full, Dolores raised her torch above her head and +blazed out at them: + +"In five short breaths this vessel carries all thy black souls to hell! +Skulking rats, swim while the breath is in you!" + +The torch came down, Milo smashed in the head of the keg, revealing the +terrible contents, and as if in grim jest he snatched up a sprinkling of +the powder and flicked some grains into the flare of the torch. If there +had been any doubt as to the deadly earnestness of Dolores, there could +be none now, for sparks crackled and spit in fearful nearness to that +open keg. Men stampeded for the stairs, hurling each other down in their +frenzy; but Yellow Rufe and Sancho lingered. Theirs had been the +gravest fault; if they fled, it must be only to do penance some other +day; if they forced Dolores's hand, at least she and that scornful giant +must die the death also. They stood their ground, staring defiantly into +her expressionless face. + +Dolores spoke no word more. Milo stood like a bronze figure of Doom at +her side, his noble face expressionless as hers. Between them stood that +keg of terrible possibilities. The girl lowered the torch until the +flame all but licked the wood of the keg; a dropping piece of charred +wood fell audibly against the side. Sancho's breath caught painfully; +Yellow Rufe's bloodshot eyes wavered. Still they held on. + +"Milo, I give thee freedom!" said Dolores in a low, distinct voice that +carried to their ears like the sound of a silver bell. "Farewell, +faithful friend!" + +The torch swept around, fanning to a blaze in the eddying air, then +darted toward the keg. And with a yell that echoed on deck and far out +over the sea, Yellow Rufe and Sancho turned and fled, fighting with each +other, as had their less bold fellows, for the precious air of safety. + +Dolores laughed contemptuously, flung the torch aside and bade Milo +trample it out, then she, too, ascended to the deck to view her victory. +The sea was dotted with swimming men, the beach was full of running men, +terrified men made the cliff resound with their cries. Then, sure that +the schooner was free of foes, Dolores looked toward the sloop, now +within hail of the schooner and coming fast with sail and sweeps, while +her crew stared over the low bulwarks in puzzlement as to the reason for +the hasty exodus from the strange craft. + +"Here, Milo, is fresh fare of trouble. Hast brought my own flag?" + +"Here, Sultana," replied Milo, taking a carefully folded silken banner +from a pocket in his leathern tunic. + +"Hoist it, then, at the main! Perhaps Hanglip and Caliban, Stumpy and +the rest of my brave jackals, will forego their expected meal at sight +of it. And send forth a shout for slaves; this vessel must be cleansed +and her people's wounds attended to." + +Up at the schooner's lofty main-truck the Sultana's private flag +fluttered out; the mark and sign of Dolores's ownership. And while three +anxious yachtsmen on the cliff-top waited for her return, a hundred and +twenty hungry and thirsty baffled ruffians on the sloop cursed her +vehemently in their hoarse, dry throats. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +DOLORES DELIVERS JUDGMENT. + + +On the level sward before the village the three yachtsmen paced back and +forth in an ecstasy of apprehension. Pascherette had left them, after +playing them like fish with her own charms and a hinted promise of +Dolores's favors as bait; and the moment they were alone Venner shook +off the spell in a resurging determination to attend to the safety of +his vessel in person. + +"Follow me, Pearse; come Tomlin!" he said. "We are three mad fools to +stand here while these pirates loot and wreck the Feu Follette!" + +Tomlin shuddered as he started to follow. Pearse kept silence, but did +not hesitate. But they had not stepped ten paces before they realized +fully the completeness of their helplessness, for Venner, first to +attempt the path down, was brought to a halt by a musket leveled at his +breast, the musketeer showing only his head and shoulders above the +cliff edge. And as Tomlin and Pearse came up, they, too, were abruptly +halted in like manner; and a grinning Carib motioned each back with an +unspoken command which was none the less inexorable. + +They returned to their first positions, and resumed their nervous walk, +condemning themselves as utter idiots for venturing unarmed into such a +nest of vipers at the urge of curiosity, novelty, feminine attraction, +greed--whatever their motives had been. And here Dolores came upon them, +while all about them swarmed the disgruntled pirates from the sloop, and +those of the mutineers whose abject fears warned them to take whatever +punishment their queen chose to mete out rather than to escape only to +be brought back to endure penalties immeasurably more terrible. + +Yellow Rufe and Sancho were not minded to stay, however; they had +vanished; and Dolores's keen eyes noted this the moment she surveyed the +scene. She walked swiftly to the door of the council hall, turned to +face the mob, and lifted an arm for attention. Then fell a hush full of +anxiety or terror, according to the degree of culpability in the +consciousness of her audience. + +"Summon every creature in the village," she cried, "and let no man or +woman dare to leave this place until ye hear my thoughts concerning this +day's work!" + +Men scattered eagerly through the huts, calling by name all who were not +present in the crowd, and presently more of the community came out, +their faces mostly reflecting the terror that was in their souls; for +none might ever foretell the moods of their queen. Inscrutable as night, +her eyes were like pools of violet shadow wherein lurked promise or +threat of unimaginable things; every line of her face and form was a +line of a riddle that could prove in the solution either magnificent +generosity, fearless justice, or implacable vengeance: like the +lightning, Dolores struck where she willed, and in what fashion she +chose; it was useless to attempt avoidance. + +Venner and his friends looked on curiously, a feeling akin to awe +pervading them at the increasing evidence before their eyes of the power +wielded by this splendid fury, they had yet to know. When all were +present, except those whose activities on the schooner had already +procured them a passport to another world, Dolores swept the crowd with +a penetrating glance and called for Milo, who appeared from the rear of +the council hall laden with chains and bilboes which he cast down at her +feet. Then the angry impatience of the disappointed sloop's crew proved +too intense, and Caliban bounded to the front, squealing shrilly: + +"The fiend may take you with your irons! Shall we, men who followed Red +Jabez through a sea of blood, cower to a woman of such soft mettle? +Dolores, queen or woman or wench, it is for you, not us, to explain. +Lads--" he shrieked, flashing about and haranguing his companions--"back +me in this. We will know why the sloop lacked powder; why to-day's work +has brought no reward!" + +The deformed little demon stepped back to the crowd, and paced to and +fro with feverish gestures, scowling blackly at every turn that brought +him face to face with Dolores. The packed mob milled and murmured, some +afraid, many of Caliban's mind yet not daring to openly support him. +Venner and his friends sensed the thrill of it, for their brief +experience of the pirate queen left them in slight doubt as to the +outcome of Caliban's speech. Dolores herself stood motionless for a full +minute after the hunchback ceased his defiance, and under her lowered, +heavily lashed eyelids the dark eyes seemed to slumber; only in her lips +was any trace of the alertness that governed her brain, and those +scarlet petals, which seemed to have been plucked from a love flower in +the garden of passion, slowly, almost imperceptibly parted, until the +dazzling teeth gleamed through in a smile that none might yet determine +whether soft or terrible. And as the seconds heaped suspense upon +suspense, the overbold Caliban was seized with a choking fear that he +was to pay the price. Then Dolores spoke, slowly, quietly, almost +soothingly; and those of her hardened ruffians who thought they knew her +best hung on her words in shivery uncertainty. + +"For those bold words, Caliban, my father had stripped thy poisonous +skin from thy putrid flesh. Yesterday thy queen might not have proved +more merciful. Yet do I know how thy disappointment chafes thy brave +soul, and because of that thy rash speech goes unpunished." The hush +intensified, for the leniency of Dolores was little less to be feared +than her fury. A smile of ineffable radiance broke over her beautiful +face, and she extended her right hand and said, still in the same slow, +even voice: "Come, Caliban. Thou art worthy of my mercy. Kneel, that I +may know thy heart is right." + +Now the suspense reached its climax. Somewhere behind those softly +spoken words surely lurked some awful, cunningly cloaked threat. +Caliban went white, ghastly; his brave tongue stuck to his palate, and +the thin lips slavered with growing panic. + +"Come, Caliban!" + +The girl's command was uttered no louder, her expression was unchanged; +in her glorious eyes gleamed no trace of anything other than benign +forgiveness; she remained motionless as before, with her rounded arm and +shapely hand extended in a manner that revealed their every perfection. + +"Come, Caliban!" + +Again the words fell from her smiling lips, and now the quivering +hunchback obeyed, drawn irresistibly by her magnetism, sick with dread +of the stroke he in common with all his mates expected to fall. + +"Kneel! See, I give thee my hand to kiss," Dolores said, and smiled upon +the cowering wretch with a tender brilliance that sent a tremendous +flutter through the hearts of the three yachtsmen. + +Caliban knelt and took the proffered hand, then at her word he stood +before her, scarcely certain yet that his head was solidly established +on his shoulders. She motioned him to stand on one side of her, then, +aglow with warm color, she addressed the puzzled throng: + +"My bold sea tigers, the ship that escaped thy sloop is but one ship. +The seas are full of such. Yet, until to-day, how many have ye been +forced to let go because of thy poor equipment in craft? Thy sloop, how +small, how old--yet what rich prey escaped thy guns since the Red +Chief's swift brig laid her bones here? None! Yet ye complain because I +prevented thee destroying the beautiful schooner the gods have this day +sent to us!" + +Now the purport of her speech struck home; the seemingly soft-brained +weakness that had forbidden the rape and pillage of the schooner stood +in part explained. And as the light filtered through thick skulls and +shone upon all but atrophied brains, a deep muttering swelled into the +embryo of a throaty cheer that needed but one look of encouragement from +Dolores to spring into noisy life. As for Venner, his expression was +reflected in Tomlin, and both in Pearse; and awakening or resurrected, +fear was the keynote of all. + +"The vampire means to suck us dry after all!" whispered Venner hoarsely. +His friends could only squeeze his arm in mute sympathy. They harbored +no doubts at all. + +Dolores went on: + +"With such a vessel as this"--pointing to the schooner--"that Indiaman +to-day had never shown heels. And more, how think ye my store is +replenished? Dost think I tap the rock for wine? Does Milo crush the +granite and bring forth meat for thy hungry bellies? Are my treasures +kept at high tide by snatching the colors from the sunset? Fools!" she +cried, and for a moment passion conquered her calm. "In that schooner +are wines that will make thy hot blood living flame; meats that will put +teeth into the throats of the toothless; treasures fit for thy queen's +treasury. And more to thy hand, my brave jackals, those pretty pieces of +ordnance, which the sun even now paints with liquid gold, will outrange +the guns of a king's ship." Pausing, she bent upon the murmuring crew a +look of blazing majesty; then concluded with a vibrant demand: "Now dost +know why thy queen withheld thy senseless hands from witless +destruction?" + +Her question was scarcely heard before the answer came. From a hundred +rusty throats pealed a huzzah that rolled out over the sea and sent the +sea-birds squawking with fright to more peaceful surroundings. + +"Dolores! Dolores! That's a queen for the tribe of Jolly Roger!" howled +Hanglip, and tumult rang again. + +The girl raised her hand, and silence fell once more. + +"Hear my judgment upon such of ye as are not of thy mind," she cried, +and now the smile had gone; her eyes flashed and the words fell red-hot +from her scornful lips. + +"I demand no tales from thy mouths. Hiding among these woods Yellow Rufe +and Sancho, he of the one eye and the mutilated hand, think to ward off +my vengeance. By meridian to-morrow I command those traitors to be +brought to me. Fail in this, and ye shall see that Dolores can be +terrible, too." + +The crowd took this as a dismissal, and broke into parties to scour the +woods. Only slaves and women remained, and Pascherette ran to her +mistress's side and whispered, with a sidelong look of coquettish +allurement at Venner and his friends. + +"Something about to happen!" Venner whispered, hoping that it might +prove something in recompense for his day of stress. Dolores cast a look +of cool indifference toward them and told Milo: + +"Put these strangers in separate chambers, Milo. Iron them securely and +look to it well. Thou art answerable for them." + +No more. She took Pascherette and departed. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE SULTANA DECIDES SEVERAL THINGS. + + +There was a moment of cruel amazement for Venner and the others when +Dolores had gone; then Milo, approaching with his irons and chains, +awoke the captives to resistance. + +"No chains for me, by God!" shouted Venner, crouching to ward off the +giant's approach. "Tomlin, Pearse, break for the schooner! I'll hold +this savage. We shall perhaps fail; but by the powers of justice we'll +go down fighting on our own ship!" + +He sprang at Milo as he spoke, and his friends hesitated. Milo, without +haste, without change of countenance, dropped his irons and reached +Venner with great deliberate strides. And in that momentary hesitation +Tomlin and Pearse were lost with their host; for the giant stretched out +one tremendous arm, seized Venner by the slack breast of his shirt, and +lifted him from the ground, flailing with both hands like some puny +child in the grip of his nurse. + +Milo spoke no word. He gave no more attention to Venner's futile blows +than to the whispering of the sands of the shore. But bearing ever +toward the other two men, now seemingly paralyzed out of all volition by +the awful exhibition of strength, he reached out with his free hand and +added Tomlin to his capture as he had taken Venner. + +Pearse might even now have made his bid for liberty; but he was no +coward to desert his companions. He uttered a choking cry of mingled +fear and defiance, and rushed in between his friends to swing a heavy +blow with his fist fair upon the giant's unprotected temple. Now Milo +gave sign of interest. He laughed: a deep, rumbling, pleasant laugh of +appreciation for the courage that prompted the blow; but he never +blinked at the impact, nor did he attempt to avoid another blow that +came swiftly. Simply putting forth a greater effort of muscle he swung +his two captives apart, held them at arm's length while the sinews of +his mighty chest and beamlike arms writhed and rippled like snakes, and +rushed upon Pearse with the terrible resistlessness of an avalanche. A +shower of blows pounded his face and breast as he closed, then he +laughed again; this time triumphantly; for Pearse was enfolded between +Venner and Tomlin in a hug that spelled suffocation did he persist in +his struggles. + +The swift conquest had taken but minutes; none but a few women of the +camp had seen it; and they, well used to such scenes, simply chattered +and smiled pityingly, not with pity for the men, but for the futility of +their resistance. Milo, scarcely breathing above normal, called loudly: +"Pascherette!" and gave his prisoners another quieting squeeze. + +Pascherette was with her mistress. She did not answer, and Milo called +again: "Pascherette!" + +The other women drew near, and on many a wickedly fair face shone a +light of hope that its wearer might serve in Pascherette's place, no +matter what the errand; for it was not the _petite_ golden octoroon +alone who had sighed for love of the giant. + +"Pascherette is with the Sultana, Milo. Let me answer for her," spoke +out a dark beauty whose sparkling eyes held the craft and wisdom of a +harpy. + +"I--" and "I--" came other voices, and the women gathered around. "What +do you need, good Milo?" + +"Open three chambers behind the council hall. In each must be a +fettering ring. Make speed. Go!" + +The women ran, and Milo made his capture more complete. Flinging the +three men down, breathless and numbed from his grasp, he swiftly +clapped leg-irons on them one after the other, then stood up, holding +the long chains together in one huge fist until the women cried out that +the chambers were ready. + +The bruised and subdued yachtsmen were placed in their separate cells, +fettered to great iron rings, and left to cogitate over their probable +fate. They were not even permitted the solace of intercourse; but as +each grew more accustomed to the gloom inside, he discerned that it was +no part of the plan to permit him to hunger or thirst, for a subtle +gleam of ruby light shot into each small room from an unseen source, +intensifying gradually and touched with its infernal radiance a small +tabouret on which stood a silver flagon and a dish of the same metal +containing meat. + +Milo went to the great chamber in the Cave of Terrible Things when the +doors had closed on his prisoners, and presented himself to Dolores. He +found Pascherette prostrate on the floor before the queen, whimpering +and sobbing with terror. Over her Dolores stood like Wrath in person, +her beautiful face distorted with passion, fire blazing in her eyes, her +breast heaving tumultuously. In her hand she held a cat-o'-nine-tails--a +dainty, vicious, splendid instrument of terror--formed of plaited human +hair of as many shades as thongs, studded with nuggets of gold instead +of lead--and none the less terrible for that--set in a cunningly carved +handle of ivory. And as Milo entered, she held the whip aloft in a +quivering hand, and cried to Pascherette: + +"Speak, or I flay thee, traitor! What wert telling the villain, Sancho?" + +Pascherette whined and cringed; she could not, or would not speak. The +whip quivered, was about to fall on those dainty bare shoulders, when +Milo, uttering a choking cry, flung himself forward and took the blow on +his face. Dolores started back, a thing of fury, as Milo cast himself at +her feet, his head on the ground, and said with submission: + +"Spare the child, Sultana. Let my back bear her penance. She is faithful +to thee." + +Dolores halted an instant between redoubled rage and mercy; then she +flung down the whip with a hard laugh, seated herself in the great +chair, and bade Milo and the girl rise and come to her. + +"Milo, thou'rt a fool!" she said. "Were thy brain as great as thy great +heart the world might well be thine. I tell thee, child or no child, +that chit is woman enough to have bound thee her slave. She is woman +enough, too, to hold secret converse with my foes. Do thou speak to her +now and learn for me what traffic she had with Sancho the morning after +I took her as my handmaid. I give thee scant time; if I learn it not +swiftly neither thou nor she shall leave this chamber alive!" + +With her giant beside her, Pascherette's fears subsided in part. She +peered up at him shyly and stepped closer to him, as if to seek actual +shelter from the storm that threatened her; but her frightened, +dependent demeanor was scarcely in accord with the new light that +glinted in her sharp eyes when she dropped them from his face again. +There was cunning and craft in them; the brazen assurance of a thief +whose conviction is prevented by a lucky mishap. + +She spoke rapidly, for his ears only, and her face drooped in an access +of confusion that, beautifully simulated, satisfied Milo and sent a warm +thrill into his honest breast. + +"Pascherette says she only gave Sancho his answer," Milo told Dolores. +"He had demanded her for his mate." + +"A pretty tale!" cried Dolores impatiently. "If that be all, why so +fearful of telling me, girl? Why did Sancho, who well knows the price, +join Rufe against me?" + +"I was afraid," murmured Pascherette with a pretty shiver. She summoned +a rosy blush to her piquant face and added in a still lower whisper: +"Thy anger terrified me, Sultana. My tongue was tied. And Sancho did +what he did in rage, in jealousy against Milo." + +The giant drew himself more erect, and his face became transfigured. If +in his great heart there remained any room after his devotion to his +mistress, cunning little Pascherette occupied it all when she uttered +the half-admission that Milo was her man. Dolores regarded the pair +silently; her expression changed slowly from irritation to query; from +unbelief to amusement, and after a moment's reflection she smiled +without softness and said: + +"Milo, I would do much for thee. For double dealing I have no mercy. If +thy love-bird would have me believe, if she is ought to thee, bid her +seek Sancho and bring him to me. Let her bring him at her own hands +before my hunters run him to earth, and I forgive thee both. She has +fooled thee; she can fool Sancho." + +Pascherette lighted up with something higher than hope: it was +certainty; and while it made Milo happy it did not escape Dolores, whose +dark-violet eyes once again became fathomless pools in which none might +read her thoughts. She waved them from her presence, and they went out +together, leaving her sitting motionless until the hangings fell behind +them. Then she sprang up, ran to a great mirror, and stood for many +moments regarding her lovely reflection. + +"Yes, thou art beautiful!" she apostrophised. "Beautiful as an artist's +dream. And for what? To queen it over these beasts! To be called +Sultana, and to be in truth a caged eagle. Of them all, who save loyal +Milo may I trust? Of them all, where is one whose blood mixed with mine +could produce aught but devils! Yet I must slink away in the night like +a whipped cur, or leave behind these treasures which alone can secure me +station in the outside world." She began to pace the great apartment, +oblivious of her surroundings, conscious only of a surging rebellion +against even the small necessity of biding her time. The day's +happenings on the schooner had shown her clearly the explosive condition +of her crew; she had no mistaken ideas that for her to load up the +schooner and sail away was simple. Further, she detected in recent +events a growing unrest among the band, the cause of which she had but +begun to fathom. Even now, through the tapestry sounding-stone, her +keenly attuned ears caught a note in the cries of returning woods +parties that told her how precarious was her sway over some of the more +turbulent spirits. + +"Before me they cringe like the dogs they are," she muttered, halting +again at the mirror. "Behind my back they snap like wolves. They shall +have their lesson quickly--such a one as the boldest of them shall +shriek mercy." She gazed intently into the mirror, as if she would read +therein an answer to her unspoken longing; then her eyes grew dark and +hard; her round, strong chin set stubbornly, and she whispered +intensely: "Pah! Cattle! They shall not alter my will to seek my +rightful place in the world of the white man! What avails it that in my +veins runs my mother's noble blood, the red chief's fiery courage, if +this nest of soulless brutes is to witness my life and my end? Among +those three white men is one who shall release me. They--ah, they are of +a whiter, cleaner mold! Theirs is the blood that matches mine! Let them +show me which is the stronger. He shall mate with me, and I will make +him a king indeed, even in his own land." + +Dolores stepped back panting. Then she controlled herself and began to +put on garment after garment, jewel after jewel, all of superlative +magnificence. Every moment she glided to the great mirror; as often she +tore off a garment or a jewel, flung it down impatiently, and seized +others from her boundless store. At last she stood clad like a fabled +daughter of old Bagdad; a robe of shimmering silk reached her ankles, +outlining every grace of her splendid figure; upon her head she had set +a tiara, priceless with gems whose fire dazzled even their wearer; on +arms and fingers, ankles and toes, lustrous rings and bracelets made +flashing lightning with her every movement; at her girdled waist was a +dagger whose sheath could have ransomed a prince. + +She stood like a statue, except for the rise and fall of her breast; her +eyes glittered at her gorgeous reflection in the mirror. Then suddenly +her expression changed, her lips parted in scorn, and with a savage, +tigerish gesture, she tore off her splendors. She stood once more in her +simple tunic of knee-length, sleeveless, beauty-revealing; and picking +up her dagger with the gold cord she knotted it about her waist and +again regarded herself closely. + +And where before she had looked upon a gorgeous woman, royally clad, +weighted with gems formed by man's art, now she gazed into the limpid, +fathomless eyes of a living goddess--royally clad in her own peerless +loveliness, crowned with a wealth of lustrous hair in which the gleams +of gold outshone the tiara she had discarded. And her face lighted; a +delicate flush overspread her cheeks; the full, luscious red lips parted +in a veritable Cupid's bow; and she laughed a rippling, heart-warming +laugh that brought the small, even teeth glistening into view. + +Dolores was satisfied at last. Without further hesitation she hurried +along to the rear of the chamber and emerged into the Grove of Mysteries +by way of a door known only to herself and Milo. From there she made her +way silently and darkly toward the council hall. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +A REED SHAKEN BY THE WINDS OF PASSION. + + +Rupert Venner sat on the floor of his prison, tugging at his chains with +an absent, aimless, all but perpetual motion; for he had long since +convinced himself that his fetters could not be broken or loosed. The +ruby light that had shown him the food and wine placed for him had faded +away to the faintest red glow which scarcely sufficed to reach the +tabouret. That mattered little; Venner had eaten when he was hungry, +drunk when dry, and knew the position of the flagon and dish to the +ultimate inch. He was not caring about the light. His mind was filled to +the exclusion of all else with his plight and the predicament of his +schooner. + +"Confound me for a fool!" he mused aloud, gritting his teeth savagely. +"Led by the nose by a saucy little chit who knows how to display her +charms as well as her pearls!" + +He pondered over his situation with growing irritation; for he knew only +too well that his release could never be obtained by bribery; his keen +sense of values told him that neither in the yacht or at home could he +match the treasures he had already seen on the persons of Dolores, and +Pascherette, and the other women of the camp. Yet he tried to console +himself that after all these things might be displayed for his +impression; might in fact be the entire store of the pirate queen, +displayed for one gaudy, overpowering effect. + +"That's it!" he cried, striking fist to palm. "Just a theatrical trick. +That little jade, Pascherette, will sell her dark little soul for +diamonds or pearls, I'll wager, and she shall sell me liberty. Then I'll +see the queen creature, gaining entry by the same medium, and we shall +see if cultivated wits are not a match for this wild beauty." + +With something very like a smile of resignation Venner stretched himself +on the floor and composed himself to rest. He was quite certain that +Pascherette could be reached through his jailer, whoever that might +be--Milo or somebody else--and the entire plan seemed to him beautifully +simple and infallible. He dozed, awoke, dozed again, and the ruby light +seemed to intensify each time his eyes opened. Gradually the shaft of +light grew so strong that, focused on his closed eyes, it forced him to +full wakefulness; and now he stared hard at it, blinking, hypnotized by +the trembling radiance that seemed to shoot out from the main shaft +until a great moving circle of light appeared before him. And out from +the midst of the light stepped Dolores, bewitching, irresistible, +smiling down upon him with a tenderness that filled him with awe. + +Amazed, dazzled, the man sat up, quivering with a sensation that rippled +at his hair-roots and sent the blood singing to finger and toe-tips. And +Dolores, with one forefinger at her scarlet lips to enjoin silence, +glided toward him with her inimitable grace, and knelt before him +shaking her head and starting him on the way to intoxication with the +touch of her wonderful hair. + +"My friend, I grieve that thou art here," she said, and her glowing eyes +thrilled him afresh. "Wilt thou believe that it is necessary for a +while?" + +"Necessary?" repeated Venner, dazedly. He strove hard to burst into +angry protest, but his tongue refused to utter the harsh words in the +face of such a creature of beauty. "I don't understand why it is +necessary at all, lady. It is no choice of mine, or my friends, that our +schooner is aground and we are your prisoners!" + +"Ah, my friend, thou shalt understand," she answered, and laid a hand on +his shoulder, making his senses swim with the fragrance of her breath. +"But this is for thy ears alone. Thou wilt respect my confidence?" +Venner nodded, wondering if, after all, the adventure might not turn out +well. With Dolores so close to him that he could hear her tunic rustling +to her deep, even breathing, that her loosened hair continually brushed +his face, he would have nodded assent had she offered him a piece of +charcoal for his immortal soul. "Then listen, man of my own people. A +longing gnaws at my heart--this heart that beats under thy hand"--she +took his hand with a swift movement and pressed it to her breast--"a +longing to go far from this place and these brutish people, to thy land +and the land to which I belong. + +"And now must I say why thy ship is here? It is because I have chosen +thee, my friend, to free me from this detestable bondage." She paused +for a breath, leaning closer to him, then asked with a sudden grip of +his hand at her breast: "Wilt take me out into thy world?" + +Venner shifted uneasily beneath her blazing eyes. His soul was in +torment with the touch of her; yet somewhere back of his trained brain +lingered a spark of wit not yet extinguished along with his other wits +by her spell. He lowered his gaze and said: + +"Was there need to murder my crew, wreck my vessel, and fling me and my +friends into these cells? Could not you, who are queen here, board my +schooner yourself and ask a passage?" + +"The murder of thy crew was not of my seeking. And thinkest thou I would +go from here leaving behind my treasures? Or dost fancy my rascals would +permit me to carry them away? No, friend, it is not so simple. The man +who aids me to attain my desire must be strong and wise and true. He +shall mate with me, and my treasures shall be his. That is why I have +chosen thee." + +"That requires thought, lady," returned Venner, half-heartedly. "I would +assist you in getting free from this, since you wish it; but as for +mating or marriage, why, there is a woman at home waiting for me." + +"Woman!" Dolores cried with scorn. "Woman! I am Dolores!" She swayed +toward him, her arms went about his neck, and slowly, slowly her +glorious eyes fastened on his, her moist, warm lips sought his in a kiss +that dragged at his soul's foundations. + +"Canst refuse me?" she laughed softly, drawing back her head and peering +at him from under lowered lids. "See, I trust thee utterly!" Snatching +her dagger from the sheath she placed it in his right hand; then, with a +key from her girdle, she unfastened his chains and swayed back, still +kneeling. She clutched the single shoulder-strap of her tunic, tore it +from her bosom, and flung both arms wide apart. "See!" she whispered, +and Rupert Venner flung away the dagger, stumbled to his feet, and swept +her into his crushing embrace while she abandoned herself to him with a +long, quivering sigh. + +"By the gods!" he swore hoarsely, "show me what I have to do. Wonderful, +wonderful Dolores!" + +"Patience," she smiled, resting her head on his breast. "First tell me +thy name. What shall thy Dolores call thee?" + +"I am Rupert. Call me slave!" + +"Rupert. It is a name to love. Slave? Nay, it is I who shall be slave to +thee. But patience again, Rupert. When we two go from here, there can be +no other to share our secret; none save the slaves that I shall place in +thy ship to replace thy dead crew. Thy friends may not go. They must not +live to see thee go!" + +Venner shivered, and drew back, holding her at arms' length and staring +at her in horror. + +"What are you saying, Dolores?" he gasped. "My friends are to die?" + +"Yes, and by thy hand, my Rupert. For how else may I know thou are +worthy to be mate to a queen?" + +"Now, by Heaven! Witch, siren, whatever you are, my madness has passed!" +he cried. "Not for the key to a paradise peopled with such as you would +I do this!" He stepped aside, picked up her dagger, and glared at her +with steely eyes. + +Dolores laughed at him: a low, throaty little laugh that went clear to +his brain and set it on fire again. Yet, nerving himself against her, he +stood erect, dagger in hand, and met the blaze of her dusky eyes +bravely. He shivered violently when her rich voice thrilled his tingling +ears. + +"Hah, my Rupert, thou'rt not yet tamed. Let me show thee thy master!" + +With the words she reached him with her subtle, tigerish glide, swiftly, +startlingly, and with the dart of a cobra her hand gripped his which +held the dagger. Her warm body again pressed closely to him, her red +lips, parted still, almost touched his cheek; her hair smothered him +with its fragrance; and while his senses swam her supple muscles tensed +to living steel wire, her grip tightened and twisted at his wrist, and +the dagger was wrenched from his fingers. Then leaping back, laughing +mockingly now, Dolores slipped the dagger into the sheath, snatched up +the chains from the floor, and flew upon him with a deadly pounce that +bore him back to the wall. + +Aroused from his numbness, Rupert Venner fought back furiously, +humiliated, and ashamed. Whether he would or not, he forgot all his +chivalry, and strove to meet this appalling woman with strength against +strength; but in Dolores he met a thing of wire and whipcord where +moments before had been a creature of warm softnesses; a being of feline +agility, and devilish skill that reflected the devilish skill of her +teacher, Milo. The chain-links tinkled and clashed against their swaying +bodies, but she never let them fall; they hung from her girdle; her +hands were free; and she had both his wrists in a grip that outrivaled +the irons. Laughing, ever laughing, her hot breath playing over his +face, she placed one foot behind one of his, surged toward him heavily, +and, when his arms would have involuntarily gone out to preserve his +footing, she subtly twisted them back and up from the elbows, until she +rested against his chest with her bare arms tightly about his body. + +Now her head, with the gold circlet about the brows, pressed hard +against his chin. Her hair was in his mouth, tendrils of it stung his +eyes, but the gold band numbed his flesh and bruised the bone. Upward, +ever upward, she forced his chin until his neck was cracking with the +strain and he choked for breath. Then she suddenly relaxed. Her arms +left him, her wickedly lovely face once more smiled into his starting +eyes, and she took the chain from her girdle with leisurely swiftness, +falling to her knees at his feet. + +"There, my friend, thou art back in thy place!" she said, snapping on +his ankle irons. "Spend the night in thought, good Rupert. To-morrow I +shall come to thee again for thy decision. Now, pleasant dreams, +my--lover!" she whispered, suddenly slipping her arms about his neck +again and pulling his head hard against her panting breast. She softly +kissed his hair, then pressed back his head and kissed his lips long and +passionately. + +"Good night, beloved!" she said, and passed out of the room, leaving +behind the echoes of a rippling little laugh that set Venner's blood to +leaping. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +PASCHERETTE UNVEILS HER PURPOSE. + + +Milo and Pascherette stood outside the rock portals of the great chamber +after their dismissal by Dolores, and the giant's face wore a look of +perplexity which was not reflected in the little octoroon. If her task +was difficult, Pascherette seemed not in the least disturbed; rather in +her sharp eyes lurked something of bravado at having escaped her +mistress's anger so easily. And this expression perplexed Milo. + +"Art sure of thyself, Pascherette?" asked the giant, ill at ease for his +little companion. + +"Why not?" she laughed, peering up at his troubled face impudently. +"Thinkest thou Pascherette is a fool?" + +"No, thou art not a fool," replied Milo slowly. He laid a heavy hand on +her shoulder, turned her around to face the faint light remaining, and +gazed hard into her bright eyes. "Thou art not a fool, little one. But +Sancho--is it so simple to find him?" + +"Big, childish Milo!" she cried with a laugh that had no joy in it. +"Dost think I feared that verdict of Dolores? No. I fear her whip only. +My flesh creeps even now at thought of my poor shoulders hadst thou not +appeared in time. Sancho? Pah! I can find him easily enough." + +"Then, child, was there nothing in thy traffic with him save what I +heard from thy lips?" + +Pascherette looked down, tapping the sand with her tiny foot, and her +breast fluttered in agitation. Then she slipped her hand into his, +looked up shyly yet ardently into his eyes, and replied swift and low: + +"Milo, my love for thee must be my defense. I did have traffic with +Sancho, to the end that we--thee and me--might use him to our advantage. +Wait!" she cried, when he would have spoken, "hear me. Canst not see +Dolores's cunning intention? She goes from here, carrying her treasure; +what will she do with thee, once safely away? Will she carry thee always +with her, to be marked because of thy great stature? No, Milo, thy life +will pay for her desertion of her people, and she will laugh at thy +passing. And why should it be? Here, thou and I can rule these cattle as +she never could. With Sancho's deserters, and Rufe's followers, I can +give thee a band that will force the treasure from her greedy grasp, and +make of her what she has made of thee and me--a slave!" + +"Girl!" Milo's deep voice vibrated with passionate horror. "Cease thy +treason, or I crush thy wicked heart in these two hands. Dolores is +mistress of my soul--my body is but the slave of that." + +"Pish!" retorted Pascherette, contemptuously. "She has thee dazzled, +Milo. Say, dost thou not love me?" she demanded, standing tiptoe and +thrusting her piquant little face under his gaze. "Look in my eyes, and +then tell me another woman owns thy soul!" + +"Yes, I love thee," replied Milo, with simple earnestness. "I love thee; +yet will I kill thee ere Dolores suffers ill through thy scheming. Have +done with this talk. I hate thee for it!" + +"Love--and hate!" she laughed metallically. "Loving me, still thou hast +room to love another better. Hate and love! Thou great fool, it cannot +be!" + +"Pascherette, I love thee. Thou'rt entangled in my heart-strings. When I +hate thee, it is because of that love, which will not brook treason in +thee. Again, I love thee, golden girl; but, forget it not, I worship +Dolores as I worship my gods!" + +"Then wilt thou not seek her power for thyself?" whispered the girl +subduedly, awed for the moment by his tremendous and solemn earnestness. + +"Little one, bring Sancho as she bade thee. He has merited punishment. +Yet tell him the Sultana will be just. His punishment will but fit the +fault. Afterward we two will talk together, and I shall teach thee +loyalty. Go now, bring thy man to the council hall. I shall await thee. +Stay, I shall come with thee, for the woods are dark, and a storm +threatens." + +"I go alone, Milo. He will fly from thee. Have no fear for me; the woods +are safe, and the storm is in thy great head only." + +The girl turned, kissed her hand airily, and ran into the gloom of the +forest. And as she went she laughed again harshly and muttered: "The +great clod! His worship overtops his love. But I shall make love overtop +worship yet, my giant! Such a man--a slave? Not for a thousand +Doloreses! Wait, Milo; wait, my mistress!" + +The evening breeze had strengthened as darkness fell, and its breath was +hot and sultry. As Pascherette plunged deeper into the woods, the heavy +boom of the seas along shore died away and gave place to the softer, +more vibrant hum and murmur of the great trees. The track, little more +than a line of flattened underbrush, vanished before she had gone fifty +yards; but the little octoroon was no stranger to nocturnal rambles, her +keen eyes, and, keener still, her sense of direction, led her unerringly +through the shades toward the rearward spur of the granite cliff. +Creepers and hanging mosses brushed her face and limbs; alone she might +have ignored them; but there was a quality in the sighing and rustling +about her that seemed to give voices to the ghostly fingers that +touched her, and to support her courage as well as to warn Sancho of +her coming, she thrilled forth a merry little snatch of song: + + "Ho! for the Jolly Roger lads; + Ho! for the decks red-streaming. + A pirate's lass is a well-lov'd lass, + And there's gold through the red a gleaming! + + "Ho! for a cask in the fire's red glow; + Ho! for the heaps of plunder. + There are showers of pearls for the pirates' girls-- + The rain from the corsair's thunder!" + +At the end of her song Pascherette halted, listened, then called softly: + +"Sancho! Thy Pascherette calls!" + +Silence prevailed for several moments, and she called again, fearing +that her voice had gone astray amid the increasing confusion of the +trees. Then came a lull in the wind, the lull that always punctuated the +gathering of such tropical storms as now threatened; and in the hush she +heard voices--uncertain, disputing. Then Sancho growled, close to her +ear: + +"Art alone, jade?" + +"Oh, Sancho!" she cried, darting into the gloom to the sound of his +voice and flinging her arms about him. "I have feared for thee, my +Sancho. Now I fear no more, for all is well." + +"Well?" the pirate growled suspiciously. "Hast left thy hot-blood +mistress, then?" + +"No, Sancho. It is better for thee even than that. I have made thy peace +with Dolores. She has forgiven thee, and wishes to tell thee so." + +A fervid curse burst from some one yet invisible, and Sancho leaned back +to catch some whispered words. Then he, too, ripped out an oath, and +gripped Pascherette tightly by the arm. + +"This is a trick, little devil! Don't you value that pretty little head +more than to trifle with me?" + +"I trifle with thee? Thou art mad, Sancho!" she cried. "Did I lie when I +said I loved thee, then?" + +"The fiend knows! I know 'tis plaguey risky for thee if thou didst!" + +"Unbeliever!" whispered Pascherette with thrilling emphasis. "Shall I +tell thee again, in language even thy stubborn soul must believe?" + +The girl suddenly glided inside his arms, flung up her hands, each +clutching a mass of her glossy, scented hair, and enmeshed his +disfigured face. Then, straining upward from her small height, her rosy, +false lips sought his and fastened there while he staggered as if drunk. + +"There, heart o' mine!" she panted. "Dost believe now? Or must I tell +thee again that with such love as mine proud Dolores cannot hurt thee. +Come! Such a chance will never come thy way again. Man! 'Tis her +confidence Dolores offers thee. Shall it go begging because of thy +madness?" + +"Pascherette!" returned Sancho hoarsely. "I will go with thee. But, +girl, thy heart's blood pours at first sign of treachery! Mark that +well. And tell me now, does Yellow Rufe share in this mercy?" + +"No, Sancho. It cannot be. Dolores has sworn to hunt him down; the woods +are full of men even now, seeking him and thee. Only by going with me +wilt thou escape them and have advantage from my pleading with the +queen." She drew his head down to her ear, and whispered rapidly. Doubt, +then admiration, crept into Sancho's voice as he said: "Dost think it +can be done? Can he gain the sloop unseen?" + +"I will make it easy, Sancho. Bid Rufe have no fear. The storm will be +upon us within an hour. It is dark; there is wind aplenty. With six men +he may win clear; and listen: If he is stout of heart, what is to stop +him taking tribute from the stranger's white vessel?" + +"Lack o' powder, girl," returned Sancho angrily. "Thy mistress keeps us +short of powder, as well thou dost know, lest we become too strong for +her. Who of us has ever seen the store? Not I, by Satan! Canst thou get +powder and shot for Rufe?" + +"Simpleton! Can he not get with steel all he wants from the schooner?" + +"By the heart of Portuguez, he can!" cried another voice, and Yellow +Rufe strode through the bushes. + +"Rufe!" exclaimed the girl, feigning astonishment. Her ears were too +keen not to have caught Rufe's voice in the whispering that had gone +on. + +"Yes, Rufe, and obliged to thee, Pascherette. Dost say thou wilt help me +win away?" + +"Gladly, Rufe, for I like well men of your mettle. Follow close behind +Sancho and me. Count ten score after we go in to Dolores with Milo, then +for an hour thou'lt have the sea to thyself. Luck go with thee, Rufe; +thou'lt think of little Pascherette sometimes, I'll warrant." + +A rumble of thunder rolled up from the sea, and lightning played in the +tree-tops. Pascherette turned back toward the camp, and giving no heed +to Sancho save to listen for his footsteps, she ran through the darkness +sure-footed, sure-eyed as a cat. Rain began to fall, and the heavy +foliage thrummed with the growing downpour which yet did not penetrate +to the earth. As they neared the shore, the forest resounded with the +solemn boom and crash of long-sweeping seas outside the bar; the wind +screamed among the huts; all the women and those men who had returned +from their portion of the search were snugly under cover. The place +seemed deserted. + +"Farewell, Rufe," Pascherette whispered at last, when the great black +mass of the council hall loomed against the sky in a lightning flash. +"Count ten score. Thy safety is in my hands." + +Then she took Sancho by the hand, and led him through the plashing rain +to the rear of the hall and called softly: "Milo!" + +"Here. Hast found him?" + +"Take us to the Sultana quickly, Milo. I have told Sancho to trust in +the justice of Dolores." + +"He may well do that," returned Milo. "The great Sultana is ever just." + +"Yes, have no fear, good Sancho. I am Justice itself!" rejoined the +mellow voice of Dolores in person, who had a few moments before left +Rupert Venner. "Milo, I am minded to give Sancho proof of my mercy, +since he already believes in my justice. Open the great chamber. Sancho, +canst guess the honor I propose to do thee?" + +"No, lady," replied Sancho, an awful dryness gripping his throat. + +"Hast ever hungered for sight of the great chamber?" She paused smiling +at the uneasy pirate, who could not answer. "Of course thou hast," she +replied for him. "Which of my rogues has not? I am minded to show thee +this mark of my love, since thy conscience permitted thee to return +here. Hast any fear of the saying the Red Chief uttered? That none might +enter the great chamber and live?" + +Sancho suddenly sprang to life. His face was distorted; when the +lightning flashed it revealed him a ghastly picture of apprehension. + +"I will not go there! I have no wish to see what my eyes are forbidden +to see. I never sought to enter, Sultana. It was the others!" + +"Yes, Sancho, the others. That is why I select thee for the honor, +because thou wert patient. Come. I promise thee thy life is safe." + +Dolores passed on toward the great stone, where Milo stood guard over +the opened portals. Sancho, trembling violently, was drawn irresistibly +after her, partly fascinated by her calm strength, partly influenced by +the soft fingers and whispered prattle of Pascherette, who strove to set +him aflame with mention of some of the wonders he was to see. + +He paused at the rock door, glancing around with a vague premonition of +evil; but now it was Dolores's hand that took his; Dolores's rich voice +that lured him on; and he stepped after her, smothering a sob of +resurging terror as the great stone fell into its place behind. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +SANCHO SETTLES HIS ACCOUNT. + + +In the rock passage the hush was complete. For the space of ten long +breaths Sancho stood quivering under the weird spell of the infernal red +radiance from the hidden lights, while almost invisible ahead of him +Dolores bent to listen to a last moment's communication from +Pascherette. With Milo behind him, and the great unknown ahead, the +pirate's usual fierce courage oozed out through his boots. Yet he was +hypnotized by the vague glitter that shone at the end of the tunnel--the +glitter, though he knew it not yet, of the great sliding door to the +inner mystery. + +Suddenly the mighty rock reverberated and shook to a Titanic volley of +thunder, and Sancho shrieked with nervous terror. His shriek was echoed +by a rippling laugh from Dolores, and she came back swiftly toward him, +pushing Pascherette before her. She handed the little octoroon on to +Milo, and said, with a kindly pat on the girl's head: "Open, Milo, and +let thy sweetheart complete her good works. Now I shall have none but +faithful friends about me. Pascherette, thou'rt more than forgiven: +thou'rt my good friend. I shall reward thee fittingly when"--she smiled +dazzlingly at Sancho--"I have rewarded Sancho." + +The rock door rolled aside, and Pascherette passed out into the storm. +Sancho's nerves gave way utterly now, and he rushed toward the opening, +screaming: "Let me out! I want air! I want none of the great chamber! +Let me pass!" + +Milo again let fall the rock, pressed a huge hand on Sancho's breast, +and pushed him back, saying: "Peace, fool! Go with thy mistress. Thine +eye will never again witness the like. Go, I tell thee. Dost fear the +Sultana's justice?" + +"Come, Sancho. Thou'lt be a marked man among thy fellows when I have +shown thee what they yearn to see." + +Dolores again took his hand, bent her glorious eyes full upon him, and +Sancho followed her like a sheep, straight to the great door under the +jeweled yellow lantern, where he stood, stupefied with awe at the +barbaric splendors revealed. + +His lips went dry, and he licked them feverishly; his single eye blazed +with avarice; the two fingers and mutilated thumb of his right hand +worked convulsively, as if he would tear the gems and plate from the +door. And Dolores watched him from under lowered lids, her rich red lips +curled scornfully, one hand half raised to warn Milo to open the great +door slowly. + +"Well, Sancho, art better prepared for the greater treasures yet to be +seen?" smiled Dolores. The pirate's blazing eye seemed to dart flames as +the door slowly rose to Milo's touch. + +"Sultana!" he gasped, and his speech would do no more for him. + +"Enter, friend. This is thy great hour!" + +The queen pushed him gently inside, following herself, and Milo let fall +the door again, standing mute and motionless on the inside while his +mistress led the pirate to the center of the great chamber and waited +until his dazzled eye adjusted itself to the subtle lighting effects. + +Pascherette's last whispered communication to Dolores had told her of +Yellow Rufe's intentions; and while Sancho stood in amaze, she bent her +ear to catch the expected sound of voices through the sounding-stone +behind the tapestry. For there the little octoroon was to play a part +for Sancho's especial benefit. The thunder had become all but incessant; +with every crash the great chamber rumbled and echoed eerily; yet +between the crashes, brief as the periods were, human voices could be +heard. + +"Art ready to see my treasures, Sancho?" + +Dolores waved a gleaming arm around the place, indicating with one wide +gesture the glories of the walls and roof. But the pirate's senses +responded more readily to the tangible riches represented by gold and +gems, tall flagons, and jewel-incrusted lamps, littered diamonds and +rubies that strewed the big table. + +"Hah!" cried Dolores, with a low, throaty laugh. "Ah! my friend, I know +thy mind. Milo!" + +Milo advanced with a deep obeisance. + +"Milo, open the great chests for Sancho. Let him plunge his arms to the +elbows in red gold. Then I shall show him that which lies nearest to his +deserts." + +The pirate watched with lips no longer dry, but dripping with the saliva +of greed, while Milo flung open chest after chest, full to overflowing +with minted gold of many nations; looted jewels of royal and noble +houses, sacred vessels and glittering orders, weapons whose hilts and +scabbards, if ever made for use, could only have been used to bewilder +the eye and senses. + +Again the thunder pealed; and in the tremendous hush succeeding, the +voices outside penetrated the sounding-stone in more than a whisper. +Sancho jerked up his head and fear once more shone in his single eye. + +"Come, good Sancho," purred Dolores, running her soft hand down his bare +forearm. "Art frightened by petty noises, then? Plunge thy hands deep, +man! All thou canst grasp is thine for so long as thy eye can enjoy or +thy hands fondle." + +Now Sancho's sordid soul surrendered. His greed conquered fear, and he +delved deep into a coffer, chattering the while with frenzy. And now +when the thunder rolled, his ears heard it not. He drew forth his hands, +and a glittering mass of wealth fell about his feet. He glared up at +Dolores, laughing ghoulishly. + +"That is well, Sancho," Dolores said, and took his hand. "Now I will +show thee the rest; and I know thou'lt never tell of it. I trust thee. +Come. Put thy ear to this tapestry, and tell me what thou canst hear." + +Sancho laid his ear to the cloth, and his eye gleamed brightly. Milo +stepped silently behind him. + +"I hear Hanglip!" he gasped. "Is he, too, here?" + +"He is outside the cliff. But whom else canst hear?" + +"I hear Caliban--Spotted Dog--Stumpy--I hear a score as if they stood by +my side! And Pascherette! By the fiend! She has played Rufe a trick! And +me--" He sprang from the wall like a tiger, snatching at his weaponless +belt with slavering fury, to be gathered at once into the remorseless +hug of Milo. And he glared full into the mocking face of Dolores--soft +and generous no more, but the embodiment of awful vengeance. + +For many seconds she stood regarding him contemptuously, until he +subsided helplessly in Milo's grasp; then, motioning the giant to +follow, she passed along and stopped before a life-size painting of "The +Sleeping Venus" in a massive, gilded frame. With one hand raised high at +the side, she turned a pulley-catch, and the great picture slowly fell +forward from the top until it rested slopingly on the floor, forming an +inclined entrance to a gloomy passage, dimly touched by a dark-red glow. + +This was the secret outlet to the great chamber by which Milo had access +to the altar in the grove at such times as his aid was needed to +support Dolores in some exhibition of black magic. She stepped swiftly +along the passage, giving no further heed to the panic-stricken pirate +until Milo had carried and dragged him to where she awaited him. This +was still another dark excavation, running deeper yet into the bowels of +the cliff; and the devilish red glare was here intensified until +surrounding objects were vividly revealed. + +"Now hear the doom of a traitor!" cried Dolores, with haughty mien. +"What! Not a traitor?" she mocked at the pirate's frantic howl of +denial. "Then Dolores has erred, perhaps. There is a test, good Sancho. +Let me see if I am wrong!" + +She signed to Milo, and the giant swung Sancho around until he faced the +deepest recess of the cave. There, swathed in mummy clothes, preserved +by the chemical miracle of the stratum of red earth that formed the core +of the rock, the body of Red Jabez stood erect against the wall, bathed +in the red glow, diamonds glittering where the dead eyes had been. And +on the rock ledge at his feet stood a tall flagon of gold, in which +Dolores had brewed an awful potion for this event. Beside this ledge +stood a low brazier full of glowing charcoal; on a tabouret near by lay +several terrible implements the use of which needed no explanation. + +"Look upon the face of the Red Chief, and drink this draft--'tis his +blood!" she cried, seizing the flagon and thrusting it into Sancho's +hands. "Then, if thy heart held no treachery toward me, thy life and +limbs are safe. But have a care! A lie in thy heart will surely undo +thee. Drink!" + +A splitting thunder-crash filled the place with uproar; a gust of the +tempest from the outer entrance sent the wind swirling in. It was as if +the breath of the storm snatched Sancho's senses back from the +terror-land they had fled to; he ceased his howling, glared defiantly up +at the dead chief, and cried in desperation: "Give me the drink! I fear +neither gods nor devils; why should I fear you, dead man?" + +"Wait!" Dolores laid a hand on his arm, and stayed the flagon at his +lips. "Wait, till I tell thee more. Then, if thou art guiltless, and go +from here with the treasure I gave thee, thou'lt know thy friends and +thy foes. + +"Didst think Yellow Rufe was free? Thou fool! Thy wits are powerless +before a woman's. Did my pretty Pascherette tell him he might go free, +taking my sloop, escaping my vengeance, as thou didst think to? Didst +hear those voices? Then I tell thee, Sancho, that ten-score count, that +Rufe doubtless made in fear and trembling, but sufficed to raise his +hopes. For ere he had gained the sloop and started her anchor, +Pascherette had done her work. The stranger's schooner is full of my +men, waiting for Rufe to come for his booty. Let him take alarm, then +how far may he win? Thou'lt never know, false Sancho, for I have no +doubt of thy treachery. Now drink, if thou darest!" + +"Then, by the fiend, I dare!" shouted the pirate. Something in the tang +of the gale sweeping in from the unseen entrance reassured him of the +existence of the outer world; persuaded him that by taking a desperate +chance he might yet throw dust in the eyes of this terrible woman and go +hence with the secret of the great chamber. "I dare, Dolores! Blood, d' +ye say? What fitter drink for a pirate?" + +He lifted the flagon, took a deep draft in great gulps, so that his +determination might carry him; then his eye sparkled, he took the flagon +from his lips, and grinned at Milo. "By the great Red Chief!" he cried. +"This is justice indeed! I drink to ye, Sultana, and to Milo, ye big +jester!" and finished the drink with a greedy swallow. + +Then the flagon clattered to the ground, Sancho's face went livid, and +his mouth opened wide and loosely, as his body and limbs were seized +with subtle pains. His brain, too, felt an awful numbness creeping upon +it; for the draft had done its work. The rarest of wine from her store, +Dolores had mingled with it a devilish powder that first sapped the +strength, then attacked the brain, and eventually snapped the cord of +intelligence, leaving the victim a driveling imbecile. But that point +had not yet been reached. It would come perhaps in one hour, two, three, +perhaps six--but inevitably it must come. For the present the pirate +was simply in the grip of the unknown, yet having full power to realize, +but not resist, the tangible terrors at hand. + +"Milo, hasten the rest. I shall await thee at the gate. Put forth this +traitor by the Grove outlet, and see to it that he takes with him +neither power to see beauty, to utter treason, or to ever feel again the +scalding touch of coveted gold. Make speed, I command thee, for I hear +my stout trusty ones clamoring for the chase!" + +Dolores disappeared through the secret outlet, sprang down behind the +altar, and ran through the Grove. Beside the cliff were huddled Hanglip +and Stumpy, Caliban, and Spotted Dog, drenched with the teeming rain, +restless with impatience, peering ever to seaward in the lightning +flashes that continually illumined the scene. + +Among them Dolores appeared, suddenly, mysteriously, as coming from the +skies, and after a choke of amazement Stumpy flung a hand seaward, and +shouted above the turmoil of wind and rain: + +"Queen o' Night, thou'lt need thy magic now! See, there flies the +villain!" + +Dolores looked, and smiled disdainfully. The torrential rain beat upon +her bare head and shoulders, causing her to glisten and shine like a +golden goddess; but she heeded it not at all; her eyes sought out what +Stumpy had indicated. And there, in the next lightning-flash, flying +seaward, was the sloop. Rufe had taken alarm, and had foregone his plan +of looting the schooner. + +"Let him go; he'll fly not far," she said calmly. "Come with me to the +great rock, my bold fellows; daylight shall show thee Rufe where I would +have him--paying the price, as Sancho has paid!" + +She glided around the rock, followed by her silent faithfuls, while from +the Grove rang a shriek of mortal agony that sent fierce hearts aquiver +with terror. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +DOLORES FLOATS THE FEU FOLLETTE. + + +"Hell's breath!" screamed Caliban, as the cry rang out. "Have ye devils +in the Grove, mistress?" Hanglip and Spotted Dog, too, cringed back in +fright. Stumpy concealed his uneasiness, yet his eyes searched Dolores's +face questingly. None truly believed in the queen's magic powers; yet +none was bold enough to openly avow his unbelief; and the added grimness +of the storm, assisted by the unearthliness of that howl of anguish, +brought the four godless pirates to the verge of superstitious terror. + +"Yes, I keep my devils there," replied Dolores; "and that is the traitor +Sancho answering to them for his perfidy. So watch, and obey me, lest +thy cries, too, go up from my altar!" + +She stood apart at the great stone, listening, and presently Milo rolled +up the rock barrier, and appeared in the gloom, calm and cool as if he +had no association with devils, imaginary or otherwise. A livid +lightning-flash played on his features, and the pirates drew back, +muttering at his black eyes which glowed with red points like rubies in +the heart of twin coals. + +"Milo, there flies Rufe," said Dolores, flinging an arm seaward. Beyond +the false point, in the midst of black seas dappled with rushing +white-horses, under a lowering black sky that seemed to lean down to the +verge of the ocean itself, Rufe's sloop was pictured in the next flash +of electric radiance a thing of desolation and panic. Fully a mile away, +the craft vanished in the pervading blackness between every flash. "I +need thy condor's vision now as never before. Take the swift, small +sailboat, and flares; follow the sloop as long as thy eyes can pick her +out; we shall follow thy flares in the schooner until we overtake thee. +Haste now; Rufe has grace enough!" + +Milo stayed only to get his flare-powder and tinder-box, then +disappeared down the cliff. + +Dolores despatched her four attendants to the schooner, prepared to +follow, then, with an afterthought, halted two of them. + +"Here, Hanglip, Spotted Dog, wait!" She swiftly entered the council +hall, went to the three small chambers, and released her captives from +the ring-bolts. Driving them before her, bewildered by the sudden +emergence from tranquillity to the turmoil of the storm, she gave the +two pirates each a chain, held the other herself, and led the way down +to the stranded schooner. Her motive was not only uncertainty about the +people left at the camp, who might prove susceptible to bribery if not +pity; she also felt a sort of whimsical desire to impress these +strangers with the utter inevitability of her power. + +The Feu Follette lay on the edge of the bar, as she had lain since +stranding, except that with tide after tide her keel had worn itself a +place in the sand, and she was less closely held than before. Of her +rightful crew but five survived the fight; one was the sailing-master, +Peters, and all were imprisoned under jailers in the forecastle. On the +schooner's sloping decks, when Dolores and her party climbed aboard, +were a score of nondescript pirates, besides the crew's custodians, at a +loss to account for the escape of the sloop, and worked up to a pitch of +nervousness where they were only fit for sudden, strenuous action with a +merciless taskmaster. And such they speedily had. + +Dolores ordered her three captives to be taken to the great cabin, and +their chains were fastened to the ornately paneled mainmast which ran +down through both decks and formed the support of a gorgeously furnished +sideboard. Then the companionway was locked on them, and the girl sprang +to tremendous life. + +"Aloft with thee, Stumpy!" she cried, selecting him because after Milo +his eyes were keenest of them all. "Keep thy eyes open for Milo's +flares, and mark well the direction. Hanglip, thou surly dog! Take ten +men and lay me out a good anchor astern, with a stout hawser. Be brisk! +Come aboard in ten minutes, or thy back shall smart." + +Sancho's boat had remained at the port quarter, and into this Hanglip +drove his crew while Spotted Dog with the rest of the men got ready an +anchor to lower to them. + +"Caliban, cast off the gaskets from fore and main!" cried Dolores next. +"Where are thy rascals? Plague take thee, hunchback! Couldst not say +there were not men enough? Below with ye, and bring up the schooner's +people. Have sail on this vessel before that anchor takes hold, or I'll +flay thy hump!" + +Cursing venomously, the deformed little demon sprang into the forecastle +and drove up Peters and his four men with kicks and blows. They, too, +were bewildered by the tremendous uproar of sea and wind, and went like +sheep to the fore and main masts at Caliban's bidding. + +"Ready for the anchor--lower away!" roared Hanglip in the boat, where +already was piled coil on coil a great hemp hawser. + +"Handsomely, ye dogs, handsomely!" shrieked Spotted Dog in turn. The +anchor sank into the boat to the screeching of tackles and the groaning +of boat-timbers, and was carried out astern. + +"Carry the end aft!" Dolores commanded; the hawser was taken along and +the end passed around the quarter-deck capstan. "Up with those sails!" +cried the girl now, and Caliban's gang sweated at the halyards, while +slackened sheets permitted the booms to swing and present the luffs to +the screaming gale, bearing no resistance. While the boat pulled away +into the darkness astern, carrying the anchor to the full scope of the +cable, Dolores kept her eyes ever aloft, and over the sea, and upon +every detail of the work. Her eyes fell upon Peters, standing in sullen +mood at the belaying-pin which held a turn of the main-throat halyards. +And as the croaking cry of Caliban ordered "Belay!" she called Peters to +her. + +"Thou'rt sailing-master, hey?" + +"I was." + +"Art still, if thy heart is as stubborn as thy face!" cried Dolores, +laughing at his scowl. "Canst sail thy ship now?" + +"I can sail any ship that floats, but neither I nor your sharks can sail +this schooner now," he replied surlily. "Your false marks did their work +well." + +"Then thou'd rather pull a rope than hold a wheel, hey? 'Tis but a +wooden sailor, after all. I hoped such a ship would boast a seaman as +master. I'll show thee seamanship, sheep-heart!" + +Out of the darkness astern came a roar: + +"Anchor's down! Heave away!" + +And from the darkness aloft Stumpy bawled: + +"There she flares! Mother o' me!" The prayer, curse, whatever the last +words might be, were called forth by a paralyzing flash of lightning +that shone over the raging sea like a gigantic calcium-light. The +schooner's deck resounded with superstitious howls, which rose to awed +cries from the weakest as from trucks and gaff-ends glowed and flickered +the blue brush of St. Elmo's fire. + +"Heave away, heave away!" Dolores's voice rang out on the hubbub, +forcing obedience even in face of terror. The capstan went round to the +urge of a dozen pair of fear-stimulated arms; and fathom by fathom the +great cable came in dripping and glistening; fathom after fathom was +heaped on the deck, and still the schooner remained fast. And ever from +aloft came Stumpy's hail, reporting Milo's flare fast fading in the +distance. + +"You can't do it! I knew it!" shouted Peters defiantly. + +"Peace, sheep!" answered Dolores, slapping him upon the mouth. She stood +at the wheel, and no part of the vessel's situation escaped her. She had +yet a trump to play: a hazardous one, truly, but the big one. The big +fore and main sails swung and crashed idly at their sheets, filling the +air with the thunder of their flinging blocks. At each boom a seaman +stood, and each held the double block of a boom-tackle, waiting the word +that now came. + +"Clap on those boom-tackles!" Dolores commanded, and four men flew to +each as it was hooked to the rigging. "Haul away! Boom the sails square +out!" The great sails filled with a crash as the gale took them on the +fore side, flinging them violently aback. + +"You'll pluck the spars out of her!" screamed Peters, in a frenzy now as +his cherished masts whipped and cracked to the tremendous backward +strain. Dolores ignored the crazed man, but a scornful smile wreathed +about her lips, and her dark eyes gleamed. "Out with them!" she cried. +"More hands there! And heave, ho, heave away on the capstan! Burst thy +arms, bullies! Here comes Hanglip and his bold lads to help ye! Round +with her! Out with them! Heave, good bullies!" + +The girl stood by the wheel, a splendid figure of matchless energy and +courage. Aloft the topmasts bent like whips; Stumpy's voice came down +in ever-increasing fear as his perch grew shakier; the great expanse of +canvas, which should have been treble-reefed even in a floating ship +going forward, tore at boom-tackles and earrings, tacks, and mast-hoops, +shaking the vessel to the keel and filling her with cataclysmic thunder. + +"By the bones of Red Jabez, she comes!" roared Spotted Dog, peering over +the side. "Heave, lads, and never doubt the girl again! Fiends o' +Topheth! See her slide!" + +The schooner shuddered from forefoot to sternpost; the big hawser +slipped in through the lead with gathering speed; the groaning masts +imparted an impulse to her that drove her astern like an arrow, and now, +triumphantly, Dolores cried: + +"An ax! Quickly--cut the hawser! Caliban, get a jib loosed! Hanglip, +open the companionway, and bring up my prisoners. I would have them +enjoy the sail." + +A curling sea poured over the taffrail, sweeping Dolores from her feet; +she met it with a ringing laugh, gripping the wheel as her safeguard, +and the moment the ax severed the hawser she gave the vessel a sheer +with the helm, and again her orders rang out: + +"Let go both boom-tackles! Hoist away the jib! Haul the jib-sheet to +starboard, and stand by fore and main sheets!" + +Out of the darkness ahead came the fluttering of canvas, and soon +Caliban's hoarse croak rang aft: "Hoist away th' jib!" The great booms +swung amidships again when the tackles were cast off, and now the +headsail flew up the stay, the restrained sheet to starboard causing the +canvas to fill aback as had the greater sails before. The pressure was +ahead and to one side; the schooner's head began to fall off, then +faster as she gained momentum, and the fore and main sails again began +to thunder at their blocks. + +"Let draw the jib! Bring in the fore sheet; bear a hand aft here, main +sheet, lads, smartly!" cried Dolores, twirling the wheel to meet the +vessel's swift leeward leap. And as the liberated Feu Follette heeled +dizzily to the gale, under full spread of sail, and her owner and his +guests appeared into the storm, Stumpy's cry rang out: + +"There's the flare--and she's burnin' steady!" + + +TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month. + + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +YELLOW RUFE'S FINISH. + + +"How bears the flare?" Dolores demanded, steadying the helm. + +"Three points on lee-bow!" came from aloft. + +"Sing out when we point for it!" Dolores gave the wheel a few spokes, +and at her command the main-sheet was rendered until the schooner fell +off from the wind, and Stumpy hailed: "Steady! She heads fair for it!" + +"Does it still burn?" + +"Aye, blazing bright! And low down, too, for the seas hide it every +moment!" + +"Keep thy eyes skinned, and seek for the sloop, too." + +The schooner came to a more even keel as she squared away from the gale, +and the splendid speed of the craft sent a thrill through Dolores, as +through the less impressionable pirate of the gang. Fast as Rufe's sloop +was, this dainty plaything of wealth and leisure sped over the snarling +seas at a gait that promised to overhaul the smaller vessel two fathoms +to one. + +Even Rupert Venner and his friends, shivering with the wet and sudden +change from the cabin to the deck though they were, found much to soothe +them in the glorious sweep and swing of the Feu Follette; much to admire +and envy in the perfect poise and _sang froid_ of the magnificent +creature at the wheel. + +Dolores stood on feet as steady as the great, deep eyes that were fixed +on the compass-card before her. Her heavy, lustrous hair streamed about +her from under the golden circlet; in each lightning flash she stood +out, a thing of wild, awful beauty; the rain glistened on her bare +shoulders and arms, rendering her golden skin a gleaming, fairylike +armor. And the blustering wind caught her wet tunic and wrapped it about +her closely and tightly, revealing every grace and glory of her perfect +body. + +"Saints! Was there ever such a creature?" said Tomlin hoarsely. + +Pearse's face was set and grim; he made no rejoinder. Venner, too, kept +silent; but his eyes held venom as he glared at the speaker. Dolores +suddenly raised her eyes from the binnacle, looked toward them as they +crouched shivering in the lee of the deck-house-companion, and she, warm +and glowing in a flimsy, wet garment, laughed mockingly, and called to +them. + +"I am forgetting what is due to my guests. Do ye feel cold? Will ye go +below?" + +And they, shivering and uneasy as they were, were content to shiver if +only they might not lose sight of her. Their reply was unintelligible; +neither would look at the others; yet their mumbled response was +understood, and the girl laughed again, loud, ringing, and full of +allure. + +"Such courage comes only of true sea stock, my friends! I shall not +forget this fortitude when I have done with the schooner." + +"Flare close aboard!" roared Stumpy; then: "Seize my soul if I see the +boat, though, mistress. Satan! Now the flare's gone out!" + +"Whereaway?" cried Dolores shrilly. Big Milo was out there in the +blackness. + +"Right under the bows!" bellowed the lookout. "Luff, or bear away; ye'll +run him down!" + +And from the raging seas off the lee-bow came the deep, calm voice of +Milo, unperturbed as if on dry land, though no boat was to be seen in +the murk. "Hold the course, Sultana, I am here!" + +And on the heels of the words came a flash from the skies, blazing full +upon the dripping figure of the giant as he reached a great arm up, +gripped the lee-rail, and swung himself on board with the unconscious +ease of a perfect athlete. + +"Thy boat, Milo?" inquired Dolores. + +"Sailed under, Sultana. I have held the flare aloft in my hand while +swimming until a moment ago, when the powder burned out." + +"And Rufe?" + +"The sloop is close by. Thou art sailing fair at his stern if thy course +was not changed to avoid me. His topmast is gone; he sails slowly." + +Then without more ado the splendid human animal clutched a backstay and +swarmed aloft with the agility of an ape, showing not a whit of strain +after his battle with the roaring seas. He reached Stumpy, sent that +numbed mariner down, and searched the waters with his keen vision, +waiting for another lightning flash. And when it came, fainter now as +the thunderstorm receded, his resonant voice boomed down: + +"Broad abeam the sloop lies! She runs before the wind!" + +"Slack away the main-sheet!" cried Dolores, heaving the helm up. "Hail +every minute, Milo!" + +"Shall I send him a shot immediately, lady?" roared Hanglip, at the +schooner's foremost gun. + +"Hold with thy shots, villain! Does Rufe deserve no sport? Stand by with +the grappling-hooks. I'll run him down!" + +"The sloop is dead ahead!" hailed Milo, though none on deck could detect +anything of her in the blackness. Dolores listened intently; then +twirled the wheel, and cried: "I hear her! Ready the grapnels?" + +"Aye, ready!" + +"Then watch--and heave!" she commanded; and with the suddenness of light +the schooner swept around in a swift arc, the black shape of the flying +sloop stood out against the angry sea crests, and the two vessels came +together with a crash of timbers and a rattling of gear. + +A distant rumbling of thunder succeeded a faint flash, and wind and rain +came down with increased fury as if to balance the defection of the +electric element. The darkness of Erebus fell upon the surging vessels, +and men groped at the rails in a blind effort to make out a footing for +boarding the sloop. + +"Follow me; I want Yellow Rufe alive!" cried Dolores, leaving the wheel +and springing to the bulwarks. Instinctively Peters stepped to the +wheel, and as he passed his employer he leaned to whisper in his ear: + +"Let them once leave these decks, sir, and we'll up hellum and away!" + +Venner's eyes glittered at the prospect; but he could not see the faces +of his friends; he could only hear Pearse's low tones beside him, and +the mumbled words indicated no great agreement in the scheme. Uncertain, +his mind confused between desire to escape and desire to see more of +Dolores and her hidden cave of wonders, Rupert Venner hesitated in his +decision; and in the next moment it was out of his power to decide. For +Rufe, in desperation now, met the boarders at the rail, backed by his +half-dozen crazed adherents, and murderous steel glittered dully against +the inky sky. + +"Beat down his cringing curs, but leave me Rufe!" cried Dolores, +opposing her own dagger to the sweep of the pirate's cutlas. And as the +schooner's crew roared at Hanglip's heels, storming over to the pitching +sloop's decks to pursue mercilessly the panic-stricken runaways, the +girl pitted agility and splendid knife-craft against the terror-driven +strength and wolfish fury of the trapped traitor. + +"Hah! Thy black heart fails thee!" taunted Dolores, leaping down from +the rail to the schooner's streaming deck and thus avoiding a whistling +stroke of Rufe's cutlas. The pirate fell forward with the impetus of his +blow, and stumbled in a heap at the girl's nimble feet. "Up, man!" she +cried, leaping back to permit him to rise. "What, art afraid of a woman? +Here, then, I prick thee! Now wilt fight?" She darted her dagger swiftly +downward, and the partially healed cross on Rufe's cheek blazed red +again. + +"Woman or devil, I'll see thy heart for that!" swore the pirate, and +rose with a bound and hurled himself at the girl. She stepped aside +agilely and laughed mockingly at him, while as he again stumbled with +the swing of his avoided blow she darted close, and her knife ripped his +sword-arm from wrist to elbow. + +Mouthing crazily with fury, Rufe leaped backward until his shoulders +struck the rigging, and, seizing his cutlas in his left hand, he poised +it by the blade for a deadly javelin cast. + +Now upon the scene flared a great blaze, and Stumpy's scowling face +appeared at the back of it. He, with readier wit than his fellows, had +sought out a tar-pot and lamp; and at the moment his mistress stood +defenseless before the impeding steel, the club-footed pirate poured +lamp-oil into the tar, and cast the flaring wick on top of all. + +A circle of light spread from wheel to foremast, with Yellow Rufe at the +main rigging in the center of it. The light dazzled him for a second, +and his throw was stayed. The three yachtsmen, huddled in their chains +aft, stared in helpless amazement at the tableau; for such it became, +when the fight stopped for a breath and every man's passion-filled face +was lighted by the red glare. + +"Shoot him down!" shouted Pearse in horror. + +And Venner and Tomlin strove for words without success. Venner was dumb +and sick in face of Dolores's peril. Yellow Rufe uttered a grim, +Satanic growl of laughter, and drew back his arm for the cast. His +plight was utterly desperate; he knew death waited for him with +clutching talons, and with his last breath he would reap toll that +should make his name a thing to recall with dread afterward. + +"This for thy witch's heart!" he howled, and his arm quivered. Then out +of the shadows aloft, above the smoky flare, came down the tremendous +shape of Milo, forgotten in his post at the masthead, but never taking +his eyes from his Sultana. + +Like a gorilla he slipped down the backstay with one hand; with the +other hand he reached downward with a swift, sure clutch, and as Rufe's +wrist flexed to cast his javelin Milo's hand gripped him by the neck +from behind and swung him bodily off his feet, while the wide-flung +cutlas flashed through the air and plunged with a hiss over the side. + +"I thank thee again, Milo," said Dolores, slipping her dagger into the +sheath and looking on at Rufe's struggles with the unconcern of one far +apart from the actual conflict. "I wished to take him alive; yet had +almost been forced to cut too deeply. Bring the villain to me. And, +Caliban, get more flares, lanterns, lights, and make us a theater of +justice here." + +She stepped aft, saw Peters at the wheel, and smiled as she realized how +her boarding of the sloop might have resulted. + +"Hah, but it would have availed thee nothing!" she smiled at Venner. "I +read thy heart as I read the stars, friend. Watch how completely Yellow +Rufe pays his debt to me. He has fled me through forest and mountain; +through a sea of howling storm; yet he pays. And thus all men pay who +think to flout Dolores. Keep thy eyes wide, friends, and watch." + +Yellow Rufe was brought before her, and his swarthy face was pallid in +the red light. There was something of the splendid beast about this +fellow, too; a quality that showed even when he faced certain death and +no merciful one. He had run, and when overtaken he had fought; and now +he must pay. + +"Hanglip, to the wheel here!" Dolores commanded. "Six of you bring back +the sloop. The rest attend me! Bring the schooner to her course, +northwest, Hanglip; and, Spotted Dog, rig me a whip at the foregaff-end. +Yellow Rufe, pray or curse while ye may. Thy course is run. There is +nothing left to say. Ten minutes remain to thee." + +The doomed pirate stood in silence while the preparations were being +made; but when Spotted Dog brought down the end of the rope he had rove +through the block at the end of the gaff, and stood grinning +anticipatively before Dolores, Rufe's tongue came loose, and he burst +into a torrent of futile, raving blasphemy. + +"Take the rope end forward, and pass it around the bows, so that the +rope passes beneath the keel," Dolores ordered, and every eager villain +in the band knew now what fate awaited Rufe. The schooner, not being +square-rigged, was badly fitted for the operation of keel-hauling; but +Dolores's inventive brain had devised a refinement of even that +refinement of torture. She waited for the rope end, and when Spotted Dog +brought it aft, on the weather side, passing clear from the gaff to +leeward, under the keel and up to windward, she stood aside so that the +yachtsmen could witness all. + +"Tie his hands, Milo!" she said. It was carried out, in spite of Rufe's +fierce fight against it. "Now place the noose about his throat tightly." +That, too, was done, and now the rope led from Rufe's neck, over the +weather rail, under the schooner, and up to the gaff. Three men stood by +the hauling part of the rope, and at a gesture from the girl six others +joined them. On every face was a little doubt, for none saw exactly what +was coming, least of all Rufe. + +"Now release him!" said Dolores quietly, and Rufe was left standing +alone, his hands tied, but his feet unfettered. He glared around as if +he saw a slim chance yet for life; the hope died the next moment, for +Dolores signed to the men at the rope, they began hauling, and the +terror leaped into Rufe's eyes afresh. + +For a moment Venner and his friends saw what they imagined to be a piece +of grim jesting; but they, as well as Rufe, speedily saw there was no +jest in this. For as the rope tightened, and other roaring ruffians ran +joyously to take a pull at it, Rufe was drawn irresistibly toward the +weather rail with a choking drag on his throat. He seized the rail, and +strained with his every sinew to fight that deadly peril; the rope only +tightened more; it was either go or strangle for him; fight as he might, +he was forced to climb on the rail, to aid in his own funeral. + +The yachtsmen turned dizzy with the awfulness of the man's end; but they +could not take their fascinated eyes from the scene. They saw Rufe +topple over the rail with a choking curse, and saw the rope pull him +under the vessel; they saw the rope quiver to the pirates' lusty pull as +the victim was battered against the keel. And they saw the terrible +figure leap from the sea to leeward and fly to the gaff-end as the men +ran away with the rope to a roaring chorus. But they saw no more. Their +eyes refused to look at a repetition of that horror. And Dolores, +watching them keenly, came to them, after giving final orders regarding +Yellow Rufe's body, took their chains in her hand, and said: + +"When again the thought comes to leave me, gentlemen, think well upon +what I have showed thee. Now come below. I owe thee some refreshment +after a night of storm. 'Twill be approaching dawn ere the schooner can +beat back to my haven. Come. I will serve thee with supper." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE FIRES OF THE FLESH. + + +In the schooner's saloon the atmosphere was peaceful by contrast with +the hurly-burly outside; yet even here the steep slant of the deck, the +shrill, protesting squeal of working frames and beams, the sullen thud +and swish of racing seas along the vessel's skin, kept the storm ever in +mind: the dizzy plunge of the bows into great gray seas, with its +accompanying rise of the stern and the hollow jar and thump of the +rudder-post in its port, kept the interior humming with sound as from a +distant organ. + +Again chained to the mainmast, the three yachtsmen stood gloomily +regarding Dolores, whose capable, battle-wise fingers now performed a +task more in keeping with her sex and charm. Under the great swing-lamp +in the skylight she leaned over the table, mixing wine in low, stout +cups, spreading a silver salver with food from the pantry. And a +thrilling picture she made in the soft glow of the lamp. The beautiful +face was warm with color; the scarlet lips were slightly opened in a +brilliant smile; intent upon her task, she swayed with superb grace to +the tremendous lurches of the driving schooner, ignoring all outside +affairs. + +Her preparations completed, she placed tray and cups at the end of the +table nearest the mainmast, turned around the deep armchair which had +been the owner's own, and sat down, offering a cup and the tray with a +little laugh of satisfaction. + +"Come, friend Rupert," she said, thrilling Venner again with her vibrant +voice, "thou shalt be first. Eat--and drink. See, for thee I do this." +She raised the cup to her lips, and kissed the brim, fixing her +fathomless eyes full on Venner as she did so. + +He struggled with his feelings for a moment, and hated himself heartily +for even debating his attitude. But he fell, as he had done before, +dazzled by her witchery. His eyes blazed, his blood leaped, and he took +the cup with a mumbled attempt at thanks. Dolores smiled at his +confusion, and in that smile was the allure of a Circe. + +Venner's expression became less tense as he noted the faces of his +fellows; for in their eyes he read jealousy, rank and stark, and it +warmed him to the marrow. In the next instant his warmth rose to fever +heat, and malice twisted his features; Dolores had taken another cup, +and now she offered it to Pearse, with a smile yet more gracious than +before. + +"My silent friend, here's to thee, too," she murmured. His cup she +kissed twice, and presented it carefully so that the place she kissed +was against his lips. "Drink. I have sweetened it." + +As Venner's brows darkened, so did John Pearse conquer his first flush +of self-contempt and put on a smile that irradiated his usually serious +face. And Tomlin brightened, too, waiting in what patience he could +muster for his turn, which must come next. To him Dolores turned, cup in +hand, and rising at the same time gave him his wine with a brief: "Here, +drink, too. I must leave thee a while." + +She forced the cup into Tomlin's trembling fingers, gave him never a +glance, but went out of the saloon on her errand. + +When he realized she was gone, Craik Tomlin dashed down the wine like a +petulant boy, and cursed deeply and fiercely. And not until then did +Venner and Pearse awake to the true artistry of the woman; for here, +instead of making of Tomlin a raging foe, willing to plot with all the +power of his alert brain for their ultimate release, she had aroused a +demon of black jealousy in him which promised to set all three by the +ears. + +Restricted as their movements were, they were forced to nurse whatever +feelings Dolores had implanted in them in full sight of each other. And +Tomlin left no doubt as to his feelings. At the farthest scope of his +chain he flung himself down on the slanting floor and crouched there +with dull-glowing eyes bent loweringly upon his friends. Venner laughed +awkwardly, and glanced at Pearse; the laugh died away and left a silence +between them that was vividly accentuated by the manifold voices of the +laboring vessel. For in the swift meeting of eyes, John Pearse and +Venner, host and guest, friends to that moment, saw in each other an +established rival, a potential foe. Involuntarily they drew apart; and +when Dolores returned from the deck she found them spread out like star +rays, having nothing in common except a common center. + +She gave no sign that she noticed them; but her heavy, fringed lids +drooped over eyes brimming with gratification. As she stepped from the +stairs the schooner swung upright, the deck overhead thundered to the +slamming of booms as she came about, and then the cabin sloped the other +way, rolling the scattered wine-cups noisily across the floor. Neither +man looked up; but Tomlin's cup rolled so that it struck his foot, and +he gave voice to a deep oath, terrible in its uncalled-for savagery. +Then Dolores gave them outward notice for the first time. + +With a low, pleasant laugh, she stepped quickly to Tomlin's side, laid a +hand on his sullen head, and forced him to look up at her. + +"I owe thee something, friend," she smiled, and Tomlin flushed hotly +under her close regard. "I treated thee badly in my haste. Come"--she +went to the sideboard, filled another cup with wine, and came back, +kneeling before Tomlin in the attitude of a slave while her big eyes +blazed full into his. + +"Drink, for I like thee best," she whispered, sipping the wine and +putting the brim, warm from her lips, to his. + +And Tomlin drank deeply, greedily, trembling under her close proximity. +He felt her hand take his chain, heard the tinkle of links, and knew, +without seeing, that she had unlocked his fetters and he was free. + +"Now sit here with me, and thou shalt tell me about thy world, my +friend, the world thou shalt take me to." + +Her soft, thrilling voice set Tomlin's blood leaping; and as she spoke +she led him to Venner's great chair and sat him down in it. Then, facing +at the length of the table her other two captives, she stood behind the +big chair, her arms on the top, leaning low to Tomlin's ear, her lips +almost brushing his cheek. + +And she whispered to him musically, seductively; her jeweled fingers +played with his hair; the soft, warm skin of her arms slid over his neck +and face; when, in a frenzy, he reached impulsively for her hand and +gripped it, she laughed yet more deliciously and permitted him to hold +it. + +"Why must you seek another world, Dolores?" Tomlin said hoarsely. "Here +you are queen. Out in the greater world you can be no more. Stay, and +let me stay with you." + +"And would my paltry possessions pay thee for renouncing thy people, thy +home?" she asked. + +"Home? People? God! I renounce Heaven itself if you say yes!" + +"We shall see, my friend," Dolores sighed, and Tomlin felt her tremble +slightly. "My chief desire is to leave behind me this life of herder to +human beasts. To go into the world whence comes such as thee, Tomlin; to +live among the people who can make such as these"--she indicated the +rich furnishing of the saloon, the sideboard silver and plate, the +stained glass of the skylight. + +"All these things I have, and more--nay, but thy treasures are nothing +compared with what I shall show thee in the great chamber--yet must I +keep them hidden because of the beasts that call me Sultana! Where they +came from, these treasures, must be men like thee, Tomlin, women like +the painted women of my gallery, people with the art to make these +things instead of the brute power to steal them. And there I will go, +and thou art to be my guide." + +"Then, in Heaven's name, let us go now!" cried Tomlin, trying to rise. +She laughed in his ear again, and her soft, warm arms pressed him back +in the chair with a power that amazed him. "We shall go, in good +season," she whispered. "But--" The rest was murmured so faintly, yet so +tremendously audible to his superheated brain, that he drew back and +stared up at her with an awful expression of mingled unbelief and horror +distorting his face. + +"Do you know what you say?" he gasped, and shot an apprehensive glance +toward Venner and Pearse. + +"Surely, my friend," she crooned. "Thyself alone, of those who came in +this ship, may return. If I am desirable, see to it that I can be +pleased with thee." Dolores stood up, bent upon him a dazzling smile, +leaned as if to kiss his lips, then with a tinkling little ripple of +mirth blew a kiss instead and ran up the companion-stairs to the deck. + +Tomlin stood glaring after her as if fascinated. His face, deeply +flushed a moment before, had gone deathly white; his profile, turned +under the lamp toward his companions, showed deeply puckered brows over +stony eyes, lips parted as if to utter a cry of horror. And Venner, +fuming inwardly, had seen enough to recall some of his badly scattered +wits. He called Tomlin by name hoarsely, softly, and exclaimed when he +looked around: + +"Tomlin, shall we three be ruined body and soul by that sorceress? Come, +help us out of these chains, and we will make a bid for liberty. We can +reach Peters and such men as are left, by way of the alleyway to the +forecastle; I know where weapons are to be got, and we'll put our fate +on the cast. Come. Pearse is of a like mind, eh, Pearse?" + +Pearse did not reply at once, and Tomlin saved him the trouble; for, +recovering himself with a shudder, he put a hand on the companion-rail +and started up the stairs with a laugh of contempt. + +"I have no concern with your troubles, Venner," he said. "As for +liberty, I am free as air. I believe patience is the medicine you need." + +Tomlin reached the deck with tingling ears, for even Pearse came out of +his reverie to curse him. But curses or benedictions counted nothing at +that moment. In every patch of light he saw Dolores's devilishly lovely +face; in every swing of the vessel he saw her consummate grace; he was a +thirsty man seeking a spring, knowing full well that a draft must kill +him. He stood alone outside the companionway, wondering at the absence +of people, at the absence of Dolores. A solitary man stood at the wheel; +and, looking around for others, Tomlin noticed vaguely that the black +storm was broken, that watery stars were winking down, and that almost +in the zenith a gibbous moon leaned like a brimming dipper of +quicksilver, ready to drop from the inky cloud that had but just +uncovered it. + +Then voices reached his ears from forward, voices full of wondering +anger, and he stepped out clear of the deck-house and peered ahead on +the windward side. There, two miles away, the land loomed black and +forbidding; and high up, on a crest, a great red blaze leaped and +swirled against the flying clouds. + +As he stood, Dolores ran aft, ignoring him utterly in her haste. Her men +grouped themselves along the waist of the schooner, waiting for +commands. The Feu Follette was already doing her best; that is, the best +under such sail as was safe to carry. But there, to windward, and yet +two miles distant, some part of the pirate village was burning, and none +might say yet what part it was. + +The one thing certain was that it could not be the great chamber. That +was of rock; it might be destroyed by an explosion; never by fire. So +there was a ring of exultation in Dolores's tone when she sent the hail +along: + +"Loose both topsails and set them! Caliban, thou small villain, out and +loose the outer jib. Main-sheet here! Oh, haul, bullies! Flat--more +yet--so, belay!" + +Then the girl flung the man from the wheel, seized the spokes herself, +and began to nurse the schooner to windward with truly superhuman art. +Closer yet she brought the graceful craft; closer, until the luffs +trembled and the seas burst fair upon the stem and volleyed stinging +spray the full length of her. And as she drew nearer, the blaze seemed +to diminish and blaze afresh as if fire-fighters were there indeed, but +lacking weapons to fight with. + +"Is it the treasure-house?" Tomlin asked anxiously, stepping beside the +girl. She stood in deep shadow; the dim radiance from the lighted +binnacle touched her face, breast, and arms with soft light, and her +eyes, as they flashed swiftly toward the man, glittered with some subtle +quality that sent a shiver running down his spine. + +"Treasure-house?" she repeated, and her voice was no longer soft and +alluring; it was metallic and menacing. For the second time, first in +Venner, now in Tomlin, she had seen the true source of their +fascination. "No, it is not the treasure-house. It is the council hall, +where thou wert lodged." She snatched her gaze from the compass and +fixed him with the cold, unwinking stare of a snake. "Where thou wert +lodged, my friend who would renounce all for me. Where, had I cared to, +I might have left two of ye, taking with me to safety only the one whose +brains are not afire with soulless gold and jewels." + +Tomlin grew hot and uneasy. "My brain is on fire with your beauty, +Dolores," he returned, trying to force her gaze to meet his again. + +"Prove it to me, then," she replied shortly, and waved him away, +devoting her attention now to making the anchorage, already close to. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +PEARSE ENTERS THE CAVE OF ALADDIN. + + +Lucky it proved that Pascherette had been left behind when the schooner +sailed after Yellow Rufe. Even Dolores, with all her consummate wisdom, +had forgotten the existence of the old woman she had degraded to kitchen +drudge; still more utterly had she forgotten the relationship existing +between the old woman and the late victim of her terrible vengeance. + +Sancho had called the old crone mother, whether with blood reasons or +not none knew. And at bottom, much of Sancho's rebellion had come of +anger at the treatment meted out to her. And it was Sancho's despairing +cry, when Milo cast him out into the Grove, that brought the old woman +from her concealment in the forest. The awful plight of the unlucky +wretch had aroused in the woman's withered breast a demon of revenge +that knew no limits; and the departing schooner, then barely visible to +her, filled her brain with the knowledge that the strangers who came in +that vessel had been the indirect cause of her Sancho's fate. + +She knew they had been placed in the cells behind the council hall; she +knew nothing of Dolores's last-minute decision that had taken them with +her. She knew nothing as to who or how many were left in the camp; but +she knew, she had terrible and ever-present proof in that moaning, +groping, brainless thing that was Sancho, that her mistress had shown a +leaning toward the strangers at the expense of her own people, and that +she herself might expect no mercy if ever caught. And with the low +animal cunning that served her for intellect she knew her penalty could +be no greater if she struck one blow in revenge before taking to the +woods in final flight. + +Her plan was simple. Watching Sancho for a while, so that she might not +lose him, she searched for dry wood among the drenched underbrush, piled +it against the rear of the council hall, and set fire to it, fanning the +faint flame and feeding it, guarding it with her scanty garments, until +the red tongues shot up in a powerful, self-supporting conflagration. + +Then she had darted back to the forest fringe, found Sancho, and turned +his sightless, blank face toward the blaze so that he might feel the +warmth and guess the cause. But she knew nothing of his cracked brain; +she knew only of his physical agonies; the utter absence of interest in +him when she would have shown him what she had done shook her to the +foundations of her own reason; and her eldritch scream pealed up among +the trees as she flung her arms aloft and cursed the place. + +It was the scream that brought Pascherette out of the hut, where she +sheltered from the storm, to see the council hall in flames. It was the +scream that told the little octoroon where the fire had birth. And +Pascherette, too, believed that the three strangers were still within +the cells. She had plans of her own that required the safety of those +men, at least for a while. And her active brain gave her the solution +before the old woman had ceased to curse. + +Like a small, sleek panther Pascherette ran toward the old woman; she +saw Sancho, too, but instinctively knew that after Milo's treatment of +him he could not be dangerous; ignoring the man, she drew her knife as +she ran, and with a brief, panting, "That for thee, witch!" struck the +old woman down at Sancho's stumbling feet. + +Now she gave all her energies to subduing the fire; and, swiftly +rallying every man or woman in the camp she drove them with blows and +shrill invective to beating the blaze with sodden boughs and wet sand. +She set men with poles to batter down the doors to the cells; but the +doors had been built to oppose that kind of entry. Frantically she drove +the fire-fighters to another place, while she heaped up fresh fire +against the doors in the hope of burning down what could not be burst. +And it was the last up-blazing shaft of fire as the doors fell that +Dolores saw in the moment she brought the schooner to anchor. +Pascherette was emerging, singed and blackened, with dark rage in her +glittering eyes at having found the cells empty, when Dolores and her +crew arrived on the scene with Venner and Tomlin and Pearse in their +midst. + +"What! Pascherette again?" cried Dolores, glaring at the girl with red +suspicion in her face. "Is this thy work? Speak!" + +Pascherette stared in surprise at the three strangers, and her painfully +scorched lips strove to answer. Her throat was dry, and at first words +refused to come. But in the pause, when fifty faces glowered at the +girl, something stumbled across the open in the firelight, and Milo's +sharp vision distinguished it. He went up to Pascherette, with deep +concern in his devoted eyes, and laid a strong arm about her trembling +shoulders. She relaxed toward him, and managed to whisper to him. He +flung out his free hand toward the open space, and cried to Dolores: + +"There is the traitor, Sultana! This is the avenger." + +Dolores looked; every eye was turned where Milo pointed; and the brutal +laughter of some of the hardiest pirates mingled with the groans of the +three yachtsmen, whose escape from a horrible death by fire could not +reconcile them to the staggering vengeance that had overtaken the wretch +who had attempted that death. Bathed in an infernal glow, grotesque as a +creature of a diseased brain, the unhuman Sancho staggered across the +glade and into the darkness of the forest, bearing in his handless arms +a ghastly burden in which the hilt of Pascherette's dagger glittered and +flashed as the firelight touched it. + +"Back! Let him go!" cried Dolores; and a score of shouting ruffians +returned from swift pursuit, leaving Sancho and his burden to pass into +the oblivion of the great forest. + +Milo examined the damage, and reported. The cells were useless now, +except merely to confine captives. They did not fit in with Dolores's +plans thus, and she sent Milo to a distance with John Pearse while she +carried into effect a new fancy. Her crew had gone to their own places, +to soothe the fatigues of their night's work in carousal; Pascherette +stood near by, gazing at her mistress with mute appeal that she, too, be +permitted to seek alleviation of her own sore burns. + +"Wait, child," said Dolores, seeing the girl's trouble. "I'll cure thy +hurts soon." + +Then she separated Venner and Tomlin, taking each in turn to a vacant +hut. And to each she whispered patience and faith; to each her voice +imparted a renewed thrill. To Venner she said: + +"Thy anger with me was foolish, good Rupert. I did but smile at thy +friends to make thy task easier. Now see; I leave thee unfettered, and +thus." She drew his head down and lightly kissed his hair, laughing with +a little tremor: "Think of what I asked of thee, Rupert. To-morrow I +shall ask thy decision." + +In turn to Tomlin she whispered: + +"The night has been arduous for thee. I was impatient with thee. Thy vow +of devotion to me rang true, though I doubted it at the moment. +To-morrow I will hear what thy heart speaks. To-night, see, I free thee. +For thy own safety, though, do not venture beyond these doors save with +me. My rascals are fierce creatures of jealousy and suspicion. Good +night, friend." Him, too, she left tingling with her kiss, and whatever +others in the camp did that night, two men found sleep elusive and vain. + +Milo brought Pearse to her at her call, and together they went to the +great stone before the chamber. Milo rolled back the rock, while his +expression showed uneasiness. But he had learned his lesson when +protesting against Pascherette's admission to the cave of mystery, and +uttered no warning now. + +Pascherette, in spite of her burns, bent a roguish face upon Pearse as +that puzzled gentleman waited for some word or motion that should give +him the reason for this unexpected favor. + +Still Dolores said nothing. The rock rolled away, and Milo stood aside, +she entered, touching Pearse on the arm as she passed him, and he +followed meekly, Pascherette bringing up the rear with Milo after the +giant replaced the great stone. Then Dolores turned back to Pearse, +under the soft, red glow of the unseen lamps, and flashed a bewildering +smile upon him. + +"Wilt believe now that I love thee?" she whispered, and her lids drooped +over swimming eyes. "Beyond that great door lies the chamber to enter +which costs death. Art afraid?" + +"Lead on," replied Pearse hoarsely. There was no trace of fear in his +voice or in his eyes; but Dolores warmed gladly to the knowledge that +here at last was a man whose thoughts were bent upon her and not on her +chamber of treasures. + +They stood before the massive sliding door of plate and jewels, and here +the human side in John Pearse showed through for an instant. Under the +great, yellow lantern the gold and silver plates, the glowing rubies, +the glinting emeralds, made a picture of fabulous riches that even he +could not ignore. But at the upward slide of the door his eyes left the +richness of it without a flicker; he waited for the heavy velvet +hangings to be drawn, and when Dolores's eyes sought his they surprised +his deep, ardent gaze fastened full on herself and not upon what might +next be revealed. + +"Enter, man of my heart," she smiled, and stood aside to permit him to +pass. + +In the first steps over the threshold John Pearse saw little save a dim, +cool hall, vast and full of vagrant shadows; then, when Milo had +arranged the lights so that they gradually grew in power, flooding the +chamber with mellow radiance, his soul seemed to burst from his throat +in one choking, stupefied gasp. + +"The Cave of Aladdin!" he choked, and stood open-mouthed while Dolores +laughed softly at his shoulder. + +"Nay," she reproved. "'Tis the Cave of Dolores. 'Tis mine, and"--she +turned her face up toward his alluringly--"may be thine, if thou'rt a +true man!" + +With shrewd artistry she twisted away as he strove to clasp her, and +there she left him standing, in the midst of untold treasures that every +moment were increasingly revealed to him. Without another glance for +him, or apparently another thought, she took Pascherette by the hand and +led her down the chamber to the great chair. Here she busied herself +with salves and lotions to assuage the scald of the girl's fresh burns, +which were more painful than serious. And every moment she was thus +charitably employed her gleaming eyes were fixed upon Pearse from under +concealing lashes; every moment Milo's dusky face was bent upon her from +the end of the chamber with an expression of absolute adoration and +gratitude. For tiny Pascherette was custodian of the giant's green +heart; and honest Milo never sought very deeply for motives. It was +enough for him that Dolores, his Sultana, the being he worshiped as he +worshiped his gods, was ministering with woman's infinite tenderness to +her maid, a creature as humble as himself. + +Pearse, too, even in his intoxication of senses, saw and warmed to this +evidence of real womanliness in one he had small cause to think anything +other than a bewilderingly alluring fury. He could not hide his +thoughts, and Dolores saw them betrayed on his face; Pascherette +surprised the look on her mistress's lovely face that told her the +imperious beauty possessed a heart of living flesh and blood. And +Pascherette shuddered nervously at the fear of what must happen should +that heart ever feel humiliated. + +"Keep still, child," Dolores laughed happily, mistaking the reason for +the girl's shudder. "It is finished now. Thy hurts will pass in thy +sleep. Go to thy big man there, and have him pet thee. I have no need of +thee until I call. Go, take him away. I would be alone with my guest." + +The girl ran to Milo, and together they went down to the gallery beyond +the picture door. Then Dolores set out with her own fair hands wine and +sweetmeats, the confections taken from the yacht, strange and new to +her, but in her mind something desirable to such men as Pearse, else why +had they brought such things? And again using her innate witchery, she +set a chair for Pearse at a distance from her own, where she could look +straight into his face or hide her own, as her fancy dictated. + +"Hast seen the like before?" she smiled, looking at him over the brim of +a chased gold flagon. + +"Never, never, Dolores!" he said, and his eyes blazed into hers. He +moved his chair close to her, and reached for her free hand. + +"What! Hast thou no eyes for these things?" she exclaimed in simulated +surprise, taking her hand away and indicating the wealth around the +walls. "Man, thy eyes are idle; look at those gems, those paintings; +hast ever seen the like of those 'Three Graces,' then, that they have no +interest for thee?" + +"Yes, I have seen the like, wonderful, wonderful being," he returned +hoarsely. "You I have seen; you, you, I see nothing else but you, +Dolores!" + +She dazzled him with a seductive smile, full of fire-specked softnesses, +and offered him her flagon. + +"Drink, comrade. Drink here, and we shall talk of thee and me, and what +concerns us both nearly. Art sure thy eyes are not blinded by the nearer +beauty?" + +"I am not blind! I never saw with clearer vision!" Pearse cried, taking +the flagon with tremorless hand. "I care nothing for these tawdry +gauds." + +"Ah! Then thou'rt the man. Come, thy faithful soul deserves reward. +Come, I will show thee treasures thou hast not dreamed of yet; and all +shall be thine, with me--at a price." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE TREASURE TEST. + + +Dolores gaily took John Pearse by the hand and led him down the chamber +to the dais on which stood the vacant chair of state of the dead Red +Jabez. The great canopied bed still stood there; but it was curtained +in, out of sight, and unused; Dolores preferred her own low couch, with +its strangely beautiful composite furnishings of silk and tiger-skins, +velvet and snowy polar-bear rugs, heaped high with luxurious cushions +that made it a restful lounge by day as well as a sleep-inviting couch +by night. + +Beside the couch, between it and the dais, Milo had set the +treasure-chests, leaving the lids wide-flung, the contents but thinly +concealed by silken shawls. The end of a rope of matchless pearls hung +over the edge of one chest carelessly, without apparent motive; yet when +she guided Pearse to the couch and seated him, Dolores scanned his face +with glinting eyes that peeped out through narrow slits. She saw his +look of interest; then his mouth turned upward in a smile that said +plainly: "Here is a theatrical trick to impress me!" + +"Now thy reward is come," whispered Dolores, leaving him with an arch +smile and kneeling before the big chests. She tore away the shawls and +plunged her hands into the glittering hoard to the wrists, flinging out +upon the couch and the floor, upon Pearse's knees and into his hands, +rubies and emeralds, diamonds and pearls, golden chains and ornaments +for the hair in a bewildering, stupendous litter. And, her face turned +from him, her narrowed eyes were fixed upon him, and in their gleaming +depths burned a smoldering anxiety that was nearing impatience. + +For John Pearse cloaked his feelings better than his fellows; he smiled +at the shower of riches, met her questing glance with a smile, and +smiled again with shaking head when she stood before him, aglow with +yearning for his decision, and asked simply: + +"Well?" + +"Baubles, playthings, Dolores!" he laughed up at her. He seized her +hands, stroked the satin-skinned forearm, and said softly: "These are +not worthy of such a woman as Dolores. These are but the gauds of a +beautiful woman. To fit you, they should be the adornments of a +goddess!" + +"Oh, then thy lips uttered truth!" she cried delightedly. She stooped +swiftly to him, twined her arms about his neck, and laid her warm cheek +to his. "Now I shall show thee treasures indeed, my John!" + +She ran to the one chest yet unopened, and flung away the silk covering. +Here were the gems of the craftsman's art. Stones of unparalleled color +and size were in this chest; but their chief merit lay in their cunning +settings, their consummate delicacy of workmanship. Here the art +collector might find his El Dorado; in all the world such a collection +could scarcely be found in one place. Here were shrines and temples, +carved from single immense stones or pieces of jade; here was a woven +thing of gold and silver, in which the warp and woof lay close as +tapestry, portraying as no tapestry could portray it the fabled valley +of "Sinbad," in which the sands were gold, the sky silver, and the gems +were gems indeed. + +"Is this to thy mind?" Dolores cried, tossing to him a golden ball which +by some amazing internal mechanism played fairy chimes as it whirled +through the air. + +Her lips parted in flushed pleasure at the result of her display, for +John Pearse was smitten with the collector's fever. He missed her ball +through sheer inability to tear his eyes from the other treasures. And +as his brain began to grasp the stupendous truth, to more readily +estimate values, his eyes turned from the more gaudy works of art, and +noticed, for the first time clearly, the pricelessness of many greater +things of canvas and wood, ivory and glass, with which the apartment +abounded. + +"Now thy heart craves my treasures, too, eh?" she chided, gliding to him +and laying a hand on his head. Yet she felt glad of his awakened +interest. It was merely another card she might yet have to play. + +"Astounding!" he gasped. His gaze fastened upon a boule bric-à -brac +stand, on which stood an Aretine vase two feet high, of peerless form +and glaze. The ticking of the great Peter Hele clock drew his attention +to a work of ebony and ivory as scarcely could be believed as coming +from man's hands. + +"Now thou'rt of a kind with thy fellows!" she cried in anger. "Look at +me! No, thy eyes will not deign to seek me now!" + +Pearse snatched his eyes away, and answered her with a laugh that sent +her blood leaping again. + +"My Dolores forgets she demanded my admiration for her treasures," he +said. "What would you have, splendid one? Shall I say these treasures +are still paltry, when I see their countless worth? Still I say you are +the treasure beyond price. These are but a little more fitting for you. +That is all. Am I forgiven?" + +He leaped to his feet, seized her hand, and attempted to slip an arm +about her waist. She, lithe as a leopard, slipped from his grasp with a +glad laugh that rippled in a low murmur to his hot ears, and intensified +the glare that had come into his eyes. She failed to see that glare. It +was the glare of greed; stark and utter greed, that counted no cost and +brooked no opposition in driving for its ends. + +"Thou art forgiven indeed!" she replied, panting and disheveled, a thing +of wondrous loveliness. "So far art thou forgiven that I shall put thy +heart to the grand test at once. Of thy fellows none can compare with +thee for scorn of wealth and desire of me. Sit down again, my man; let +us reveal our inmost hearts to each other." + +She told him, keeping him at provoking distance, of her heart-hunger for +the outside world, the world of art and things of beauty. She thrilled +him with her vibrant voice, mesmerized him with her distant, caressing +touch and glorious, limpid eyes. She made his blood pulse hotly with +desire with her soft-spoken offer of self-surrender to the man who +should lead her from her sovereignty over human beasts and set her feet +in the high places of the earth. + +"And with these my treasures, I shall make my man a king in truth," she +said, slipping along the couch toward him and laying both hands clasped +on his arm. She threw back her head, shaking loose her great masses of +lustrous hair, and poured her soul at him from half-closed, moist eyes +that gleamed like midnight pools in starlight. "Yet must my chosen man +assure me of his love for me, and his contempt for my riches. For, +though my treasures shall be his, yet will I be first in his heart or +forget him." + +"And first you are, and shall be, Dolores," whispered Pearse, leaning +his chin on her forehead and glaring covetously at the littered wealth +of the chests. "What man of warm blood can see any other being or thing +when Dolores is by?" + +"Then come. I believe thee," she said, rising slowly. "Come with me, my +man above price. See here." + +She swept back a piece of tapestry at the rear of the chamber, and +disclosed a dark and gloomy cavern, hewn out of the solid rock, as was +the greater cavern. From a brazier she took a pine splinter, lighted it, +and beckoned Pearse into the cave. And as soon as his eyes adjusted +themselves to the gloom, he saw the place stowed tightly from floor to +ceiling with kegs and half-casks, hooped and marked with black +characters. + +"Gold?" he gasped, perspiration starting to his brows. + +"Gold!" Her rejoinder was tense, almost savage; she glared at him from +under the torch, a quivering shape of disgust. + +"Why, Dolores, don't look like that," he laughed. "I did but wonder. If +this were all gold, it could not enhance your worth in my eyes." + +"Then the proof will be easy. This is not gold. It is gunpowder. Our +whole store. My rascals are not to be trusted with more powder than they +can use at once. From this store I dole them out their rounds; thus are +all safe. But at this moment I have other use for this powder. Stay +here; or no, help me. It will be finished the sooner." + +Dolores ran out into the great chamber again, Pearse following her +wonderingly. She left him in wonder but a short time; for, gathering up +a great armful of treasure she started back to the cave, crying: "Come, +fill thy arms, too." He paused, and she took up his hesitation swiftly, +feeling again a surge of doubt and disgust rise in her breast. She +called to him, scornfully: "What, art afraid? Come, faint one; beyond +here is my secret outlet from this place. Now art satisfied?" + +And John Pearse followed into the cave, a-tingle with the hope that he +was indeed the elect. He saw her fling her riches down on the tops of +the kegs; she bade him do likewise, and then led the way back for more. +And so she went, and so he followed; journey after journey was +completed, until the gunpowder-kegs were almost buried beneath the +wealth of an empire. Then the girl stepped outside, and called Milo. The +giant appeared with silent speed. + +"Milo, burst me one of these kegs," she ordered, and her voice forced +Pearse's attention; it was so cold, passionless, utterly controlled. The +keg was burst, and a trickle of coarse cannon powder ran on the floor. + +"Lay a damp train out to the ledge over the grove, Milo!" + +Milo disappeared through the gallery, trickling moistened powder from +his fingers as he went. Then, when his voice sounded back along the +passage, Dolores again took Pearse by the arm and said, looking him full +in the eyes: "Thy test, friend. Here am I. Out there is the grove, and +beyond it the sea. Take this torch. Put light to the powder train, and +thou and I will depart in the white schooner. We shall leave nothing for +these vultures to fight over. But together we will go far away into thy +world, thee and me." + +"And leave my friends here?" he asked, huskily. + +"Ay, my man, but not alive!" she whispered, thrusting her dark, flushed +face close to his, and letting her lips breathe their fragrance upon +him. "They, thy friends, are not as my beasts. They have the brains of +the white kings of the earth; they have the cunning which makes of all +other races slaves and dependents. Leave them here, living, and in a day +they will rule these rabble and together they will hunt us down. Come, +haste. Put thy fire to the train." + +"Not yet! Tell me what deviltry is to be worked upon my companions." + +"Hah! Then thou'rt but lukewarm in thy love. Am I not Dolores? Am I not +worth thy two friends? Listen, I'll tell thee my price, friend. If thy +friends are to live, then destroy this trash ere we go, so that they get +it not. If thy heart is bent upon saving this treasure, then thy hand +must first put thy friends into their long sleep. Nay, peace! There is +no alternative. The man who mates with me shall be a man indeed; no +petty, squeamish lover whose weak heart sickens at removing a rival." + +"Give me until morning," he replied, dry of throat, and pallid of face. +"It is a terrible thing you ask, Dolores. Yet I dare not say the cost is +too high. As for destroying these treasures, that I know is but a trick +to try me. You could never go out into a new world and take a low +station. That you would have to do if I set fire to that train." He +suddenly darted a look of fierce challenge at her, "There!" he cried. +"The trial is yours!" + +He flung down his torch, and the powder-train began to splutter and +fizz. Dolores flashed a look of approval at him, and burst into a +ringing, happy laugh. She kicked aside the torch, and trampled out and +relaid the train; then ran to Pearse impulsively, and said with simple +earnestness that utterly deceived him: + +"Now I believe in thee again, and for ever. 'Twas but to try thee, John. +We will leave nothing of worth when we go. But that makes it the more +imperative that thy friends have no power to harm us afterward. Think +not that Dolores will take a lower station. I shall be queen wherever I +go, and my man shall be made a king by my power. + +"I give thee until noon to think over thy answer. Go, and the gods +protect thee and make thee faithful to me." + +Calling Milo back, she bade him conduct Pearse from the great chamber, +and as they passed out, little Pascherette peered up at Pearse with an +impudent smile, and with her head on one side like a bird she chattered: + +"White stranger, thou'rt a fool! What Dolores wills, will surely come to +pass. If thy heart fails thee, and thy friends are safe at thy hands, +dost think they will have like scruples? Fool again! One of them will +kill thee and the other, and that man will gain a peerless mate. And, +bend down thy tall head, thou imitation giant--already thy two friends +are liberated, each seeking the life of the other, though neither knows +of the other's freedom!" + +"What?" stammered Pearse, gripping the girl's slim shoulder fiercely. +"If you lie--" + +"Pshaw! One need not lie to befool thee!" Pascherette retorted +scornfully. "Sleep, and if thy throat is not yet slit on thy awakening, +make thy decision quickly, and tell it to Dolores." + +Pearse would have answered her with more questioning, but she laughed at +him, and bade Milo shut him out. So the great rock fell, and Pearse +wandered into the camp, not knowing where he went, and caring little. He +had no place to sleep, so far as he knew; yet he felt no wonder. He +walked through the sleeping-camp, across the grove, and into the forest, +his brain on fire and seething with the problem before him. + +"The treasure, with or without the woman!" he muttered, clenching his +hands savagely. "The treasure! Ye gods! There must be the wealth of +_Monte Cristo_ there!" He broke off into a harsh laugh at thought of his +challenge with the torch. "The witch!" he chuckled. "She was clever, but +John Pearse overreached her. Now I know her heart. But--" + +He wandered on, and his mind was centered upon Venner and Tomlin. The +more he thought over the situation, the more he found his ideas forming +themselves after Dolores's. + +"Why should I share it?" he asked of the winking stars. + +And while he communed with himself regarding her and her demands, +Dolores overlooked Milo in a task that brought a sparkle to her eyes and +a gleaming smile to her lips. They were repacking the great treasure +chests. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +PASCHERETTE DEALS AGAIN. + + +Dolores spent her night in slumber as peaceful as a babe's. When Milo +had completed his task with the treasure chests he went to his own +couch. John Pearse wandered deep into the eery forest, his brain filled +with tumultuous fancies, while Craik Tomlin and Rupert Venner lay in the +dark before the open doors of their separate cells, struggling for a +decision with their own good and evil natures. But Dolores, before +retiring called Pascherette to dress her hair and gave the little +octoroon some secret instructions against the morning. + +"Now to thy bed, girl, and wake with bright eyes," said Dolores, her +toilet completed. "Let thy busy tongue wag its liveliest then; see to it +that the strangers hear whispers and rumors, yet keep them apart and +from harm a while. Thy task with the other rabble is easy. I care not +how they are divided. But divided they must be; to the point of mutiny. +Go, and sweet dreams to thee." + +It was then that a subtle happiness stole into Dolores's face; then her +great luminous eyes closed slowly in utter peace; then that she lay down +with a gentle sigh on her couch of furs and slept care-free and smiling. + +Dreams not of the brightest might have ruffled her calm had she seen the +night watch of her maid. For the moment Pascherette was dismissed, and +gave a second thought to her orders, a light of dawning hope, +prospective triumph, broke over the small, gold-tinted face and +sleepiness fled for the night. + +"Divided they shall be!" she whispered, and hugged herself rapturously. +"Divided to her disaster and--Milo's triumph!" + +Then the maid wrapped herself in a robe, and went out to the camp. + +Like a fantom she appeared to Venner, and as swiftly vanished; but in +the moment that she bent over him she whispered in his ear that Tomlin +was the chosen of Dolores; that he and Pearse were doomed at the hands +of their friend. + +"I tell thee, watch," she said. "By noon to-morrow the truth shall be +shown to thee." And in leaving him she placed in his hands the rapier +that had been taken from him by Dolores. + +To Tomlin next she appeared, and his rapier also she returned; but in +his ear was breathed the name of John Pearse. To find Pearse himself was +harder; but she waited, and shortly before the dawn he emerged from the +forest and walked dully toward his own charred cell. + +"Hah, my friend," she said to him, suddenly appearing from the shades. +"I fear thy tardiness has defeated thee. Now thou'lt need to look to +thyself, for the man Venner has vowed thy life to Dolores, and that of +Tomlin." + +"What! Venner?" + +"Surely. Why not? Is not Dolores worthy such a sacrifice then? Hah, but +Venner is a man of decision. Thy eyes saw the treasure? It's lost to +thee--unless--" she whispered, peering up into his angry face. + +"Unless?" + +"Unless thou prove the better man. Dolores would have thee before all +the rest, friend; but she despises a waverer. I tell thee thy fortune is +yet in thy hands." + +"How?" + +"Here, I have thy sword. Take it, and keep aloof and watch. When thou +canst see men carrying the treasure chests out to the white vessel, then +will be the time to strike. Join thyself with the men who seem faithful +to my mistress. There will be fighting; and the spoils are for the +victor." + +Pearse would have stayed her, but she ran from him with a tantalizing +laugh and vanished into the women's quarters. + +In the morning, when the men had breakfasted, a hum of activity pervaded +the place which was attributable to the octoroon's subtle influence. As +if by prearrangement, men drew apart into little knots, each gathering +about a leader and showing indecision until each man ascertained exactly +where his fellows were going. Then Dolores appeared with Milo, and she +faced four distinct parties before the great stone. + +The sun was metallic in its redness, rising from behind a group of +low-hanging, hazy clouds, casting its fierce beams on the point and the +low shores of the anchorage. A brazen sky overtopped the scene, giving +to green foliage and yellow sands alike, a glare as of terrific +artificial light. + +As Dolores appeared, the party headed by Caliban stepped forward, +muttering angrily, and every man kept hand on knife or cutlass. Caliban +himself, nervous and yet determined, glared at the formidable giant and +suddenly sprang out alone, shaking his first at Milo, and working +himself into greater fury. A frown darkened the face of Dolores; she had +commanded Pascherette to bring about a condition of unrest, but nothing +like this; for in all four parties was an attitude of suspicion of +herself, not of each other. She spoke in a low voice to Milo, then +raised her hand and advanced toward Caliban. + +"Well, whelp of a deformed dog!" she cried. "What do ye seek with me? Is +this the way I've taught thee to beg?" + +"I beg nothing!" screamed Caliban, pacing to and fro restlessly. "We +demand, not beg!" + +"Demand? Have a care for thy loose tongue!" + +"My tongue's my own! We are tired of thy trumpery state. Tired of thy +mystery and falsity. We know thy plot--know thy cunning scheme to carry +thy favorites away from here--to carry away the treasure that is ours, +not thine! Think ye we men will let ye go, to set the dogs of war-ships +upon us? Here and now we demand a settlement." + +"Demand, again? Good Caliban"--she said softly, and smiled upon +him--"thy training has been faulty. Come, I will answer thee." + +"Ye answer us all, or none. I know thee too well to trust thee. Answer +these men, who ask thy reason for keeping these three strangers to the +detriment of thine own people. Sancho paid dearly for his sight of thy +great chamber. Did the stranger who was in there with thee last night +suffer, too?" + +"That's the talk; answer!" shouted the crew, led by Caliban's band and +supported less vociferously by the rest. + +"Silence, then; I will answer!" cried Dolores, quivering with suppressed +rage. She spoke again to Milo, then turned to face the mob, her head +erect, her eyes ablaze. + +She flashed a keen glance toward Pearse, who had sidled over to the band +led by Stumpy, who seemed less accusative than the others; she nodded +faintly, approvingly, and sought the others. Venner stood aloof, on the +fringe of Hanglip's crowd; Tomlin stood almost by the side of Spotted +Dog. + +"I will answer. I see among ye men of troubled minds, who are not yet +disposed to flout my authority. Thee, Caliban, I have forgiven before; +yet here thou art, venturing again to confront me with demands. I will +not reply to thee, nor to any one man or party. To ye all, my people, I +have my answer. In one hour, in the grove, ye shall hear and be +satisfied. That is my answer now. Come Milo." + +She walked slowly and steadily straight through the midst of the +muttering, grumbling mob, Milo at her back like a gargantuan shadow. And +looking neither to one way or the other, meeting eyes that glared in her +path with cold, dignified disdain, she proceeded through the camp, +across the grove, and to the ledge behind the altar. Savage curses +followed her; men jostled at her heels and dared Milo to prevent them; +the giant, calm and cold as his mistress, moved forward like a human +Juggernaut, laying a resistless hand upon a presuming shoulder here, +flinging aside a leering ruffian there. + +And as the mob thinned, and Dolores entered the cool glade, something in +the situation which she had failed to realize before now struck her with +force; she started at the thought, then uttered a low, rippling laugh of +satisfaction. For Pascherette, in her cunning scheme of double-dealing, +had played into her lady's hands to an extent unhoped for by Dolores. + +"Milo, the wolves are ready to tear," she said. "And they shall +tear--not me, but themselves! Didst note the three strangers? Even they +shall help more than I had hoped." She stepped up behind the altar, and +as she waited for Milo's assistance in climbing to the secret entrance +to the great chamber she asked: + +"Thy blow-pipe, hast forgotten its use." + +"As soon forget the use of my fingers, Sultana!" replied the giant, +permitting a grim smile to wrinkle his face for an instant. + +"Then get thy darts. Have thy pipe ready here, thyself concealed, and +watch thy time to strike. But first light the altar fires. The rogues +believe in my magic no longer; I shall teach them anew, and such magic +as shall convince some of them." + +From the camp arose a babel of uproar, men shouting against each other, +curses and threats alike aimed broadcast. And impatient of the delay, +small groups straggled into the grove to wait, Stumpy's party first, +their leader striving fiercely to quiet their noise. Dolores reappeared +soon, dressed in her altar robe, and her flashing eyes told her quickly +that John Pearse wavered between staying with his chosen party and going +in search of his companions. She caught his eye, and smiled brightly at +him, beckoning him to her. + +He went up to the altar slowly, his face dark and sullen. She waited for +him, ignoring the mutterings of the pirates, and as he approached her +she gave him her hand. + +"My friend, it pleases me to see thee among my faithful ones. Hast made +thy decision?" + +"Decision! False woman, the decision was made while yet I was with you. +The decision was yours, not mine." + +"False? Why, good John, what does that mean?" she asked, frank surprise +on her face. + +"Have you not taken Venner for your man? Is he not your chosen mate, at +the price of my life and Tomlin's?" + +"Fool!" she cried, fiercely. "Thy dreams have mixed thy brains. What +nonsense is this? I told thee thou wert my man, at a price. But thy +decision! Time is short. Say quickly what thou wilt do." + +"Prove to me that I have heard that which is untrue, and I give you my +answer at the hour you demanded it--at noon." + +"If thou remain here, the proof shall be shown thee," she replied, dark +with passion. Not yet had she quite seen through the cunning of +Pascherette. And a growing tumult beyond the trees warned her of greater +stress at hand, she had no more time to spare in argument with Pearse. +She waved him back, and with fire in her eyes commanded Stumpy to take +his men to one side. + +"Stand there! Thy rascals will not dare to flout me!" + +"We don't want to, lady," growled Stumpy, sullenly. He motioned his men +to follow, and took up a position at the right of the altar. But he +glared fearlessly at Dolores as he went, and added: "Ye have none more +faithful than Stumpy, if thy heart is still with us and for us. But +things begin to look plaguey rough, Dolores, since ye spared the white +schooner and her owner." + +Swiftly Dolores stepped down and glided to Stumpy's side, his men +drawing back involuntarily, not in sufficient numbers to be able to +cast off their old awe of her. + +"Thy ear, good Stumpy," she whispered. "Art for thy fellow pirates, or +for me? Speak quickly." + +"I'm for you, lady," he replied, shifting awkwardly on his mutilated +foot. "For you, but not if what we heard is true." + +"I tell thee it was false. Now art for me?" She bent upon him a smile of +dazzling beauty, soft-eyed and almost tender, and the pirate's face grew +ashamed; he knelt at her feet in humble obeisance, and the girl laid her +hand on his head, and bade him rise. + +"Then remain faithful, Stumpy, and thou and thy men shall share in my +fortunes. Look well to the stranger there. Keep him with thee. I hear +the vultures coming." + +She returned to the altar, took her place behind the swirling smoke, and +stood motionless, awaiting the arrival of the crowd whose noisy progress +could be traced step by step. And presently they broke into the grove, +unawed and uproarious, Caliban leading. Still the parties kept apart. +Hanglip and Spotted Dog ranged themselves on either side of Caliban's +gang, and every eye glared redly at the statuesque figure at the altar. + +"Answer! Give us yer answer!" cried Caliban. + +"Hear, my people!" Dolores cried, raising her arms for silence. "My +answer is this. Among ye is a traitor. That traitor has spread lies +among ye. Ye are my people, and none other. Did I not save the white +ship for ye? What if I preserved her people. They are here, and here +they shall remain. Had I thought to desert ye, could I not have gone in +the night? Who should say no? Am I not queen of ye all? Then why this +childish talk of leaving ye?" + +Dolores was carefully fighting for time; she wished to dissect the +feeling of the crowd before her, and while she spoke her irrelevant +nothings, her keen eyes roved over every face. And Spotted Dog drew and +held her gaze as no other did; his face was awork with savage unbelief, +his loose lips wreathed and curled in his impatience to speak. At last +his fury could not be longer restrained; he sprang to the front, and +howled: + +"Lies, all lies! Thy chit of a maid--" + +The words were choked in his throat with terrible suddenness. Like +something unearthly, reaching from the unknown, the hand of death +gripped Spotted Dog and he stumbled and fell forward, gnashing his teeth +and clawing futilely at his breast. Dolores did not move. Her expression +did not change. Milo had again proved faithful. + +But others of Spotted Dog's band, the greatest malcontents, stood +forward and peered down at their fallen leader; then with a shout of +rage they leaped up, faced the altar, and urged their fellows on. + +"More infernal witchcraft!" they cried. "Tear the black witch and her +altar down!" + +A moment of frightful silence followed, for the speakers felt the same +mysterious hand that had reached for and grasped their leader. One by +one they dropped in their tracks, smitten none knew how or whence; and +even Pearse, with Stumpy's band, shivered at the terrible uncanniness of +it. Then Caliban shook off his terror, sensed human agency in the silent +death, and looked around for the hand that sped it. As he glared, a dart +entered his own breast; but this one, ill-sped, failed in its mission. +The pirate staggered, his eyes widened, then he seized the protruding +dart. For an instant he hesitated; then taking the direction indicated +by the slanting missile, he flung an arm toward Stumpy's crew and +howled: + +"There's the dog! There's the sudden death! Tear 'em up, bullies! Pull +Stumpy down!" + +In an instant the grove seethed with a terrific conflict, in which +Stumpy's party was set upon by three times the number. And John Pearse +was carried into the thick of the fight; unwilling or not, his skilled +rapier began to take toll of the roaring furies about him. And while the +battle raged, and Dolores stood calmly looking on, one of the pirates +whose duties had kept him at the anchorage of the schooner appeared with +a rush upon the scene and shouted: + +"Lads, ye're being fooled! The slaves are even now taking the treasure +down to the schooner!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +WHILE VICTORY HANGS IN THE BALANCE. + + +The cry rang through the Grove like a trumpet call, and the fight was +stayed instantly. Every eye flashed upon the bringer of the news, and +behind him stood Pascherette, partly hidden by the trees, her small, +eager face peering from behind a trunk. And as she took in the scene, a +great terror stole into her eyes and her lips opened in a gasp. + +The octoroon had played her great coup. She had carried a lie to the +pirate, hoping that his telling of the treasure to his fellows would +precipitate such an assault upon Dolores that nothing could survive it. +Now she saw the attack already launched without her connivance; she saw +the pirate, dead, and saw Stumpy and one of the strangers stoutly +defending the queen. + +As she stared, at a loss, Caliban staggered out in front again, +clutching at his wound, and screamed: + +"Satan seize ye if that witch escapes ye now! Tear her down! Tear her +down! Then none can keep the treasure from ye." + +His last word ended in a sob. From the hidden giant another dart was +sped truer, and Caliban pitched headlong on the steps of the altar. And +Pascherette, terrified now that they would leave their work incomplete, +swarm after the false treasure report, and thus leave her at the mercy +of the enraged Dolores, frantically sought for Milo among the press. She +knew nothing of his secret duty with the blow-pipe: seeing nothing of +him among the defenders, she surmised he was inside on other duty bent. +In desperation she placed all upon a single hazard, and, running out +into the Grove she screamed: + +"The man lies! It is a lie, to make ye forego thy vengeance. There is no +treasure taken away. Make thy work complete!" + +A medley of conflicting cries arose as the pirates again separated into +three parties. Hanglip's crew, with those of the fallen Caliban, +detached themselves from the rest and from two sides threatened the +altar, where Dolores stood like a statue, glaring at her maid with +deadly fury. Hanglip himself seemed irresolute in the face of the maid's +denial; he stood with cutlas raised, not yet sure whether to attack or +first see to the treasure story. The decision was made for him; for the +pirate bringing the news, seized Pascherette in a fierce grip, and with +knife at her breast shouted: + +"This little snake told me the loot was going, lads! Get the job over, +as I do this!" + +Pascherette squirmed in the pirate's grasp, but all her cunning now +could not avail her. The knife flashed downward, and she fell to her +knees, her tiny golden hands pressed to her side, blood trickling +through her fingers. And her face froze in a mask of horror when from +behind Dolores stepped Milo, armed with a great broad-ax, and bent his +deep black eyes full upon her with terrible accusation in them. + +The giant saw the coming storm, and knew the futility of trying to stem +it with his blow-pipe. He emerged, armed with his ax, at the moment when +the pirates, answering their mate's cry with a shout, surged up the +altar steps with blood in their eyes. + +Dolores now shook off her seeming unconcern, and with alert vision took +in the tremendous crisis. Stumpy's band, with Pearse at their leader's +side, had been driven back in the first attack to the rock itself; and +now stood with their backs to it grimly waiting for the second onset. +They had fought hitherto for her; she saw to it that they did not change +their allegiance. Leaping up to the ledge behind the altar, she cried: + +"Stumpy! Thou'rt my man. Bring thy fellows up here; one man may hold a +score here. Milo! Make way for my faithful ones!" + +With Stumpy on the ledge, and his score of men, the battle became dead +for the moment. Few of the pirates had firearms, except on forays, and +then their ammunition was doled out to them. By this means they had ever +been kept in subjection; and now the plan was to prove their undoing; +for they could not reach their prey, whose cutlas points presented an +insurmountable barrier to their storming the rock. And with John Pearse +up there among the defenders, Tomlin and Venner found themselves +wondering just what their own position was. They, unblinded by the rage +of the pirates, saw the futility of storming that rocky wall with steel, +and in the momentary hush and indecision they withdrew from the mob and +stood apart, thinking over what was to come. + +To Dolores, the hesitation of her foes was something she could not +brook, for her great hope now was to set her rascals at each other's +throats to their ultimate annihilation. She whispered into Milo's ear. + +"Get thy blow-pipe again. Send a dart into Hanglip's black throat, and +let every man see how 'tis done." + +The giant obeyed. The slender, six-inch dart sped fair to its mark, and +Hanglip dropped. But as he fell his eyes saw, as did his men, whence had +come the mysterious death that had already taken heavy toll among them. +And Dolores saw her plan work to amazing effect; for Hanglip, with his +last wheezing breath, raised himself on his elbow, and barked: + +"Now ye see the magic! 'Tis but a man's breath. Up, lads, and take pay +for me!" + +The assault started in grim, silent fury. In waves the attackers mounted +the altar; men gave comrades backs, flung them upward, only to catch +them again as they recoiled from the steel of the defense like broken +seas at a rock base. + +But as the fight advanced, and stricken men were piled high on the great +altar, attacking steel reached higher and began to reap results. +Stumpy's men, now fully persuaded of their queen's regard for them, +fought like paladins, roaring out their rough sea-cries as they cut and +stabbed with increasing gusto. Even Pearse fell under the spell of +fierce action; his rapier played among the heavier strokes of cutlas and +broad-knife like summer lightning. And did a hardy pirate gain the ledge +in spite of all, there stood Milo, like a bronze Fate, with deadly ax +poised to turn success into death. Yet Stumpy's little band grew less; +and Dolores, standing over all like an Angel of Doom, saw that something +must be done speedily unless she was to be left with too great a number +of survivors from this lucky conflict. + +"Make a swift assault, Stumpy. Milo, swing that great ax of thine for +only five minutes," she said. Then when the fight raged higher yet, she +drew Pearse by the arm into the secret entrance. + +"Here, friend, are muskets and pistols. Load them while I pass them out. +We shall see how hungry for our blood these wolves are." + +She showed him the store of arms, in a small cave next to the powder +store, and musket powder and bullets were also there. As he loaded the +weapons, she passed them out in armfuls, then gave Stumpy a flask of +powder for priming, and told him to hold out until Milo could bring up +other resources as yet unknown. + +"And," she said, leading Stumpy inside for a moment, "here you see a +powder-train. There, on the floor. Now hear me, my faithful one, should +thy foes still beat thee back, bring all thy men along this passage, but +before ye come, touch a fire to this train. I shall await thee at the +end, Stumpy, and together we shall see these dogs destroyed." + +She called Milo, gave him a command, and then took Pearse with her into +the great chamber. Here she answered his questioning glance with a soft +smile, and seated him in the great chair. + +"Thy sword has done nobly, good John," she said, laying her hand on his +head. "The peril is over now. Rest. In a little while Milo will have +that which will fill these hungry dogs to the gullet. Rest here. I'll +soon be with thee." She leaned down, laid her lips lightly on his face, +and whispered: "And be of good cheer; the end is in sight for thee and +me." + +She left him sitting there, wrapped in his confused thoughts. Then she +flew to help Milo with his new engine of war which was to decide the +day. From a corner of the apartment the giant dragged a brass culverin, +mounted on a swivel, stolen from the poop-rail of some tall Indiaman in +years gone by. This was charged with powder, and Milo searched for +effective missiles for it. He brought a handful of musket balls to +Dolores; she shook her head decidedly after a moment's thought and +objected: "Those round pellets are too merciful for such cattle. What do +they want? Treasure! Give them treasure, good Milo--their fill of it." +As she spoke she ran swiftly into the treasure chamber and seized +handfuls of gold chains, while at her command Milo followed her with +great gold coins in his huge hands. These they rammed into the cannon, +until links of gold fell from the muzzle; then Dolores regarded the +terrible thing with a mirthless laugh and bade Milo get to work with it. + +"Bid thy men fall back into the gallery as if beaten," she said. "And +when the vile bodies of those howling wolves fill the opening, deliver +the treasure to them, and may their souls be shattered with their +bodies! And that none may remain to repeat this day's mischief, when +they break and fly loose, Stumpy and his dogs shall harry them and +pursue them into the depths of the forest. Let the maroons finish what +we so well begin. See thy gun does not harm the-- Wait," she cried, +"hold thy artillery until ye see me across the Grove! I shall give thee +a sign, then loose thy hell-blast." + +Leaving Milo, she ran again through the great chamber and out by the +rock door, which was rolled aside and standing open. Then around the +mass of the mountain and skirting the grove, past the prostrate +Pascherette she sped, casting a glance of bitter hate at the sorely +wounded octoroon, but never halting until she reached a point of the +underbrush immediately behind the spot where Venner and Tomlin still +ranged back and forth uneasily watching the fight. + +She rustled the foliage noisily, and the two men swung around in alarm. +She thrust her head through the leafy screen, and showed them her face +full of tender solicitude. Her great dark eyes were very soft; her +scarlet lips were parted in a rosy smile. Venner glared at her, then +flashed a glance of reawakening distrust at Tomlin, who returned it +tenfold. + +"Peace, good friends," she said, softly, laying a finger on her lips and +nodding toward the raging battle. "Come with me. Both of ye. The day +goes badly with me, and I would undo much that I have done toward ye. +Come quickly, and with caution." + +A momentary distrust for her made them hesitate; then she whispered +intensely: "Haste. This is your opportunity." + +Venner first shook off his moodiness and followed her into the brush; +and Tomlin was close behind him. When she had them in covert, she +stepped out once more, waited to catch Milo's eye at the ledge, then +gave him the sign. And the defenders fell back as if suddenly broken and +beaten. She waited still, until the attackers swarmed over their own +dead, stamping over her altar, and gained the entrance, where they +crowded in a milling, roaring mass. Then she glided back to the +underbrush and said tersely: + +"Come!" + +Venner and Tomlin walked on either side of her, not caring to meet each +other's eye, for their subjection to Dolores's spell was complete +whenever in close proximity to her. Hurriedly she led them around the +cliff to the great entrance, beyond which they had never stepped. And +they went full of tremendous hopes and suspicions, in which the hope +predominated; they failed even to cast a look at their schooner, then +lying free at anchor, with a few men visible on her decks. Three of the +pirates' long boats lay on the shore abreast of her. + +They stood in the entrance to the great chamber, sensing some of the awe +that filled the mysterious place, peering into the gloom where the ruby +lights now failed to cast their glow in the broader light of day +entering the open aperture. Dolores led them in with a gesture and a +smile, and they reached the massive plated sliding door and stood +beneath the yellow lantern, gazing in speechless wonder at the richness +of that barrier. And while they waited, mystified and uneasy, from +beyond the mountain came the crash of Milo's gun, and the tremendous +discharge reverberated through and through the rock, making the passage +where they stood rumble and quake as if the mountain were about to fall. + +Their faces went white, and Dolores gave them a reassuring clasp of the +hand while she pressed the side-post of the door and started the pulley +and weight mechanism that would give them entry. + +"Welcome, friends. Enter," she smiled, standing aside to permit them to +pass. And Rupert Vernier and Craik Tomlin, forgetting their gloomy +thoughts regarding each other, entered the great chamber, and were +brought to a sudden halt at the sight of John Pearse sitting at his ease +through the strife in the high chair of state. + + +TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month. + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +DOLORES DEMANDS A DECISION. + + +Milo let loose his infernal blast, and the smashing report was followed +by a hush as of death. Then through the blinding and choking powder-reek +came the groans and shrieks of the mutilated wretches whose evil fate +had placed them in the path of the horribly despatched treasure. The eye +could not penetrate the smoke that filled the narrow rock passage; +Stumpy and his men were blackened and smeared with smoke and sweat, +demoniacal to the ultimate degree; and these were the men Milo hurled +forth now to make the _débâcle_ complete. + +"Out upon them!" he cried, urging Stumpy to the ledge. "Leave not one of +these dogs alive, Stumpy, and thy fortune is made. Thy Sultana will +reward thee magnificently. Out with ye!" + +Stumpy hitched his poor clubfoot along in brave haste, and flourished +his cutlas in a hand that dripped red. For once in his stormy life the +crippled pirate felt something of the glow that pervaded the heart of +devoted Milo: for a moment he felt he was redeeming himself by enlisting +his undoubted courage in a worthy cause. + +"At 'em, lads!" he roared, leaping down through the smoke. "Dolores, +Dolores! Give 'em hell, bullies!" + +He stumbled and fell, his crippled foot playing him false. He sprang up +with a curse of pain, bit hard on his lip, and plunged into the huddled +remnants of the attackers, his roaring bullies at his heels. His +onslaught was the one thing needed to put terror into the hearts of the +survivors of Milo's blast. Coming through the leek like so many devils, +Stumpy and his crew put their foes to flight and followed eagerly, +hungrily; the forest rang and echoed with the clash of action and the +smashing of underbrush in panicky flight. + +Now Milo, his duty to his Sultana performed, thought of Pascherette. The +little octoroon lay where she had fallen, a pitiful little huddled heap; +never once had her pain-dulled eyes left the giant, or the place where +he might appear. And now she saw him coming toward her, not as a +ministering angel, but like a figure of wrath, swinging his great +broad-ax in one hand as easily as another man might swing a cutlas. She +shivered as he stood over her, accusing. + +"Milo!" she panted, gazing up at his magnificent height in plaintive +supplication. + +"Serpent!" he replied, and the utter contempt in his voice went to her +heart like a sword-thrust. "Hast a God to pray to before I send thy +false soul adrift?" + +"I have but one God, Milo; to Him I should not pray." + +She fixed her burning gaze upon him, and in her pained eyes blazed all +the tremendous love that actuated her small being. + +"A God thou canst not pray to, traitor? Art afraid, then?" + +"Not afraid, Milo," she whispered, and her eyelids drooped. "I cannot +pray to one who looks down upon me as thou dost." + +"I?" The giant's expression changed to frowning displeasure rather than +anger. "I?" he repeated. + +"Thee, my heart. Thou'rt my god, my all. For thee I have done this +thing. For thee, who even now canst not see where lies the falsity. +Milo"--her weak voice sank to a low murmur--"I beg thy forgiveness. My +love for thee caused me to sin. My life is to pay the supreme price. Let +me die at least in thy forgiveness." + +"Forgive? Forgive thee, who worked for the destruction of the being I +worship? Rather shall I speed thy soul!" + +Pascherette struggled to a kneeling position, crossed her tiny hands on +her panting breast, and looked full into his eyes as a wounded hart +looks at the hunter. Her lip quivered, her small, gold-tinted face, once +so piquant and full of allure, had taken on a gray hue from her pain, +but there was no hiding the great, overwhelming love for the giant that +gleamed in her eyes. + +"Milo," she said, and the word was a caress, "Milo, if thou must, strike +swiftly. Yet again I ask, forgive." + +The giant slowly lowered his great ax, and his honest heart answered the +pitiful plea. His deep chest swelled and throbbed; into his face crept +the look that had been there on that day when he told Pascherette he +loved her--loved her, yet worshiped Dolores as his gods. Letting the ax +fall to his elbow by the thong at the haft, he stooped and tenderly +picked up the girl, carrying her as a child carries a doll; yet his face +was averted from Pascherette's passionate lips that sought to kiss him. + +"Not yet can I forgive thee," he said. "Be content that I shall not kill +thee, girl. Perhaps, if thy acts have failed in their end, I may forgive +thee; not yet." + +He carried her around to the great rock, and through the passage into +the great chamber, bursting in upon a situation of growing intensity. +Dolores sat on a corner of the table, with all her seductive lures in +her beautiful face, smiling invitingly at Rupert Venner. Craik Tomlin +glared at both, yet his gaze seemed hard to restrain from wandering +around the gorgeous chamber, whose wealth he saw now for the first time. +Venner, too, had been seized by the jewel-hunger, although neither he, +nor Tomlin, guessed at the immensely greater wealth that had been +revealed to Pearse. As for Pearse, he sat glowering in his chair, +nervous and smoldering; ready at a hint to draw steel without caring +what the object. He simply saw rivalry where fifteen minutes before he +had thought his own course clear. + +Milo appeared to them; carrying his sobbing burden, and the interruption +brought a blaze of fury to Dolores's face. She went pale, and her hands +clenched and opened nervously. + +"Well, slave?" she cried, and Milo started. Never had she used that tone +to him. + +"Sultana, I thought thou wert alone," he replied, haltingly. "I have +brought Pascherette to thee for forgiveness." + +"I forgive? Pish! What care I for thy chit? Take her where ye will, and +trouble me not with such trash. Out, now! Let me not see her face again, +and I care not what ye do with her. But haste. I have work for thee and +a score of slaves. Bring them here quickly!" + +Silently Milo bore Pascherette to the small room beyond the great +chamber, which had been her resting-place while not in attendance on +Dolores. And there, still shaking his head to her plea, though with +deepening trouble in his eyes, he left her, crying herself into a fitful +slumber. + +Then with slaves dragged from the corners where they had cowered during +the fight, he entered the great chamber, and at Dolores's command set +them to carrying out the closed treasure-chests that stood in their old +places around the walls. + +And the sight of the great chests actually going out brought fiery +jealousy back to the eyes of the three yachtsmen. Now Dolores +half-closed her own inscrutable eyes, and watched them, catlike, +cunning. Pearse sprang from the great chair and began pacing the floor +in a heat. Venner alone seemed to retain any vestige of control over +his feelings; and he rapidly lost his color and began to peer about him. + +One chest went out, and the cries of the slaves could be heard as they +lowered it over the cliff. They returned for another, and now Dolores +leaped to her feet and followed them, flinging over her shoulder a smile +of invitation. Pearse answered instantly; the others paused. Then she +laughed like a siren and held out her hands to the hesitant ones, and +said softly and pleasantly: + +"Have no fears, timid ones. Thy minds are indeed hard to fathom. I but +want to show thee how I am repaying thee for thy sufferings here. Come." + +They followed her, and together they entered the rocky tunnel. At the +end of it the yellow sunlight blazed like a fire, in the circular +aperture was framed a picture of wonderful beauty. The blue sky, flecked +with fleecy cloudlets, filled the upper half of the circle; then the +sparkling sea of deeper blue lifted its dazzling whitecaps to the kiss +of the trades and formed a gem-like background for the brazen sands, the +glowing green-and-purple of the Point, and the dainty ivory-and-gold of +the white schooner. + +It was all mellowed and diminished as seen through a glass at great +distance; and on the shore the men toiling to load a great +treasure-chest into a long-boat looked like tiny manikins posed about a +delicate model of marine life. The second chest yet stood on the +cliff-edge, slaves about it lashing double slings and tackles that led +from a boulder for lowering it down. + +Dolores stepped back, permitting the three men to take in the view +without restriction. And she watched them again, her face enigmatic if +they glanced at her, breaking into an expression of nearing triumph when +they looked away, and left her free to scrutinize them. She saw John +Pearse step a pace behind the others, and his fingers clutched absently +at his rapier-hilt while the veins on his neck stood out and throbbed +like live things. + +"One more chest, perhaps two, and I shall see who will be my man!" she +whispered to herself. + +Then she left them without a word, and returned to the great chamber, +where she snatched up an immense rope of pearls and resumed her seat on +the edge of the table. There she sat, giving them no glance, when the +three men came back, hastily, uneasily, one behind the other, with +Tomlin bringing up the rear, scowling at Venner's back malevolently. + +Idly now Dolores rolled her pearls on the table, and one by one she +crushed them with her dagger-hilt--crushed in one moment the wealth of +many a petty princeling, and still crushed gem after gem without so much +as a flicker of interest on her cool face. The three men glared at her, +and at each other, and the stress they were under could be felt like an +impending electric storm. Tomlin's teeth gritted together harshly, his +lips were dripping saliva, and he could stand it no longer. He stepped +suddenly before Dolores, seized her hands, and cried: + +"Woman, you are mad! Do you know what those things are? They are pearls, +woman, pearls! Stop this crazy destruction, and in God's name let us go +before you madden us." + +Dolores turned her cool gaze upon him, drew her hand away easily yet +without apparent effort, and crushed another pearl between her gleaming +teeth. + +"Pearls?" she repeated, tossing away the shattered gem. "Pearls, yes, +friend. What of it? Do ye value these trifles, then? Pish! I have such +things as these, aye, one for every hair on thy hot head. But let ye +go--ha! That is in thy hands, my friend, thine and thy companions." + +"Yes, we know your price!" gasped Venner hoarsely, staring full into her +eyes. "But what is to prevent us now, when we have you alone, and that +great giant is away, from binding you fast and sailing away with the +treasure you have already put in my vessel?" + +"What can prevent?" she echoed, simulating surprise that such a question +should occur to any one. "Nothing shall prevent, my friend, if any of ye +think to try it. Have I not said my treasure is for the man who wins it. +Am I not waiting for the man able to take it, that I may go with him, +too? Here--" She suddenly flung down the pearls at Tomlin's feet, +glided close to Venner, and thrust her red lips up to him, her violet +eyes like brimming pools behind her drooping lashes. "Here, tie me, my +Rupert. Here are my hands; there my feet. Bind me well, and go if thou +canst. What, wilt thou not? There, I knew thee better than thou knowest +thyself." + +She stepped back with a low laugh, and her arm brushed his cheek, +sending the hot blood surging to his temples. John Pearse crouched +toward Venner, as if waiting for him to lay a finger on Dolores at his +peril. She smiled at all three, and stepped over to the side of the +chamber, where she carelessly pointed out sacred vessels and altar +furnishings, gems of art and jewel-crusted lamps. + +"Here, also, is a reason why ye will not go, my friends. Your eyes, +accustomed to these things in the great world outside, dare not ignore +their worth. And I tell ye that all the treasure now going to the vessel +could not purchase the thousandth part of my real treasure, which I will +not show, until I know my man." She glanced at Pearse as she spoke, and +saw rising greed in his eyes. He had seen the real treasure; he was ripe +for her hand. Milo and his slaves returned for another chest, and +Dolores waited until they had gone; then she glided swiftly toward the +passage, and turned at the door. + +"I shall return in fifteen minutes, gentlemen," she said. "Then my man +must be ready, or I will drop the great rock at the entrance, and leave +ye all three caged here until ye die. For go I will, mated or mateless, +with all my treasure, ere the sun sinks into the western sea." And as +she left them she flashed a look of appeal at John Pearse. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +THE SLUMBERING SAVAGE. + + +Pearse followed her with his eyes until she vanished into the passage; +then with muttering lips and harshly working features he strode down the +chamber to the great tapestry behind which lay the powder store. The +suspicion had come to him that Dolores was fooling them all regarding +her real treasure; for he believed she had shown him everything, and if +those heavy chests contained but a tithe of the whole, life was certain +that the gems around the walls were not what she meant when she said she +had still a thousand times greater riches than the chests contained. + +He tore aside the tapestry, and tried to see through the gloom of the +cavern. His eyes could not pierce the blackness, and he looked around +for a light, while Venner and Tomlin walked toward him with sudden +interest in their faces. Over the tall Hele clock a lantern hung; a +gaudy thing of beaten gold, in which an oil wick burned, gleaming out in +multicolored light through openings glazed with turquoise and sapphire, +ruby, and emerald. He took this down, and impatiently tore away the side +of it to secure a stronger light. Again he went to the powder store, and +now Venner and Tomlin were at his back, peering over his shoulder or +under his arms in curiosity as to his quest. + +And, sensing their presence, he swung around upon them savagely, +muffling the cry that answered the message of his eyes. Flinging the +lantern down, he trampled it out, and with snarling teeth he faced them, +his rapier flickering from the sheath like a dart of lightning. + +"Back!" he barked, and advanced one foot, falling into a guard. "This is +no concern of yours, Venner, nor yours, Tomlin. Back, I say!" + +Tomlin stared into his furious face and laughed greedily. His keen eyes +had seen a vague, shadowy something in the cavern, that filled him with +the same passion which consumed Pearse. + +"So you are the lucky one, eh, Pearse?" he chuckled, and his hand went +to his own rapier. He stepped back a pace, and, never taking his eyes +from Pearse, cried: "Venner, it's you and me against the devil and +Pearse! A pretty plot to fool us, indeed; but Pearse was too eager. Peep +into that hole, man, and see!" + +Venner glared from one to the other, not yet inflamed as they were. But +what he saw in their faces convinced him that great stakes were up to +be played for, and he edged forward bent upon seeing for himself. + +"Back!" screamed Pearse, presenting his rapier at Venner's breast. +Venner persisted, and the steel pricked him. Then, as Tomlin's weapon +rasped out, Venner's blood leaped to fighting-heat with his slight +wound, and in the next instant the three-sided duel was hotly in +progress. + +Three-sided it became after the first exchanges. For Pearse, the most +skilled in fence, applied himself to Venner as his most dangerous foe, +and with the cunning of the serpent Craik Tomlin saw and seized his own +opportunity. Let Pearse and Venner kill each other, or let that end be +accomplished with his outside help, and there was the solution that +Dolores had demanded them to work out; one of them left, to be master of +the wealth of Croesus; to be the mate of a magnificent creature, who +could be goddess or she-devil at will. + +With a satanic chuckle Tomlin drew back, leaving his friends to fight +themselves weary, his own rapier ever presented toward them, urging them +on with lashing tongue. And Venner flashed a look at him as Cæsar did at +Brutus, and suffered for his lapse in vigilance. For with the pounce of +a leopard Pearse was upon him, and his rapier grated over Venner's guard +and darted straight at his throat. But Venner's time had not come yet; +Tomlin flashed his own weapon in and parried the stroke for him, backing +away again with a murderous snarl. + +"Not yet, my friends!" he cried. "You're too strong yet, Pearse. At him, +Venner; let me see you draw blood as he has, that I may see my own way +clearer." + +From the other end of the great chamber Dolores watched the conflict +from the concealment of the velvet hangings over the door; and her hands +were clasped in ecstasy, her lips parted to the swift breathing that +agitated her breast; in her blazing eyes her wicked soul lurked, sending +out its evil aura to envelop the combatants and instil deeper hatred +into them. + +The fight raged back and forth around the powder store; once a sudden +onslaught by Pearse forced Venner back to the great chair; Tomlin's +swift rush to keep close brought all three into a tumbled crash at the +dais, and the chair was overturned in a heap of flying draperies that +entangled their feet. And while Pearse and Venner struggled vainly to +maintain their footing, Tomlin began to accomplish his own dire ends. +Crouching, with his dark face full of evil passions, he drove his point +first at one, then at the other, stabbing through the involved silk and +skins. + +In his furious haste to complete his murderous work, he sprang forward +carelessly, his foot became entangled, and he pitched face downward upon +his victims. Now Pearse seized the opening; but when he arose, +stumblingly, there was a different expression on his face, a +horror-stricken realization of Tomlin's treachery. Venner lay, still +unable to disentangle himself, but slightly hurt, and he, too, regarded +Tomlin with a look of sorrow and reawakening sanity. + +"Up, murderer, and fight!" rasped Pearse, stepping astride Venner and +glaring down at Tomlin. "Venner, draw aside. Let me punish this +scoundrel we have called friend; then meet me if you wish." + +Tomlin looked up with a snarl of baffled rage, expecting swift reprisal +for his treacherous attempt. Gone was the last vestige of civilization +from his face; greed of gold, jewel-hunger, blood-lust, all played about +his reddened eyes and cruel, down-drawn mouth. The primitive came +through the veneer of culture and showed him the man he really was. And +evil though his spirit had proved, in this final test his courage showed +up like that of the tiger. He leaned on one elbow, watching Pearse like +a cat, then slowly knelt and stood, keeping his point down. With the +bestial cunning that had overwhelmed him, he circled away from the +trappings and draperies of the chair that had brought him down, and +responded to Pearse's chivalrous waiting with a sneer. + +"You had better have made sure while you had the chance, Pearse," he +grinned, showing his teeth wolfishly. "Venner can wait. There is no +treasure for three; Dolores is mine! Guard!" + +With the word Tomlin made a savage attack without waiting for Pearse to +fall into guard. And Dolores came from her concealment, advanced +half-way down the chamber, and watched with a new intensity that was +not apparent while Venner was in the fight. + +Pearse avoided his opponent's thrust at the expense of a pierced left +hand, which caught the other's point a hand-breadth from his breast. +Then the duel dropped to equality. Swift and silent they fought, silent +save for the rasp and screech of steel on steel, their feet padding +noiselessly on the deep-piled carpet. Venner drew aside and watched, his +eyes losing their hard glare, and some of his old expression returned to +his face. It was as if his resurging emotions were bringing back to him +the shame and remorse of a gentleman inveigled into performing a +despicable action. He, too, saw Dolores approaching; saw the tensity of +her expression; sensed some of the tremendous hopes that actuated her, +now that she saw the rapid culmination of all her plots and seductions. + +She stood quite near to him now, leaning forward in an attitude of utter +anxiety. She saw nothing of Venner; her great, violet eyes were dusky +and full of yearning, her hands clutched at her breast. And all the +intensity of her gaze was fixed upon Tomlin. She responded to his +momentary success when he drove Pearse back with a savage assault, with +a panting little cry of joy; she fell back with widened eyes when a +counter-attack forced Tomlin almost upon her. And her lips opened in a +gasp when a vicious clash of steel told of a pressed onslaught, and +Pearse lunged heavily forward. + +In the instant when Pearse followed his first plunge, Dolores stood in +uncertainty through which dawned jubilation. Then her face went white, +she seemed to lose all her splendid vitality; for her astounded eyes +fastened upon Pearse's rapier-point, protruding a foot from Tomlin's +back, and slowly the stricken man sagged away and fell at her feet, +clutching at the steel at his breast and snarling like a beast. + +A hush fell over the great chamber. Then from a distance came the sound +of voices, voices of men down at the shore, ringing clear and sharp on +the still air, accentuating the deathly hush that clung around the +actors in the scene like a heavy mantle. It startled Dolores into +renewed life. She ran with feverish eagerness toward Tomlin, hurling +aside the others, and crouching upon the body in dry-eyed rage. + +Venner sought to catch the eye of the victor, and saw in Pearse a +reflection of the feelings that had possessed himself. John Pearse +showed every sign of horror and awakened sanity that had marked his own +expression before the fatal fight had started. Their eyes met, and there +was no challenge in them. Both dropped their gaze involuntarily upon the +huddled figures at their feet; and it was Pearse, the man who had +precipitated the conflict at first, who nodded with his head a silent +invitation to withdraw. Venner stepped after him, softly and with bowed +shoulders, shuddering violently as he passed the expiring Tomlin. + +They reached the door together, and with the rocky tunnel open before +them, once more holding up to their eyes the picture of absolute beauty +of sea and sky and shore, they filled their lungs with fresh, wholesome +air, and shook off the last of the evil spell that had held them. + +"In God's name, Pearse, let us fly from this hellish place!" whispered +Venner, dropping his rapier to the rocky floor with a clatter, and +thrusting his hand out in reconciliation. + +"Yes, Venner, and pray Heaven we may forget!" replied Pearse fervently. +"But how shall we get away? The giant and his crew are yet at the +schooner." + +"We must wait. They will return soon for more booty. Then we must seize +the chance. Is that somebody coming now?" + +Milo's great shoulders reared above the cliff, and behind him came the +slaves. They came directly toward the great rock, and Pearse flattened +himself against the wall in the shadow of the portals, pressing Venner +back also with a hand across his chest. + +"Hush! Hide here. Let them enter, and we'll make one leap for the +shore." + +The giant swung into the passage, his black eyes blazing with some +emotion that the hidden pair could not fathom. It was something on the +border of fear, but of what? Fear and Milo was a combination hard of +reconciliation. The slaves at his heels followed dumbly, slaves in +thought and action; if their dulled brains ever awoke, it was but to +the call of animal appetites; they were incapable of devotion such as +Milo's, and as incapable of shock should their obedience fail reward. +They passed into the great chamber, and a throaty cry of alarm burst +from the giant at the sight of his Sultana prone on the floor. + +"Now!" whispered Pearse, taking the lead. "Swift and silent!" + +Like ghosts they ran from the tunnel, glanced around once as they +reached the cliff path, then leaped down the declivity. That swift +glance showed them the camp deserted except for the wondering women, who +wandered idly among the empty huts, ever looking toward the forest +wherein had vanished all their men, waiting with bovine patience for any +one to settle their uncertainty for them. + +And the forest was yet very still. The Feu Follette lay at a single +anchor, heading in the light breeze fair to seaward; a few heads showed +above her rail, and the stops had been cast off from her snowy sails. At +her gangway a single boat lay, the painter made fast on deck; on the +foreshore the other two long-boats were drawn up on the sand, planks +running up to their sides in readiness for the embarkation of yet more +treasure. + +Venner and Pearse raced down the steep path, using little precaution, +sending showers of stones and clods flying before them. And Peters, the +schooner's sailing-master, saw them coming, and his voice rang out +calling for hands to man the boat. Two men answered and entered the boat +as the two fugitives reached the shore and ran along the Point. Pearse +counted the minutes at their disposal, and saw the futility of waiting +for that boat. He clutched eagerly at Venner's arm, and panted in his +ear: + +"Tell them to hold on! Let them get the schooner ready for swift +departure. Come, we must swim for it." + +Venner hesitated but a second. Then his hail went hurtling over the +still haven, and the two seamen scrambled out of the boat again. + +"Swim it is, Pearse," he said, leading the way down to deep water. "Swim +it is, and may the ever-cleansing sea wash out of us the last traces of +insanity." + +Together they plunged into the blue sea and swam swiftly out to the +schooner. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +THE FLIGHT OF THE FEU FOLLETTE. + + +Dolores, flinging herself down upon Craik Tomlin, seized his face +between her hands and raised his head, placing her knee beneath it. She +panted like an exhausted doe, yet the fire that leaped from her eyes +gave the lie to her attitude of sorrowing humility. Her lips moved +feverishly, but she could not or would not speak aloud. Tomlin's eyes +were closed in agony, his teeth were clenched tightly upon his under +lip; he gave no sign that he knew of her presence. And a sudden fury +seized her at his irresponsiveness. She shook his head between her hands +savagely. + +"Wake! Speak!" she cried hoarsely. "Art indeed dead, at the moment of my +triumph?" + +Tomlin's eyelids flickered, and his lips strove to speak. One hand went +weakly to his face, to grasp her fingers. And into her anxious ear he +managed to whisper: + +"Evil luck fought with me, Dolores. Yet I die content if you care." + +"Care!" she echoed, shaking his fingers loose impatiently. "Care? Yes, +this I care, bungler: I care because of all three of thee, thou alone +wert covetous enough to obey my conditions. With thee alive, there was +hope of thy friends' speedy death. With thee dead, which of the others +will wipe his fellow from his path for me? Why, think ye, did I fawn on +John Pearse? But to arouse in thee the demon of jealousy; why did I +smile on Venner, and call him my Rupert? To steel thy arm against him. +And for what?" + +She suddenly laid his head down on the floor, leaned over him with her +lips almost brushing his cheek, and whispered fiercely: "Speak! Canst +live?" + +Tomlin's face lost some of its pain. The thin lips straightened into the +semblance of a faint smile. His glazing eyes opened slightly. + +"I am done for," he whispered. "Dolores, kiss me again. I die for you." + +The beautiful fury sprang to her feet, spurning him. She glared down at +his chalky face in utter scorn. + +"Kiss thee? Thou die for me? Pah! I kiss no carrion. A half-hundred men +have died for me this day, I hope. I kiss him who lives for me and +conquers, not the weakling who dies!" + +Without deigning another glance at her victim, she turned away and went +to meet Milo. He now entered with his slaves. + +"Where are the two strangers?" she demanded harshly. + +Milo returned her stare with a look of simple surprise. He had seen +nothing of them, and had thought of them being yet with his mistress. + +"I saw them not, Sultana," he replied. + +"Saw them not, great clod!" she blazed at him, clenching her hands in +rage. "Are they here, then?" + +Milo looked around in bewilderment. In all her life Dolores had been his +especial care; in her many moments of temper she had perhaps pained his +devoted heart, but never had she used to him the tone she now used. It +seemed to his simple soul that the foundations of his faith were being +wrenched loose. + +"I will find them, Sultana," he said quietly, and turned to leave by the +tunnel. + +"Stay here, thou blind fool!" she commanded him. "I will find them +myself. Here is work more fitting for a slave. How many chests are going +to the ship?" + +"Three." + +"And how many have ye yet empty here?" + +"Three, lady." + +"Then get them quickly. Until I return, bid thy fellows replace the +treasure that is still in the powder store. And haste, for I will leave +this place this day, though all the fiends say no." + +She ran along the tunnel, and Milo set his men to their task. As he +passed along to the powder chamber, a low moan arrested him, and he +halted in sudden remorse for Pascherette, whom he now felt he had judged +harshly. He left his fellows and went to the tiny alcove where the +little octoroon lay, and his great heart leaped in response to the +worship that shone in her dark eyes. He saw the dry and cracked lips, +the flushed face, and fetched water and wine before he would speak to +her. Then, with her small head and slender shoulders against his immense +chest, he gave her drink, soothing her pain with soft speech and +caressing hand. + +Pascherette's wound was deep, and bleeding internally; a fever already +burned in the tiny maid's veins. She peered up at him wistfully, all of +her mischief, all her piquancy gone and replaced by a softened, humbled +expression that wrung Milo's heart-strings. + +"Will ye not kiss me now, Milo?" she whispered, with a pearly drop +brimming from each eye, where laughter had so lately dwelt. + +"Pascherette, thy fault was great," he answered, yet in his face was a +look so forgiving, so excusing, that the girl shivered expectantly and +closed her eyes with a happy sigh. + +Yet the kiss was not given. From the great chamber the angry voice of +Dolores rang out. + +"Milo! Where art thou, slave!" + +And the giant tenderly laid Pascherette down again, and ran in answer. + +"Sultana?" + +"Blind, idle dolt! While thou art fondling that serpent of thine, thy +mistress's affairs may go hang! Haste with the treasure, or feel my +anger. While thy useless eyes were mooning on nothing, the strangers +have escaped. They are even now getting sail on the white vessel. Carry +the chests down to the Point as soon as ye may. I will stay them yet, +and they shall learn the cost of flouting Dolores! Hasten, I tell ye!" + +Milo winced at her address; his black eyes, usually holding the utter +devotion of a noble dog, glittered with tiny sparks of resentment; yet +the habit of years could not be lightly cast off, and he bowed low, even +while Dolores had turned her back on him, and picked up a great empty +chest to carry it to the powder store. Here in the flickering light of a +pine splinter the slaves worked feverishly, their abject eyes sparkling +with borrowed radiance from the riches they handled. + +And while they worked, Dolores emerged from the tunnel, flashed one long +glance of derision at the moving schooner, and sped down the cliff to +stop her flight. + +The Feu Follette was poorly enough manned with Peters and his four men. +With the ready help of Venner and Pearse the getting of the anchor and +the hoisting of the heavy fore and main sails was an arduous job, but it +was accomplished under the tremendous urge of remembrance. None wished +to have the experiences of the past days repeated; Peters was anxious to +get his beautiful vessel into safer waters; the Feu Follette's owner and +his guest were doubly anxious to drop those blue hills of ominous memory +below the horizon forever. They gave scant attention to the three great +iron-bound chests that stood between the guns along the waist; getting +clear occupied every faculty. + +The tide setting directly on the Point, with a breeze dead in from +seaward, forced the schooner perilously close to the bar that had been +her undoing before; but, with the lead going, Peters speedily found that +his previous mishap must undoubtedly have been due to clever misleading. +After touching lightly once, and getting deeper water at the next cast +over the lee side, he understood the trick of the extended false Point +and stood boldly along shore. + +And as the schooner gathered steerage-way, hugging the Point closely, +Dolores ran out along the sandy beach and plunged into the sea abreast +the moving vessel. + +"Here's that vixen woman, sir!" cried Peters angrily, looking toward +Venner for instructions. Peters had the helm, and owner and guest stood +against the companion, ready to lend a hand at the sheets, forward or +aft. + +Venner and Pearse stared at the swimmer, then turned and gazed +searchingly at each other. In the face of each lingered a trace of the +subjection they had fallen under; neither could quite so quickly forget +the allurements of this woman. Her kisses had been as sweet as her fury +had been terrible; and the absence of Craik Tomlin was an additional +incentive to memory. + +"Shall we take her away?" asked Venner, avoiding Pearse's eye as he put +the question. + +"Can't you make more sail, Peters?" was Pearse's reply. + +Venner laughed softly, agreeably; and the next moment Dolores hailed +them. She swam swiftly, with effortless ease, slipping through the sea +like a sparkling nymph in her native element. But the schooner traveled +fast, and, though she lost no ground, she gained but slowly. She hailed +again. + +"Rupert, my Rupert!" and finished the cry with a rippling laugh. "Art +stealing my treasure and leaving me?" + +"By Heavens, Pearse, I had forgotten these chests," said Venner +uneasily. Pearse regarded him closely, fearing that Dolores's spell was +yet powerful. He gripped Venner tightly by the arm, leaned nearer, and +said: + +"Venner, so long as that blood-polluted treasure is on your deck, so +long will you be unable to settle your mind. Bid the hands pitch it into +the sea, for God's sake!" + +A lull in the wind slowed the schooner down, and Dolores gained a +fathom. Her fair face was set toward them in a bewitching smile, and she +waved a gleaming arm at them. Venner fought with himself in silence for +a brief while, then with a shudder stepped to the wheel. + +"Get the hands, Peters," he told the sailing-master, "and heave those +chests overboard. Quickly! You shall lose nothing by this, but don't +delay a moment!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +STUMPY FIRES THE MAGAZINE. + + +Milo and his slaves worked frenziedly at their task, his suddenly bitter +spirit flogging them to unremitting haste. In the giant's troubled face +the smoldering spark of resentment had grown to an incipient blaze that +required but a breath to burst into angry flame. + +One great chest was filled with the choicest of the gems in the powder +store; it was set aside in the entrance beside the tapestry, and another +box was opened before the powder-kegs. Little Pascherette had ceased +moaning, but from time to time a choking sob sounded from her alcove +that increased the hard brilliancy of the light in Milo's eyes. The +great chamber was silent as a mausoleum in the intervals between the +clashing and tinkling of gold and stones in the chest; from the outside, +by way of the rock tunnel, came only the sigh and murmur of the crooning +breeze, the softened plash of the tide on the shore, the scream of +wheeling seabirds. All sound of the schooner had departed; there was no +human note in the whole region. + +Then, as the second chest was almost full, and Milo pulled the third and +last along in readiness, from the secret gallery behind the Grove came +the shouts and oaths of men, weary, footsore men, but men with animal +appetites whetted by the day of bloody conflict. They could be heard at +the great door in the painting of the "Sleeping Venus"; not knowing its +secret their way was barred. But Stumpy's hoarse roar could be heard +calling them back to the ledge, and there was a note of menace in his +tired tones. And mingling with his voice was the voice of a woman of the +camp, raised in shrill complaint. Milo stepped to the picture and +listened. + +"I tell ye the fiend has tricked ye, Stumpy!" the woman cried. + +"Tricked me? Have a care how ye talk that way, woman!" Stumpy's voice +replied warningly. + +"Aye, tricked ye and me and all of us! Even now--come to the cliff, and +I'll show ye." + +The scrambling of heavy feet could be heard in the gallery as men rushed +out in answer. How many men Milo could not determine; but fewer than had +followed Stumpy into the forest in chase of their broken foes. The +slaves at the treasure-chests paused in their work, alarm on their +shining faces, looking ever toward Milo for instructions. + +Milo ran back through the great chamber and out by the tunnel to the +cliff, peering around for Stumpy and hoping to see the schooner putting +back. + +Without Dolores he was at a loss; yet he was not ready to leave his +charge to be gazed upon by untried eyes. His breast swelled nigh to +bursting at sight of the schooner. The Feu Follette was but half a mile +away in a straight line from the cliff; she had been tacking against a +light breeze and flood tide around the Point, and while she had sailed +several miles through the water, she had but just gained past the face +of the cliff. And far from returning, she sailed farther and farther +away as he watched, nursed with such skill of sheet and helm as proved +to Milo's seamanly eye that her people would never return of their free +will. And what of Dolores? His condor's vision picked her out as soon as +the schooner. Her gleaming arms and shoulders swept rhythmically over +and over, cleaving the sea easily and smoothly, her lustrous hair +streaming behind her, and the sun glinting brightly from the gold +circlet around her head. She was gaining foot by foot, and Milo keenly +scrutinized the schooner for signs of surrender. There were none. At the +schooner's rail three heads were visible; but Milo knew neither belonged +to Venner nor Pearse. That persuaded him that the schooner was unlikely +to come back. And the even, tireless manner in which Dolores swam +convinced him that she would follow to the end. Yet he would not utterly +believe she had deserted him. He glared around for the men whose voices +he heard now, raised in anger in chorus with the voices of the woman and +her companions. Stumpy stepped out from the grove path with but four men +behind him; and they were in sore plight. Stumpy himself dangled an idly +swinging sleeve that was stained dark-red to the shoulder. A red sear +across his nose and cheek rendered him a demoniacal figure through the +powder, smoke and sweat. And his mates were tattered and cut, their +shirts bore red splashes to a man; their grimed faces and fiery eyes +held the passions of blooded men who see their reward flying from them. + +"I tell ye she's gone for good!" cried the woman who had brought the +news to Stumpy. "See, she's almost there, and three chests of treasure +have gone in that vessel! Her swimming after it is but a part of her +cuteness. Now d'ye believe, fools!" + +The crippled, battle-scarred pirate glared to seaward with red-rimmed +eyes in which flames of revenge started into life. His twisted, warped +life had been spent in fighting and trickery; to-day his work had +culminated in a brave stand for what he thought to be straight and +right; reward he expected, but he had earned it with blood and sweat, +hoping at the last that some of his earlier transgressions might be +atoned for in his loyalty to his mistress. + +He hurled aside the persistent women, who sought some reassuring word +from him, and mouthing rather than speaking a call to his men to follow, +he plunged again into the grove path and stumbled toward the ledge +entrance. Here he clambered painfully to the gallery, cursing to himself +bitterly, never looking back to see if his men followed, intent only +upon one absorbing thing. Revenge was beyond him, since there were left +no subjects for his revenge. He had never seen the great stone at the +chamber portals left rolled aside; could not even now imagine such a +situation. No, if Dolores were gone in truth, and with her the strangers +and the treasure, then it was certain, he thought, that the great +chamber was sealed forever. And he would see into its mysteries, even +though they proved barren now. He knew the way; Dolores had shown him. + +Feverishly hunting for a flint, he tore some threads from his shirt and +frayed them into tow. Then with his cutlas he struck a spark and ignited +his threads, carefully nursing the tiny flame until he could find a dry +stick. This lasted him until a pine torch was found, and then he crawled +along the gallery in search of the powder train. That, he knew, for she +had told him, would burst the rock asunder anyhow; and that would be +enough, for he had guessed shrewdly that the gallery was connected with +the great chamber by some secret egress. + +And who knew? Might not Dolores have taken in her haste but part of her +vast store? Stumpy knew as well as Red Jabez the tremendous wealth that +had been deposited in that chamber of mysteries; for he had been with +the red chief from the beginning; he had seen with his own eyes the +riches of a hundred ships taken in there, and never a thing come out. + +"She can't have bagged the lot," he muttered, fanning his torch into a +red flare. "But she'll pay for deserting Stumpy, or Stumpy's a liar!" + +He found the powder train, and the moisture had dried from it, leaving +only a little line of dry, quick-igniting powder. He was not sure just +where the magazine was; not sure how long the train would burn before +the explosion. So down he clambered again, searching at the great altar +for the water-vessels he knew should be there. Then, with a jar of +water, he returned to his train, and swiftly swept up the dry powder and +moistened it a little, making a rough slow match of it. + +"Now we'll see the sights!" he growled, and went to the end of the +gallery and flung his torch into the train. + +He watched it for a moment, to be sure that it would burn, then stepped +down from the ledge and drew back a safe distance to watch the upheaval. +To what extent the mine was intended to destroy he had no idea. He +simply knew that Dolores had pointed it out to him as a means of defense +should the gallery be carried in the attack. He supposed, therefore, +that it would shatter the gallery. Doing that, it must surely dislodge +or loosen rock enough for him to break into the great chamber with aid. + +The thought recalled his men to his mind, and he saw for the first time +that they had not followed him. He started down the path toward the +camp, shouting to them by name, eager to give them an inkling of the +treat in store. But his hail was answered by another, and down the path +a woman appeared running, her hair flying, and tremendous excitement in +every line of her face. + +"Stumpy! Stumpy!" she sobbed and cried in hysterical intoxication. "Oh, +Stumpy, the great chamber is open, and it's full of gold and treasure!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +MILO CROSSES THE BAR. + + +Milo watched Stumpy disappear down the grove path, and heard him call to +his men to follow. Then he regarded the receding yacht intently for a +moment, and the last vestige of noble devotion went from his face and +gave place to a great and absorbing bitterness. In that instant, the +foundations, pillars, and capitals of his soul shook and tottered; his +universe changed from a thing of golden beauty and heavenly splendor to +a shameful mockery of truth and faith. + +In that moment his thoughts flew back to little Pascherette, and his +great heart yearned toward her. False she had proved, but to what? To +whom? He asked himself these things as he slowly walked back along the +tunnel, not yet knowing what he would do. He answered his own question. +Pascherette had proven false to falsity; she had schemed against the +schemer; and, in the other tray of the balance she had done these things +for love of him, out of a deep and all-powerful ambition to place him, +Milo the slave, in the high place of the wanton ingrate who had deserted +her people. And the thought hurt him now; he had not yet yielded her the +kiss she craved. Even now the little gold-tinted one might be cold in +death, denied that small consolation because of his obstinate heart. + +He ran along the tunnel and burst through the great chamber, cursing the +idle slaves into silence when they cried their helpless queries at him. +And straight to Pascherette he sped, to fling himself down by her side +and seize her tiny, moist hand in frantic appeal. + +"Pascherette!" he whispered with a dry sob. "Little golden one, speak to +thy Milo. Speak, and forgive!" + +The octoroon gave no sign of life, and the giant dropped her hand and +gently raised her pallid face. His lips sought hers in a passionate +kiss, long and yearning; and slowly her eyelids fluttered and opened. +The dark eyes were misty, yet that longed-for kiss had brought back her +fleeting spirit to recognize her man. She closed her tired eyes again, +with a little sign, and the small, pale lips formed the words: "I am +content, Milo, my god." + +The giant bowed his head over her silent face, and his black eyes +searched for a returning flicker of vitality. It was gone forever. +Pascherette was dead; and Milo laid her head down gently, and drew back +to stare at her with growing rebellion and horror. What gods could there +be to use him thus? He leaped to his feet with arms flung upward. + +"Hah, gods of earth and sea, witness Milo's penitence!" he said +hoarsely. "To Dolores I have given the worship that belonged to ye and +ye have taken terrible atonement. Pity me!" + +He paced the small alcove nervously, seeking light where no light was. +Then the harsh shouts of Stumpy's men resounded through the chamber, and +he stepped outside in alarm. For it was not yet possible for him to +discard the usage of years which forbade intrusion in that secret place. +He saw Stumpy's four men standing open-mouthed in the doorway beneath +the yellow lantern, gazing ludicrously at the magnificence of the +furnishings. The slaves at the powder store stood where he had left +them, idle and aimless, but with an open chest at their feet. This now +attracted the pirates' attention, and with a stamp and a shout they +roared through the great chamber, their faces awork with newly aroused +avarice. + +Just for one second Milo pondered staying them. But his soul had soured; +he uttered a grunt of scornful disgust, and waved a hand at them, +muttering: + +"Revel, ye dogs! Plunge thy hands deep. 'Tis all thine, and the fiend's +blessing go with it!" + +He returned to his dead Pascherette and knelt beside her, patting her +cold hands and speaking to her softly and tenderly. Out in the chamber +the pirates had hurled aside the slaves, and, flinging open the chests, +were glaring with wolfish eyes and dripping jaws at the bewildering mass +of treasure revealed. + +Their noise irritated Milo. He went out again to stop them. And he saw a +pirate snatch up a glittering tiara and place it on his head with a +roaring oath. He saw another snatch the bauble off; and in a breath the +pirates were at each other's throats; cutlases flashed and a savage +fight began at the moment the women stole in to see the mysterious +place, and one of their number ran to bring Stumpy. + +The giant glowered at the snarling men as at some repulsive beasts, +horrified that they should thus desecrate the quiet of his Pascherette's +death-bed. He was not the Milo of old now. His memory had flown back +through the years to the time when he was a youth of position and great +promise in his own land; when, instead of being the cast-off servant of +a beautiful ingrate, he numbered his own servants by hundreds. And a +great dignity stole into his ennobled face. He softly picked up the dead +girl, and advanced toward the rock tunnel. + +Stumpy met him at the door, and the crippled pirate's eyes burned with +the newborn lust of loot. Stumpy made as if to stay the giant with +questions; but he saw the snarling fight at the end of the chamber and +caught the glitter of jewels. With the stumbling speed of a charging, +wounded bull, he rushed in to join battle. + +Running women brushed against Milo in the passage; all the camp's living +people had caught the fever. The giant strode on, until he stood in the +rugged rock portals and gazed once more over the sea. The schooner had +moved but slightly since he last looked at her; he could see Dolores's +head still advancing, and very near to the vessel now. The breeze had +lulled, perhaps preceding a shift of wind; and the visible people on the +deck of the Feu Follette appeared to be running back and forth in +indecision. + +At Milo's right hand the great rock sat on its ledge, ready to fall at a +touch, and his brooding eyes flashed to it with terrible meaning. +Inside, the great chamber resounded with the clash of steel, the shouts +of furious human beasts, and the shrill cries of women urging them on; +for there must be victors, even to such a sordid fight, and to the +victors, spoils. Where victors and spoils are, there harpy women await +them. + +Milo gazed long and passionately into the face of his dead; then he laid +her softly down outside the rock and arose with a fierce light +irradiating his face. + +"Dogs, who would thus break the sleep of my beloved, I give ye good for +evil!" he muttered. "Treasure ye crave: treasure I give ye, and none may +take it from ye!" + +He turned, put his hand upon the great rock and started it from its bed. +And as he moved the mass, the mountain rocked and crashed with the +thunder of the bursting powder-magazine. + +Down came the great rock, pinning Milo beneath it, threatening in its +final fall to crush him and the body of his love. His great arms shot +out and up, every muscle on his colossal frame stood out like ropes, his +back cracked with the tremendous strain. He stiffened his knees, bit +into his lip until the blood gushed; and a groan burst from his breast +as he felt his stout knees stagger. + +His bulging eyes glared ahead over the sea; into the air flew a thousand +fragments of shattered rock; they fell and thrashed the sea into foam a +mile from shore. Rocks fell upon his already overwhelming burden; his +knees bent, and the blood trickled from his nostrils. And with his fast +ebbing breath he breathed his valedictory, fixing his stony eyes upon +Pascherette as upon his deity. + +"Gods of my fathers, receive my spirit into thy halls. Let thy swift +justice overtake the cause of this upheaval; and receive with my spirit +the spirit of the one who loved me." He fell to one knee, and a great +sob shook him. The rock was falling in a shower about him; it rang and +crashed on the gigantic stone that was crushing him. He bent his gaze in +anguish afresh on the dead girl, now almost buried under stone and +earth, and murmured: "Pascherette, I come! I see beyond the blue ocean +and the golden horizon the throne of my gods. Come, golden one, let us +go. There will our faithfulness meet just reward!" + +He pitched forward upon the dead girl, and the great rock crashed down, +building them a tomb grand as the eternal hills. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE TOLL OF THE GODS. + + +Venner's order to heave the treasure-chests overboard was not given +without a pang of regret. It was scarcely obeyed without threats; for +the sailing master had been bitten by the treasure fever before his +owner and guest came on board. Had they not appeared when they did, the +schooner had gone without them, and Peters had already seen a golden +vista ahead of him. He hesitated now, and Venner left the wheel vacant +to urge him. + +"Over with it, I say! At once! Here, Pearse, lend a hand here, man, +before that witch's great eyes mesmerize us again. See, she smiles yet, +and comes nearer." + +Reluctantly the seamen raised one iron-bound chest to the rail and +poised it there. From the water astern rang Dolores's throaty laugh, +even and full breathing, as if she had not swam a fraction of the +half-mile she had covered. + +"Foolish Rupert!" she cried, never relaxing her stroke. "Why waste the +fruits of thy pains? Hast looked inside then? Nay, take me on board, and +let us look together. Thou wilt not see Dolores drown, I swear. Then +look once more into my eyes, my Rupert!" + +She laughed again mockingly, alluringly, and Pearse turned away with a +shudder, not daring to cast a glance in the direction of Venner. + +"Throw the stuff over, I say!" cried Venner hoarsely, and gave the chest +a push that sent it into the rippling sea with a thunderous splash. And +again that mocking laugh rang out astern; it was nearer, and Dolores's +beautiful face was turned up to them with triumph in every feature. She +had seen the struggle going on in her two intended victims; if she could +but gain to within whispering distance of either of them, surely she +would never let them escape her. + +"Come, take me on board, my Rupert. I have a secret to tell thee, but +thee alone!" she cried, and spurted swiftly, gaining abreast of the +main-chains. + +But the eyes of Venner and Pearse were fixed in astonishment upon the +tall cliff they had left; their eyes stared amazedly, and they stood +like statues, hearing none of her seductive words. + +"What do ye see?" she demanded, frowning up at them. + +A score of sharp splashes in the water around the schooner startled her. +She suspected they were hurling missiles at her, and one struck her +arm. She turned swiftly and her face darkened with fury. Then more small +objects fell about her, and one struck her arm. She turned swiftly on +her side to seek the source, and in her ears boomed the tremendous crash +of Stumpy's explosion, rolling far over the sea, reverberating from the +shores and making the air quiver like a solid thing. + +A great mass of rock hurtled overhead, missed the schooner by scant +feet, and Venner shouted in horror: + +"Throw her a line, Pearse! Here, quickly, before she is crushed by such +a rock as that one!" + +The sea was shattered into foam for fathoms around, and every face on +the Feu Follette stared over the rail in helpless astonishment. But on +the face of Dolores glowed a smile of triumph. She feared nothing of +earth or heaven; among the flying rocks she swam on toward the schooner, +smiling up at them, waiting for the rope that meant victory to her. + +And in the brief space before the rope hurtled out, down from the +heavens plunged a high-flung piece of granite fair upon Dolores. She +seemed to sense its shadow, and in the moment it struck her she half +sank, breaking its force. But it followed her down. The mass struck +between her gleaming shoulders, and she flung up her arms in despair, +turning over and over with the impact, then floating unconscious close +by the side of the white schooner that had been her goal. + +"God! Get her aboard!" gasped Pearse. "She's done for. Yet we cannot +leave her there for the sharks, like a beast!" + +Venner and Peters were already trying with boat-hooks to catch Dolores's +tunic. Pearse threw a line over the girl and drew her nearer and the +hooks took hold. They drew her up the side with a care that amounted to +reverence, for in her unconsciousness she was more beautiful than ever, +her fine features molded in dead white, traced with fine blue veins; the +grace of her form was that of a lovely sculpture now, lacking vitality, +but possessing every line of perfection. The blow that had overtaken her +had failed in its terrible threat to crush her. + +"Lay her in the companionway on the lounge," said Venner. He ran to the +saloon and brought up wine. He bathed her temples and wrists with the +liquor, and forced some between her blue lips. And Pearse chafed her +hands and patted them, gazing down at her in silent awe. + +"Venner," he whispered, when her eyes refused to open, "we must let this +settle the score against her. It's a terrible end for such a creature." + +"For my part, Pearse, I would give all I have just to see those great +violet eyes laugh at me again; to hear that mocking laugh from her +maddening lips. God, will she never awake?" + +Astern of the schooner the sun was slowly descending to the western +sea-rim, and as the course was resumed after picking up Dolores, the +Point and the cliff gradually drew out across the path of the sun, until +the outlines of the rock and trees stood out black and sharp. On the +cliff-top a heavy pall of greasy smoke hung low about the shattered +pirates' camp; from fissures high up the frowning side spirals of smoke +testified to the wide-spread destruction that followed the blast. + +They looked at the terrific devastation, and again at its nearer victim. +And as they gazed down at her, Dolores's lips trembled in a faint smile, +her great eyes opened wide, looking directly and fearlessly back at +them. + +"I thank ye, my friends; I knew you would take me," she whispered, and +the two men turned away with a shudder. As she had lived, Dolores was +now meeting her inevitable end, bold and indomitable. + +"Where are you hurt?" inquired Venner lamely. "Let me do something to +ease you." + +"Ease?" she laughed as of old, but her teeth clenched upon her lower lip +immediately, with the pain it caused. "I shall ask ye to ease me +presently, good friends. Grim Death has me by the throat already. But +carry me outside. I am stifling in here. Let me see the ocean and the +sky at least in my passage. And I have something to tell ye also." + +On the gratings around the stern, abaft the wheel, they laid her on soft +cushions. She drank greedily of the wine and water they offered her; +she quivered with eagerness to unburden her mind before her thirst was +quenched forever. She motioned them, to bend over her, and began to +speak in, husky whispers. + +"That chest, thou cast it overboard. Dost know what was in it?" + +Both shook their heads. None had seen inside the chests after they came +from the great chamber. + +"I'll tell ye, then, for the peace of your souls and the tranquillity of +your voyage. Lest thy men be seized with a desire for treasure that +shall work ye mischief, have them open the other two chests. Quickly, +for I am faint." + +Venner went to the chests himself and flung back the lids, which were +bolted on the outside and not locked. He stared for a moment, +unbelievingly, then nodded to Pearse. Pearse stared, too, in amazement, +and one after the other the sailors were called to see. They saw two +great strong-boxes filled to the brim with iron chains, broken cutlases, +rusty bilboes, and rock; a fool's treasure in truth. + +"'Twas a trick to set my rascals at odds," Dolores told them when they +returned to her. "To thee, Pearse, I showed my treasure, and I fear that +blast has buried it beneath a mountain. Milo was to take it out. I +cannot believe it can have been taken away ere that powder blew it to +fragments. It was still in the powder store." + +"Yes, I know," said Pearse quietly. "It was that which precipitated the +fight between us three that killed poor Tomlin." + +"Well, if thou still art hungry for treasure, my friends, there is my +store buried where thou knowest, and I shrewdly fear but few of my +people are left. But I am slipping. Stand aside, that I may close my +eyes on the place I called home." + +Dolores ceased speaking and lay, scarcely stirred by her faint +respiration, gazing over the schooner's stern at the sinking sun. The +golden disk was turning to red and across its darkened face the cliff +and Point stood out in sharp silhouette, which grew larger as the great +glowing sun was distorted and enlarged by the refraction near the +horizon. The breeze had changed, and now blew with gentle strength out +of the west, a fair wind for their homeward course, and the strands of +Dolores's glorious hair blew about her face like tendrils about an +orchid of unearthly beauty. + +Presently she stirred again, and now she summoned all her remaining +vitality to raise herself on an elbow. Pearse and Venner leaned closer, +sensing the end in the tremendous brilliancy of her wide, dry eyes. + +She spoke softly, yet with a thrilling note of yearning that choked her +hearers with harsh sobs. + +"Father, I come," she whispered. "If I have failed in obeying thy +commands, I ask forgiveness, for I am but a woman. A woman with +instincts and yearnings, born of the mother I never knew. Thy very +treasures that were to appease me put the yearning more strongly in my +brain. Thy teachings showed me a world of beasts and savagery; thy +treasures gave me dreams of a world peopled by such as I would be. My +mother's blood forced me to seek this other, better world; thy blood +forced me to seek it wrongfully." + +She paused, and gathered her fleeting breath. + +Then, sitting suddenly upright, she flung both arms out to the setting +sun now lipping the sea, and cried: + +"Gods I know not. Yet must there be such, else had I never known the +devotion of a Milo! Wherever ye be, brave Milo, living or dead, commend +me to thy own gods and forgive me for my ingratitude." She seized Venner +and Pearse by the arms as she fell back, and whispered: "In pity, +friends, set my feet toward the west, and launch my poor body down the +sun path as it sinks into the blue Caribbean that was my only home." + +She relaxed with a little shivering sigh, the glorious eyes closed with +a tired tremor, and the spirit of Dolores the beautiful, the wicked, the +tempestuous, winged its way down the mysterious paths of the dark +unknown. + +"Come," said Venner, suddenly shaking off his abstraction, "time is all +too short if we are to render her this last small service." + +"How shall we do it?" asked Pearse doubtfully. + +"We shall send her down her chosen path in a boat. Peters will load the +dingey with ballast, while you and I will lay Dolores out as well as we +may. Bring me that grating, Pearse. We will speed her in the dress she +loved. Her soul would sicken at a suffocating winding sheet. Hurry, for +the sun is half gone!" + +Swiftly they worked, these men who had cause to remember the departed +siren without great love, and they placed her, secured to a grating, +across the thwarts of the dingey, to which the grating was in turn +secured. Then, all prepared, Peters sprang into the boat, bored a score +of auger-holes in the bottom, and as the great red sun set fierce and +blazing behind the black profile of the cliff, the filling boat was set +adrift, straight down the path of the luminary, bound ever westward, +until the sea gods claimed it and its passenger for their own. + +"Farewell, place of ill-luck!" cried Pearce, as the schooner bore away +before the rising evening breeze. "May I never set my eyes on such evil +shores again." + +"Then you will not come back to seek the treasure?" asked Venner, with a +shadowy flicker of a smile. + +"Not for a thousand times the treasure that lies there!" cried Pearse +vehemently. "And I have seen it! The horror of this will haunt me until +my dying day. I only hope God will look kindly upon that poor woman, +that's all." + +"I hope so, too," rejoined Venner thoughtfully. "With a white woman's +opportunities, what a woman she could have been." + +But the gods are inscrutable. Only the warm mantle of the setting sun +gave a hint that Dolores might be even now entering into a place of +eternal rest, where her sins of ignorance and untutored instincts would +not count too heavily against her. The sea is very benign to its elect; +a calm sea in the setting sun received Dolores in arms of infinite +benignity. + + +(The end.) + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original edition have been corrected. In Chapter V, "inscrutaable" was +changed to "inscrutable"; in Chapter X, "Let me show thee they master" +was changed to "Let me show thee thy master"; in Chapter XVII, "could +not enchance your worth" was changed to "could not enhance your worth"; +in Chapter XVIII, "shaking his first at Milo" was changed to "shaking +his fist at Milo"; and in Chapter XXI, "protruding a foot for Tomlin's +back" was changed to "protruding a foot from Tomlin's back".] + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following summary originally appeared at the +beginning of the serial's second installment.] + + +PRECEDING CHAPTERS BRIEFLY RETOLD + +Within his mysterious stronghold, "The Cave of Terrible Things," on the +Maroon coast of Jamaica, washed by the waters of the Caribbean Sea, Red +Jabez, Sultan of Pirates, had just died. + +Dolores, his daughter, "a splendidly lithe, glowing creature of beauty +and passion," "a royal woman conscious of mental and physical +perfection," succeeded her father as tyrant over the motley crew of +Spaniard and Briton, Creole and mulatto, Carib and octoroon, and +coal-black negroes. + +Milo, the giant Abyssinian, who knew no fear and no law save the will of +this capricious creature, served Dolores as body-guard and chief. + +Pascherette, "a gleaming, gold-tinted creature, a miniature model of +Aphrodite," beloved of Milo, was her maid and attendant. + +Moved to mutiny by Rufe, the Spaniard, the pirates had risen in revolt +to loot the rich treasure of the dead Sultan's cave; but supported by +Milo, Dolores had cowed them, no less by her dagger than her threats. + +But discontent rode the soul of the Sultana. She longed for other lands, +other people. With Milo's aid she determined to capture the first sail +that passed her shore, and escape. + +When Rupert Venner and his guests, Craik Tomlin and John Pearce, aboard +the Venner yacht, Feu Follette, passed that way, they were easily +induced to go ashore. + +In the midst of a reception accorded them by Dolores, the party beheld +Yellow Rufe and a band of mulattoes and blacks making for the schooner, +from whose rail shots crackled. + +Venner raised a cry of treachery and called, "Come, fellows!" But the +woman held him as much by her eyes as by her promise: "I shall preserve +thy ship, and give thee back an eye for an eye, if thy men are harmed." + +Then she sprang down the cliff like a deer. + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following summary originally appeared at the +beginning of the serial's third installment. The summary at the +beginning of the serial's fourth installment, if one was present, was +not available when preparing this electronic edition.] + + +PRECEDING CHAPTERS BRIEFLY RETOLD + +On the death of Red Jabez, Dolores, "a glowing creature of beauty and +passion," took over her father's rule of the pirates of the Maroon coast +of Jamaica. + +With the help of her faithful slave, Milo, the Abyssinian giant, she +crushed a rising insurrection among her riffraff subjects, whose +cupidity had been played upon by Rufe, the Spaniard. + +But Dolores was herself the victim of discontent. Loathing her outlaw +subjects and the island, she determined to seize the first boat that +passed her way, and escape with her jewels and her gold. + +When the pleasure yacht, Feu Follette, came that way, she sent Milo and +her maid, Pascherette, to decoy Rupert Venner and his guests, Craik +Tomlin and John Pearse, to the island. + +In the midst of her reception to her captive-guests, she beheld Rufe and +a band of insurgent blacks and mulattoes attacking the crew of the +schooner, while Sancho, whom she had despatched to care for the vessel +while in the harbor, was joining in the attack. + +Then she rushed over the cliff and into the water, and boarded the boat, +followed by her loyal Milo. + +After a long and bloody struggle, the woman's ruse of firing the ship +with a keg of powder won the day, and Rufe and Sancho fled into the +wilderness, while from the schooner's topmast flew the Sultana's own +flag. + +Demanding that the traitors, Rufe and Sancho, be rounded up, Dolores +threw her three guests into chains, while she accused Pascherette of +abetting the treason of Sancho. + +Then Dolores turned to Venner with the offer of her love if he would +sail away with her, having first despatched his friends. When the man, +whose soul was racked with passion for the beautiful black panther, +recoiled from her condition, she left him in his chains. + +Next she dealt with Sancho, whom Pascherette had lured back to the +woman's mercy; and Sancho emerged from Dolores's presence a driveling +imbecile. + +When Milo beheld at this moment the fleeing form of Yellow Rufe, made +distinguishable by vivid lightning, Dolores determined to complete her +punishments. + +The Spaniard was making good his escape when Milo took up the pursuit in +the little sailboat. Dolores and her crew would follow, by the light of +his flares, in the schooner. + +With the untamed soul of a woman who had never known defeat, Dolores +drove her crew and defied the wind and the waves, and the Feu Follette +was liberated from the mud and swung to the gale as the cry rang out: +"There's the flare--and she's burnin' steady!" + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Pirate Woman, by Aylward Edward Dingle + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30057 *** diff --git a/30057-8.txt b/30057-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d592ce8 --- /dev/null +++ b/30057-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6742 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pirate Woman, by Aylward Edward Dingle + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Pirate Woman + +Author: Aylward Edward Dingle + +Release Date: September 22, 2009 [EBook #30057] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PIRATE WOMAN *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover of All-Story Weekly] + + +ALL-STORY WEEKLY + +VOL. XC + +NUMBER 2 + +SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1918 + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +[Transcriber's Note: This novel was originally serialized in four +installments in All-Story Weekly magazine from November 2, 1918, to +November 23, 1918. The original breaks in the serial have been retained, +but summaries of previous events preceding the second and third +installments have been moved to the end of this e-book. The Table of +Contents which follows this note was created for this electronic +edition.] + + + +Table of Contents + + +November 2, 1918 + + I. THE CAVE OF TERRIBLE THINGS. 193 + II. DOLORES RECEIVES HER DIADEM. 196 + III. THE GROVE OF MYSTERY. 200 + IV. THE PIRATES' BARBECUE. 203 + V. MILO SIGHTS A SAIL. 206 + VI. THE PARTY FROM THE YACHT. 209 + + +November 9, 1918 + + VII. THE ATTACK ON THE FEU FOLLETTE. 466 + VIII. DOLORES DELIVERS JUDGMENT. 469 + IX. THE SULTANA DECIDES SEVERAL THINGS. 472 + X. A REED SHAKEN BY THE WINDS OF PASSION. 475 + XI. PASCHERETTE UNVEILS HER PURPOSE. 477 + XII. SANCHO SETTLES HIS ACCOUNT. 480 + XIII. DOLORES FLOATS THE FEU FOLLETTE. 488 + + +November 16, 1918 + + XIV. YELLOW RUFE'S FINISH. 697 + XV. THE FIRES OF THE FLESH. 701 + XVI. PEARSE ENTERS THE CAVE OF ALADDIN. 704 + XVII. THE TREASURE TEST. 707 + XVIII. PASCHERETTE DEALS AGAIN. 711 + XIX. WHILE VICTORY HANGS IN THE BALANCE. 715 + + +November 23, 1918 + + XX. DOLORES DEMANDS A DECISION. 147 + XXI. THE SLUMBERING SAVAGE. 150 + XXII. THE FLIGHT OF THE FEU FOLLETTE. 153 + XXIII. STUMPY FIRES THE MAGAZINE. 155 + XXIV. MILO CROSSES THE BAR. 157 + XXV. THE TOLL OF THE GODS. 159 + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE CAVE OF TERRIBLE THINGS. + + +A great unrest brooded over mountain and forest; the blue Caribbean lay +hushed and glaring, as if held in leash by a power greater than that +which ordered its daily ebb and flow. + +Men moved or stood beneath the trees on the cliffside in attitudes of +supreme awe or growing uneasiness, according to their kind: for among +them were numbered Spaniard and Briton, creole and mulatto, Carib and +octoroon, with coal-black negroes enough to outnumber all the rest--and +it was upon these last that profound awe sat oppressively. + +Apart, followed by a hundred furtive eyes, Dolores, daughter of Red +Jabez, ranged back and forth before the mighty rock portals of the Cave +of Terrible Things, like some magnificent tigress hedged with foes. +Beyond those portals Red Jabez, Sultan of pirates, arbiter of life and +death over the motley community, lay at grips with the grim specter to +whom he had consigned scores far more readily than he now yielded up +his own red-stained soul. Red Jabez was dying a death as hard as his +lurid life had been. + +Beyond those rock portals none save Jabez and Milo, the herculean +Abyssinian slave, had ever passed. Dolores, next in line, was in +ignorance as deep as her meanest slave, concerning what lay beyond the +great mass of rock which formed the door, and which Milo alone could +move. She knew, as did every one, that the great chamber of Red Jabez +held some vast mystery; she suspected, as did the rest, that it +concealed wealth beyond dreams; deep down in her soul she hoped that +inviolate chamber held for her the means of emancipation; but of this +hope, none knew save herself. For Queen of Night though the white men +called her, Sultana though she was named with fear and submission by the +blacks, though her power was second only to that of Red Jabez, and +barely less than his, a canker gnawed at the heart of Dolores, the +canker of a suspicion that her power was but a paltry power, her freedom +but a caged freedom. + +Somewhere beyond the great ocean that stretched away before her eyes +lay a world she knew nothing of; yet since her earliest childhood her +keen mind had told her that the silk with which she was clothed, the +jewels that encrusted her dagger-hilt, the ships whose pillage had +yielded up these things, must come from lands far distant, more +desirable than the maroon country of Jamaica. More, her ears attuned to +the whisper or roar of the sea, the sigh or shriek of the winds, carried +to her the mutterings of men long held in leash, who now saw in their +chieftain's death the realization of their own wild dreams of riches and +release. All these things told her that the great, strange world beyond +the sea-line was something for her to strive for; not for the rabble who +called her queen. + +She paced back and forth, a splendidly lithe, glowing creature of beauty +and passion, every movement a grace, each grace such as befitted a royal +woman conscious of mental and physical perfection. Her hair surrounded +her face and shoulders in a lustrous, rippling cloud, through which +peeped a bare arm and breast stolen from the goddess of beauty; her +tunic of quilted Chinese silk hung from one shoulder by a strap +fashioned from the ribbon of the Star of Persia, and fastened by the +star; her strong, slender waist was girdled with a heavy gold cord that +supported a long, thin dagger, no toy, in a jeweled sheath; the hem of +her single garment rang with gold sequins to the movement of her +smoothly muscular knees; her high-arched feet were protected from thorns +and shells by sandals of red leather. + +As the moments passed, and no sign came from within the cave, Dolores +restrained her impatience with increasing difficulty. The men scattered +around were not of such stuff; they felt the impending crisis settle +heavily upon them, and white and black alike drew together for the +comfort of close touch. From time to time a hardier spirit uttered his +thoughts aloud, yet always with a glance of uncertainty toward Dolores. +They had reason to glance that way; for every man had tasted of the +queen's justice, which rarely erred on the side of mildness; many of +them had experienced her terrible competence to carry out a sentence in +person. Of them all, not one but knew that in Dolores he owned as queen +a woman who need yield nothing of prowess to any man: her knife was as +swift, her round wrist as strong, her blazing violet-black eyes as sure +as any among them. Not a man could ever forget the offending slave whom +she had thrashed with her own hands, disdaining assistance, until the +wretch tore loose and fled screaming to the cliff to pitch headlong into +the shark-infested sea; nor could they forget her unhesitating dive and +terrific struggle to recover him and her completion of the interrupted +punishment when she had brought him back. + +Yet the stress proved too great, even in face of these memories, and a +tall, powerful Spaniard, heavily earringed, handsome, with a swart, +brutal beauty, delivered a scorching oath to the heavy air and exclaimed +fiercely: + +"A curse on this babe's play! Must men stand here like whipped curs +until a slave commands us enter? Come! Who'll follow me past that door? +I'll know what lies behind this mummery if I choke it from old Jabez's +withered neck as he dies." + +The man stepped forward two paces, glaring defiantly at Dolores, waiting +for men to follow. An uneasy shuffling of feet was his only answer for a +moment; then his eyes shifted with cooling ardor at sight of Dolores. +For a breath after he had ceased speaking, the girl stood like a +splendid statue, except for the glitter of her eyes and a slight +quivering of her limbs; it was as if she awaited some response; then her +face relaxed into a contemptuous smile, and her crimson lips parted to +reveal her even, gleaming teeth. She laughed, a rippling little laugh +like the tinkle of steel links, and with a single gliding movement that +permitted no avoidance she swept to within two feet of the now +frightened ruffian. + +"Yes? Yellow Rufe would choke words from a dying man!" she cried. +"Nothing that lives and can stand on two feet is in danger from such as +he. Peace, slavish dog!" she panted, flinging out a gleaming hand and +seizing him by one earring. "Thus I mark curs that seek their food among +the dead!" With the words Dolores's right hand flashed upward, +knife-armed, and across Rufe's cheek glared a crimson cross; into his +eyes leaped the fear of death. + +"Now go!" she said imperiously, pushing him away. "Let no man forget +that while the life is in Red Jabez he holds thy lives in pawn. When his +spirit goes, ye shall reckon with me!" + +Rufe staggered away, half incredulous that his punishment had fallen +short of death. His companions led him apart with many a backward glance +of apprehension at the authoress of his discomfiture, and a deep, sullen +muttering rippled through the crowd. Dolores resumed her solitary pacing +without another thought for the hardy rascal she had so swiftly and +effectively softened. Her eyes were ever bent toward the great rock; her +thoughts were centered on a vague, mysterious instinct which whispered +to her that with her first admission into that frowning cavern the +mantle of fierce old Red Jabez would fall upon her, and with it would +come power that a Czar might envy! A Czar's power, indeed, but with all +of a Czar's cares and more; for Czar never ruled over subjects like +these. + +A sudden hush fell upon the place; the mutterings ceased as if tongues +were stricken stiff. Rufe, with his head now enwrapped in crossed +bandages, stared toward the great rock with a wavering expression in his +smoldering eyes, an expression that hovered between reluctant +submission, reawakened cupidity, and dawning hope. Dolores stood +motionless, imperious in every line and feature, her heavy eyelashes +veiling the eagerness in her eyes, her red lips curved in royal +indifference. + +The great rock was turning. + +Slowly, yet with the flawless regularity of a millwheel, the mass of +stone was rolled upward and to one side; it rested at last on a ledge, +balanced perfectly, ready to fall again at the touch of a finger; and in +the aperture appeared the human agent of its opening. + +Milo, the giant Abyssinian, guardian of the rock, custodian of the Cave +of Terrible Things, bone of contention for the jealous and terror of the +strongest, filled the entrance with his colossal frame and looked out +with a calm dignity that made the whites cringe with hatred. Slowly, +with stately grace, the giant advanced until he stood before Dolores, +and in his coal-black eyes shone the light of limitless devotion. He +knelt, kissed the sequins on her tunic's hem, then, with both hands +pressed to his forehead, he bowed his face to the earth at her feet. + +"Rise, Milo," said Dolores, gently, and her breath caught painfully as +she spoke. She knew what the slave came for; every man in that community +of pirates, wreckers, escaped slaves, and convicts knew as well as she. +All had awaited this moment, knowing when it came that the mystery of +the cave would be a mystery no longer to at least one of them: all knew +that the summons meant the passing of the old pirate who had brought +them together, ruled them with blood and iron, and forced from them a +homage none of them would render to his Maker. + +"My Sultana, it is time," said Milo, rising and waiting. He needed to +say no more. + +"Lead me to my father, then," replied the girl, and stepped after the +giant with sure step and resolute face, giving no heed to the renewed +shuffling and congregating of her people, nor to Rufe, who again stood +out before the rest and addressed them in fierce tones. + +Dolores entered the great hewn-rock doorway and in spite of her stout +heart and steel will she thrilled in every fiber. At the end of the +frowning passage, whose ruby lamps but accentuated the gloom and +imparted to it an infernal glow, lay the great chamber that only the +chief might enter. What would she find there? Her father, yes, and +dying! Otherwise this summons had never come. The death must be upon him +now; the fierce old sea-king had held his throne-room inviolate through +many bouts with the grim Reaper, knowing his own strength to conquer. +But now he had called, and Dolores sought the unknown with a curiosity +that beat down fear. + +Behind her a heavy thud echoed along the rocky walls, and the outer +light was cut off by the falling of the great stone. In a moment Milo +stood beside her and, taking her hand in his, led her along the utterly +invisible floor until she stood before a massive door. Her feet sank +into the pile of heavy carpets; her nostrils quivered to the delicate +odors of burning spices; at the top of the door a great jeweled lantern +cast a rich, yellow light down the panels, and the girl gasped +involuntarily at the sight revealed to her. Each panel was formed of +scales that overlapped like a serpent's; the scales were roughly +hammered gold and silver, richly chased, and studded thickly with +gems--without any conjecture she knew them to be precious vessels that +should have graced an altar, split, perhaps with a bloody cutlass, and +beaten out into irregular plates to gratify some grim humor of the +terrible old corsair in the long ago. Neither hinges, handle, lock, nor +latch appeared on the surface; apparently the door was solidly embedded +in the mighty rock itself. The giant laid a hand on the side of the +door-frame, and Dolores waited with impatience for admission. For all +her schooled self-control her eyes glinted with astonishment when Milo +stood aside and bowed low, saying: + +"Enter, my princess!" + +Without a sound the massive door had vanished, sliding up and out of +sight in the dark recess of the roof, leaving smooth, steel-lined slots +at sides and bottom that reflected the polish of scrupulous care. +Dolores stifled her surprise, and moved toward the heavy velvet hangings +which still barred her way. These, too, were swept aside with no visible +effort, and the girl stood on the threshold of the chamber of mystery. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +DOLORES RECEIVES HER DIADEM. + + +In a great canopied bed, taken from some rich looted Indiaman, Red Jabez +lay motionless as an effigy in stone. His tall, powerful body was +sharply outlined in coverings of silk and rare lace; the arms and crest +of a ducal house were worked into the pillows that supported his massive +head. His drawn, haggard face was surrounded and all but covered with a +great mane of vivid red hair; his silken shirt, wide open at the neck, +revealed a massive chest, whose tide of respiration had all but ceased +to run. Only his eyes, fierce yet, held token of lingering life; it was +as if the vital spark was concentrated into one final blaze of +tremendous brilliancy. + +The fierce eyes moved swiftly at Dolores's entrance, and one might have +said a film of tenderness swept for an instant over the hard glint in +them. It was gone as swiftly as it came, and the stare settled +unwaveringly upon the stupefied girl. For stupefaction had gripped +Dolores in that first entry into the great chamber. Her wildest dreams, +and they had been at times fantastic, had never showed her anything +measurably approaching the scene that smote her eyes now. For the moment +death, Red Jabez, her destiny, everything melted into the visionary +beyond and left her capable of no volition. + +The great bed stood in the center of a vast cavern; sides, roof, floor, +every inch of the rock itself bore proof of the handiwork of hundreds of +cunning craftsmen; but the furnishings filled Dolores's eyes to the +exclusion of all else. Divans and chairs, cabinets and tables carried +the mind far away to the realm of emperors and kings; vases from China +and Greece stood on stands of boule-work; a tall ebony-and-ivory +clock-case, in which ticked sonorously a masterpiece of Peter Hele, +stood between two gorgeous pieces of Gobelin tapestry. And around her +and above, Dolores's amazed eyes lighted upon gems of the painter's art +such as few collections might boast. The entire ceiling was covered with +a colossal "Battle of the Amazons," by Rubens, each figure thrown out in +startling distinctness, full of voluptuous life and action; the walls +were mantled by vast golden frames holding the best of Titian, Correggio +and Giorgione, Raphael and Ribera. And jewels flashed everywhere; +cunningly placed lamps, themselves encrusted with the reddest of rubies, +the subtlest of green emeralds, flooded walls and furnishings with a +soft yet searching light which seemed to be carefully calculated to +accentuate those things whose beauty demanded light, yet to leave the +eye unwearied. + +"The hour has struck, my Sultana," said Milo anxiously, and Dolores +shook off the spell and approached the great bed. Red Jabez closed his +eyes as she leaned over him, and his lips now alone gave evidence of +life. The girl, reared among the wildest of desolate isolation, knowing +no softening ties of family, her impulses and emotions those of a +beautiful animal, and increasingly so because of her station among the +rabble that called the dying man chief, stared down at her terrible +parent without a trace of visible regret: rather in her eyes shone the +triumph of a victor about to enter upon a conquered kingdom. But the red +pirate was speaking, and she bent her ear to catch his words. It +required no physician's knowledge to perceive in his damp face all the +signs of imminent dissolution. + +"Dolores, my traverse is run," whispered Jabez. The effort all but stole +his breath. He paused; then summoning all the tremendous will that had +dominated his frame when surging with strength, he told what he had to +say in short sentences, nursing the flickering spark to force his +speech. "Never leave here, girl. Let no man go, either. The world has +forgotten me and all of us; but memory is tenacious--it will revive at a +hint; every throat that pulses with hot life here--yes, my daughter, +even your fair throat--was measured years ago--a rope awaits every one. +But here--" + +"Yes, father?" Dolores shivered in the pause; the silence chilled her. +The giant Abyssinian stood at the head of the bed, and now moistened the +dying lips with wine. Red Jabez strained convulsively, snatching at his +throat, and resumed with weaker voice. + +"Here I have been king; here you are queen; all these things you see, +and many more, are yours; life and death are in your hands to give or +withhold. Keep the steel hand, though you wear the glove, Dolores. You +have learned power; with the greater power you take from this chamber, +and with Milo, let nothing, no man, stir your fears. Keep this chamber +as I have kept it; it is your strength; when danger threatens to beat +you down, here you will find--" + +The fluttering whisper ceased. The old pirate lay rigid. Dolores, having +heard so much, yet so little, hovered over the bed in an ecstasy of +unsatisfied hunger for more; Milo stood by, a magnificent statue in +living bronze, his eyes set in a steady blaze on the face of his master. +Once more the blue lips moved. Dolores darted down with eager ear, her +hands clasped as if in supplication. + +"Milo--tell," came the whisper, and with it went up the soul of Red +Jabez to face a tribunal more dread than any earthly judge his body had +eluded. And the tall clock ticked his knell. + +Dolores flung herself down on the bed, patting the dead face with +nervous fingers; but she was dry-eyed, no filial despair raised tumult +in her breast, her pleading was for the impossible--for the dead lips to +speak--and when she was refused her plea, she sprang from the couch in a +paroxysm of royal fury: + +"Now, by the powers of evil, he shall lie uncoffined until those +secretive lips read me the riddle they have half told!" she cried, +pacing between bed and wall with uplifted arms and hard, glittering +eyes. She suddenly paused in her wild walk, turned swiftly, and reached +the bedside with the same subtle, gliding sweep that had carried her +before Yellow Rufe; it was a characteristic movement with her--a +compound of the gliding dart of the tiger-shark and the silent-footed +pounce of its jungle brother. Milo roused from his dejection and sprang +from his knees with amazing promptitude, but he had yet to round the +bed-foot when the splendid fury stood panting over the corpse. + +"Speak!" she cried, shaking the coverlet savagely. Milo, with horror in +his shining face, gently removed her hand, then stood before her with +bowed head, his cavernous chest heaving wildly. + +"Fool! Leave me!" she snapped, and struck the slave with all her savage +force on the cheek. Milo's face turned gray for a flashing instant, then +the doglike devotion that filled his heart shone through his eyes, and +he knelt at the furious girl's feet, his head to the ground. In a moment +he stood up and, laying a hand reverently upon Dolores's shaking +shoulders, he gazed deep into her eyes. She shivered again at the +uncanny hint of volcanic might effused by the giant--volcanic, yet +quiescent for the moment. His lips opened to speak; and she sprang to +the reaction. Now a fresh fury seized her at the slave's temerity; she +flung off his hand, and snatched forth her dagger. + +"Strike, Sultana," said Milo simply. He drew aside the strap of his +leathern tunic, baring his heart. "Strike, but first suffer thy slave to +release thee from this tomb." + +"Release? Tomb? What talk is this?" gasped Dolores, her dagger held +poised aloft, her lips quivering. + +"A tomb it is if thy servant falls, Sultana. None save I can open the +great door. Close it? Yes, any might close it. Come, I will lead thee +out of this awful presence; then at the gate thou shalt send Milo to his +master who loved him." + +Slowly Dolores slipped her dagger into the sheath, and her face was +bowed in confusion. All her life, the giant slave had tended her, +guarded her steps and her sleep, taught her the exercises that had made +her feared by all the turbulent crew outside; and she was now permitted +the saving grace of remembrance. She gave him her hand, and allowed him +to place it upon his head, always his favorite means of expression when +she followed an outburst of rage with contrition; and in softer tone she +begged for an answer to the riddle that had been left with her. + +"Come, Sultana," Milo said, once more laying a hand on her shoulder, +this time without resentment from her. "Thy father, the Red Chief, left +much to be told; I will tell thee all, but not now. Patience, princess," +he pleaded, catching the warning glint in her eyes, "dost thou hear +nothing? Listen attentively--no, not in here, outside--bend thy ear to +this tapestry; 'tis before a cunning sounding stone through which voices +may well be heard on the cliffside. Listen." + +Dolores listened with bad grace, for she regarded this as a subterfuge +of the giant's, and resentment was very ready to rise in her again. But +in a moment her indifference vanished; she grew alert; her body tensed, +and her limbs quivered; the glitter of a queen in righteous anger +lighted her eyes, and she raised an unnecessary hand to impress silence +upon the slave. + +"Hast hear this before now?" she demanded in a vibrant whisper. + +"Since thou entered, Sultana. It could be nothing but rebellion; yet was +I loath to burden my chief with this trouble in his hour of passage. But +I know now that it has risen to heights which demand swift action; +therefore I have made thee aware of it." + +"'Tis that villain Rufe again!" muttered Dolores, still pressing her ear +against the tapestry. The murmur of a hundred voices came clearly to +her, and above all sounded the high-raised shout of one who harangued +the rest. At periods the murmuring became a howl, and the triumphant +note in it left scant room for doubt as to the nature of the address. +The girl, faced with the responsibility of decided action, no longer +able to depend on the wisdom and terrible power of Red Jabez, stepped +from the wall with panting heart and parted lips, but with no trace of +fear. Uncertainty moved her; uncertainty as to the resources of the +great chamber, whose mysteries had scarcely begun to unfold for her ere +the curtain was dropped again. Her stout spirit decided for her. + +"Come, lead me out, Milo," she ordered, drawing herself royally erect +and slipping her dagger around nearer her hand. "We must cool that +rabble before the fire spreads further. Take a weapon, open the door, +and follow me." + +"It is the decision of a fit daughter of my chief," replied Milo, his +great frame expanding to the bounding energy that surged through him. +Unknown to her, his eyes had never left Dolores while she was making her +decision; now joy and ardor suffused and transfigured him. Slave he was, +yet it was he who looked the royal part in that instant. + +"Wait but a breath," he said, and reached in two gigantic strides a +massive oaken chest heavily fastened with wrought iron. Lifting the lid +with reverence, he took out a plain gold circlet and returned to +Dolores. + +"Thy father bade me make this and keep it until thou wast my Sultana, +indeed," he said. He raised the heavy, dull-gold band, and placed it +upon Dolores's brow with the courtly homage of a born noble. It fitted +to perfection--as indeed it should, since the loving fingers that had +fashioned it had crept around the girl's sleeping head many times to +that end--and feminine vanity would not permit Dolores to ignore the +fit. She stepped over to a long gilt-framed mirror, and her beautiful +face grew dark and her violet eyes dusky at the glorious reflection that +gazed out at her. + +"It is well, Milo; I thank thee," she smiled. "Now to scatter the rats +that gnaw at my walls. Lead out quickly." + +Milo entered the passage, raising the plated door and letting it fall +after them. He disdained to carry a weapon; but Dolores was content, for +she had witnessed what those huge hands could do. As they approached the +great stone at the entrance, the sounds outside rang through the +corridor, and the sharp reverberations that accompanied them at +intervals told of an assault on the rock itself with pikes, crowbars, or +other smaller rocks. Milo stooped to the sill of the rock, and placed +his hands beneath it. + +"Stand away," he whispered, and strained his arms. "Let thy servant go +out and silence this clamor--" + +"Open quickly!" she interrupted him, imperiously. "It is not for the +slave to precede the sovereign. Peace, and open." + +Her hand was on her dagger, her head was raised proudly; every inch and +line of her figure irradiated splendid strength and surety; Milo heaved +at the rock, and smiled blissfully. This was indeed how he had dreamed +of his Sultana when she should come into her own. + +He heaved steadily, and the great rock rose from one side, rolling up +and up until it balanced on the ledge; but Milo knew there was some +agency at work that hindered the raising of it; never before had it been +a task to bring sweat to his brow, and now he dripped from every pore. +The rock refused to balance without his hand upon it, and he dared not +take his shoulder away to look over the top lest it fall and crush him. +He cast an appealing look toward Dolores, who was impatiently waiting +for him to stand clear, and she stepped past him to the outside. She was +greeted with a roar of derision that echoed far down to the sea. + +"Peace, dogs of the devil!" she cried with one hand upraised. A roaring +guffaw answered her. Then a burly ruffian, one-eyed and marked by a +great cutlas-scar that ran from his chin across his broken nose and +ended somewhere among the roots of his hair, stepped forward with a +smirk of confidence, and made a mock curtsy. + +"Queen o' the pirates, we salute ye!" he said. Then threw away all +pretense, and swore a ripping curse to the destination of his soul. +"Come, my girl," he shouted, "the game's played to a finish. Th' old +buck is dead, an' we want some o' them pretties he hid away inside. +You're a nice gal, I don't deny, and we ain't going to harm ye if ye +don't hinder us; but we ain't playin' kings an' queens no more. Come +now, let the big feller take us in, and say no more about it, for have +our fling, we will." + +The mob had edged nearer, until now they surged around the entrance so +close to Dolores that she felt the breath of the leaders. She noticed +with sharp wonderment that Yellow Rufe was not among the foremost; but +she was given no time to surmise, for the mob pressed on until she was +forced either to risk an advance or give ground. A little shock rippled +through her when she turned swiftly to see how Milo fared, and found him +gone. The mob saw it, too, and seethed about her with hungry faces. + +"Come on, lads!" they howled. "Milo's gone inside to open up the loot +for us." A grimy hand snatched at the girl's tunic, and in a flash the +entrance was choked with fiercely striving shapes. + +With a gasping cry of fury Dolores struck aside the bold hand, and with +a panther-spring she was upon him. One slender, brown hand, strong as a +steel claw, gripped his throat; the other hand gripped a glittering +dagger that swept like the arrow of fate to his heart and dropped him a +log at her feet. Just for a breath the crowd paused in awe; then +hoarsely growling they packed forward again, and Dolores found herself +fighting desperately against men maddened into steel-armed wolves, +thirsty for her blood in payment for that split. She more than held her +own by sheer skill and suppleness for a space; but assailed from all +sides save the back she speedily felt her limbs growing heavy and +awkward, and a cutlas sang above her bent head when her foot had failed, +leaving her without guard or avoidance. + +Then she knew that she had been permitted to win her spurs. For the +threatening cutlas was caught in mid air by a huge bare hand, wrenched +from its owner's grasp, and returned point first into the assailant's +breast. And Milo's deep voice rang in her ear: + +"Step into the passage, Sultana, and swiftly. Have a care for the body +on the floor, but tarry not. To pause is to die!" + +She felt herself drawn inside, the battle seemed to leave her isolated, +the passage was as still as a cloister after the turmoil outside, and +she stumbled along in the dim red glow, barely avoiding tripping over a +body on the floor which a glance showed her to be a corpse. This was the +man who had tried to crush back the rock door on Milo. + +Dolores spurned the body with her foot, and abruptly turned back, in a +rage to think that she had permitted the giant slave to order her into +skulking security. She halted as swiftly as she had turned; for in the +aperture at the end of the passage the huge form of Milo stood, both +hands raised, and in them a cask was poised. A queer, spluttering sound +at first puzzled Dolores; then she made out a short, hanging fuse +depending from the cask, and it spluttered as it dwindled, flinging +sparks around the giant's bowed head until the point of fire seemed +ready to disappear in the bung-hole. + +"Treasure for dogs!" roared Milo. "Divide it among thee!" The great rock +thudded down as the cask hurtled out into the mob; the next instant the +cavern shook and quivered to a terrific explosion; a moment after the +earth might have been dead for all sound in the passage; yet another +moment and the outer world rang with cries and shrieks, curses and +entreaties, and Milo bowed low to his mistress and said: + +"Now if my Sultana deems fit, it is time to show this scum of the earth +their sovereign." + +"Wait, Milo," replied Dolores, shuddering slightly at sight of him. The +giant was streaked and splashed with blood; for in those moments when he +stood defenseless before casting his infernal machine, a dozen cutlases +and knives had sought his life. + +"Pardon thy slave," he returned, sensing her meaning. "I will go thus. +'Twere not good that these dogs should know their wounds can hurt. Such +scratches are nothing. They are paid for in full." + +"It is well. Lead out again, good Milo, and fear not for me. With thou +beside me I am armed in proof." + +Again they emerged into the air, but now a deathly silence received +them. Silence broken only by the rustling of garments, as a withered old +crone shambled forward and cast herself at Dolores's feet. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE GROVE OF MYSTERY. + + +Dolores stood still, sweeping the scene of destruction with a gaze of +flinty penetration. The groveling crone at her feet affected her like +something unclean, and she spurned the old woman with her foot, stepping +aside with a gesture of disgust. Then she raised her right hand, and +cried with bitter scorn: + +"Come, my brave jackals! Come to the feast prepared for thee." She +lowered her hand and with a contemptuous smile indicated the gruesome +results of the explosion of Milo's awful bomb. + +On the edge of the forest the hardier rascals had halted; at her word +they glared loweringly at her and the impassive giant at her back; from +the shadow of the trees yellow and brown and black faces peered in +quivering terror; but none responded to her command to approach her. The +old woman on the ground alone made audible reply, and her slavish +whining enraged Dolores. With a stamp of her sandaled foot she tore from +her waist the gold cord, slipped off the dagger sheath, and fell upon +the wretched old servitor with a shower of blows. + +"Silence, old cat!" she cried, and the blows fell heavily. "Up with +thee, and away. Go quickly, and make ready the altar in the Grove of +Mystery. Cease thy bleating, old witch, and summon thy shaky wits +against the ordeal I shall put thee to. Some one among ye stirred up the +rising which resulted as ye now see. That one I shall know before +sundown, and he shall bitterly repent him. Away!" + +Dolores was astonished at seeing no sign of Rufe, but outwardly she +showed none of her astonishment. A more vital consideration was present +in the disobedience of the motley crew who as yet made no effort to come +to her call. Drawing herself fully erect when the old woman departed, +she again stretched out her hand and cried: + +"Dogs of Satan! I await your homage. Red Jabez lies dead: yet his spirit +lives in me, your queen. By so many breaths that ye flout me, by just so +many torments shall I have ye torn. Come, dogs. Kneel!" + +A hoarse murmur went up from the forest edge, and first one by one, then +in knots of half a score each, the negroes and half-breeds slunk into +the open and approached her with eyes full of panic. The whites, not so +susceptible to abstract influence, still hesitated, drawing near to each +other in growling consultation. Dolores gave them no sign, though she +watched them keenly from under her lowered lashes. She gave her +attention to the line of abject creatures who filed slowly past her, +each one stopping to grovel in the dust at her feet and passing on. +These Milo halted near by and herded into a shivering, frightened mob. +And Dolores's cool disregard of the whites had its calculated effect. +One by one they stepped out into the open as had the colored men; the +more timorous, or superstitious, came first, some wearing shamed grins, +others palpably impressed by the example of the others and shuffling on +their way uncomfortably. Last of all came the bolder spirits, and these +wore faces intended to express contempt, or at least sarcastic +indifference; but the faces changed invariably on closer approach to the +queen. Memory proved a stubborn master; in every man's breast +remembrance clamored to them to have a care how they bore themselves +before this beautiful fury they called queen. + +Still Yellow Rufe came not. + +When all had knelt, and all had been herded by the giant Milo in two +separate parties, the number was tallied, and of the whites, besides +Rufe, seven were missing. One lay inside the passage; of the rest there +were remains lying about the rocky wall to the cavern that might be +three men or six--human discernment could never decide which. + +Dolores faced her mongrel subjects again and her dark eyes blazed with +fire, her beautiful face was dark with surging blood, every line of her +lithe figure quivered as she spoke: + +"I seek the dog who stirred ye up to mutiny!" she cried. "Yellow Rufe, +if it be he, is not among ye, nor is he one of these carrion scattered +on the ground. If it be some other villain, him I will know before the +sun has stretched my shadow to the cliff. Deliver him up to me, and he +alone shall repay. Disobey, and every biting dog among ye shall swiftly +learn the price of disobedience. I wait." + +The sun was fast setting, and already the shadows had grown long. Five +minutes at most would see the shadow of Dolores's head at the base of +the great rock, and the blacks started whimpering with apprehension. +Among the whites a tremendous quiet reigned; but sullen brows here, +snarling teeth there, gave hint of their interest in the sun's progress. +Still no man spoke. Rather they looked at each other questioningly as +the minutes flew, as if the culprit were indeed not among them. + +But Dolores was wise beyond her years, wise with a wisdom bred of her +volcanic existence in such a station, and she refused to be hoodwinked +by the apparent absence of the man she sought. Her shadow touched the +rock, and without another second of hesitation she turned toward the +forest fringe, walking with majestic carriage and looking neither to +right nor left. She simply uttered one short sentence: "To the Grove!" + +Every man with dark blood in his veins followed her like a sheep, for +terrible things had been witnessed in the Grove of Mysteries: things far +beyond the understanding of such men. The sullen whites hung back +again, for their colder blood was not impregnated with the fears and +superstitions that exerted such tremendous sway over their colored +fellows. Still Dolores gave them never a look; she walked on, and the +forest closed behind her, as if she believed her footsteps followed by +every foot in the unruly crew. + +It was Milo who constituted her dependable rearguard. Milo was there, +and Milo would see to it that no skulker declined his queen's command. +There lay the reason why Dolores so placidly turned her back to men +whose dearest ambition would have been realized by the plunge of steel +between her shoulders at that moment. Milo walked around to the rear of +the hesitant mob, and without a word gripped the hindmost in his two +great hands and hurled him bodily over the heads of his mates in the +desired direction. + +"Swine!" swore a harelipped Mexican, whipping out his cutlas. "I'll see +your black heart for that!" and furiously made play to avenge insult to +his sorely handled fellow. + +The black giant turned as calmly as if his mistress had called him, and +seized the fellow's cutlas hand in one huge fist, crushing bone and +steel into gory pulp without visible effort. His lips never opened, his +tremendous chest was ruffled not one whit; Milo's eyes alone gave +warning of what he might do if occasion arose; and fooled by his obvious +carelessness, the white men closed around him, knives and cutlases +drawn, frantic for his life. + +They should have known better. Their lessons had been many and vivid; +but not a man of them all was of the caliber to learn from a slave. Milo +kept hold of his man's hand, and at the scrape of steel leaving +scabbard, he brought up his free hand and grasped the fellow's left +wrist. Then, springing aside with the resistless impulse of a charging +buffalo, he gained a clear space, and began to swing his victim by the +wrists. + +One complete circle was made with the human club, then a catlike ruffian +watched his chance and darted in with murderous knife at Milo's breast +while the dreadful club was at his back. Cool as a mountain spring, the +giant immediately let go his man, letting him fly far behind him like a +stone from a catapult. In a twinkling of an eye, the great hands that +released the one captive closed afresh on the new assailant in front, +and now the giant gave no further grace. His fingers tightened on the +man's throat and the desperate face went black. Then, keeping the fellow +ever before him, he suddenly flung him into the air by the waist, +shifting holds with tigerish swiftness, and caught him by the ankles as +he came down. He whirled the unfortunate wretch once, and three men went +down under the terrible blow; the rest scattered with furious howls, +bespattered with the blood of their comrade; but one more sight of the +unruffled giant cowed them; none attempted further knife or sword-play. +Then Milo smiled scornfully, and uttered: "Go!" and they went to the +forest like jackals before the lion. The giant saw them on their way, +and tossing his fearful weapon over the cliff, strode after them, an +awful embodiment of relentless, all but limitless strength. + +The forest lay hushed and dim beyond the fringe; whispering leaves and +crackling twigs sounded sharp as a shower of stones in the stillness. +Great trees reared their majestic heads to mingle their foliage and shut +out the light; every creeping, flying, walking creature seemed awed into +a vague murmuring that was deeper than silence. The Grove of Mysteries +was a semicircular space of cool, mossy sward, bowered in great trees +and tangled vine screens; its background was the bare rock of the +cliffside itself--actually, though unknown to the rabble, the outer +rocky wall of the great chamber--and against this stood the altar. + +The old woman had made use of her skinny limbs to good effect, impelled +by a fear that had become terror. The altar was resplendent in silk and +velvet, fashioned for an altar very different from this; but in place of +the vessels usually associated with so sacred a piece of furniture, the +Altar of the Grove was embellished with a mosaic of skulls and bones +surrounding a complete skeleton which held its head in one grisly hand. + +In the hollow eye-sockets glowed a weird fire that darted forth at +irregular intervals like glances of demoniacal hate; at the altar foot a +great censer erupted a dense cloud of pungent smoke that rendered the +altar and those about it still more vague and ghostly. And the glade was +full of cowering, slavering blacks and half-breeds, whose superstitious +terrors reached high tide with each succeeding swirl of smoke or +outflash of eye-socket fires. + +Dolores went directly to the old woman, who stood in cringing +subservience with a plain white garment in her hands. This she placed on +the girl's shoulders, fastening it at the bosom with a small skull of +jade stone whose grinning teeth were pearls, and whose eye-sockets were +empty with an awful blackness. The gold circlet was discarded, and in +its place Dolores placed on her head a turban formed from a stuffed +coiled snake, whose neck and head darted hither and thither on cunning +springs with her every motion and gesture. + +To this awesome place came the herd that Milo drove before him; and not +a man among the hardened crew was hardy enough to carry his bravado into +the Grove. Blacks and whites alike, no matter what their inmost thoughts +might be, yielded to the spell of the place the moment their feet trod +the sward and the congregation settled into the places allotted to them. + +Dolores glided out in front of the altar, and eyes glittered, dusky +throats went constricted and dry with terror when she stirred up the +brazier and was hidden for a moment in the rising volume of blue smoke +in which flashes of devilish light played incessantly. Milo stepped up +behind and above the altar, and as the smoke reeked about him vanished +seemingly into the face of the cliff. There, in an unsuspected outlet to +the great chamber, was the key to much of the magic with which Dolores +kept her turbulent crew on the borderline of fear. She flashed a glance +holding much of anxiety after her giant servitor, and busied herself +about the altar to gain time. + +She had received from his hands as he stepped up the effigy of a man in +black wax, and now she advanced with hand upraised for silence. It was +unnecessary: the silence of the dead prevailed in the Grove. With the +image held aloft Dolores was a magnet that drew all eyes inevitably. Six +inches tall, the image was a cleverly modeled composite of every type in +the motley band; and every man realized this. Placing the effigy on the +altar, Dolores seized from the brazier a glowing coal with her bare +hands and placed it behind the figure. Then she flung both hands high +and her vibrant voice pealed through the Grove. + +"Regard all men the voice of the gods! By this sacred fire shall this +image be melted; and when it is gone, out of its many likenesses shall +remain the shape of him who stirred ye to mutiny against me. That shape +I shall show ye by the power of my will. Lest ye disbelieve that I have +this power, behold! Look for proof in the smoke behind me!" + +As she spoke she stirred the incense to a dense cloud of smoke, and her +blazing eyes, turned from her people, peered through the reek for a +reassuring sign from the rock, for what she now demanded of Milo called +for superhuman swiftness and surety. As the seconds sped, she kept the +smoke swirling thickly, and her voice rang out in a weird incantation +that kept the spectators trembling with the growing suspense. + +Then a triumphant note entered her speech; the smoke rose thicker for an +instant, then dissolved; and as it vanished, high on the rocky cliff, +framed, as it seemed, in the solid rock itself, stood the grim, cold +figure of the dead Red Jabez. + +In this, her grave extremity, Milo the strong, Milo the slave, more than +all, Milo the faithful, had not failed her. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE PIRATES' BARBECUE. + + +A moment of ghastly hush prevailed, then the Grove shook from sward to +tree-tops--pandemonium broke loose and all were in turmoil. + +No need now to wait for the verdict of the wax image; no further +shifting of brazen glances, or winking of knowing eyes. Shrill voices of +terrified blacks, hoarse bellowings of the hardiest rascals who had +ever kissed a dripping cutlas, the throaty roar of men who had played +willing lieutenants to the ringleader: all pealed up to high heaven for +the culprit to come forth and taste of the queen's justice rather than +wait for her vengeance. + +"Rufe! Yellow Rufe!" they howled. They howled it until the forest echoed +with the word. + +"Peace, Devilspawn!" cried Dolores, covering the crowd with an +all-embracing smile of utter scorn. "Think ye I need to hear the name? +Go, all of ye! Fill your swinish skins with liquor, and trouble me no +more this day. When I will that Yellow Rufe appear, here he shall be +drawn, whether he will or not. And in your carousal let this thought be +with ye: Ye are dogs and slaves of dogs; by my will ye live, at my word +ye die. The Red Chief is dead; I am your law, your queen, owner of your +bodies and souls! Let any of ye seek to imitate Yellow Rufe, and Milo +shall pick your limbs apart as if ye were flies. Go now; there is rum +broached, and wine; make a barbecue, and fill yourselves to bursting +like the vultures ye are!" + +"Hello, lads, that's your sort!" roared a purple-faced ruffian with a +hang-lip. "A right proper gal is that. Give her a huzza and crack yer +pipes, lads!" + +"Bravo, Hanglip!" bellowed another of the same kidney. Spotted Dog had +lost part of an ear, and the same knife had seamed his flabby jowl into +the likeness of a bloodhound's cheek; his deeply-pitted visage completed +the ensemble, and no other name would have fitted him as well. "Bravo, +old cutthroat! Let her play queens an' fairies, if she wants to. Here's +for th' jolly grog, lads. Hey, Stumpy, start a cheer for th' pretty +wench!" + +So had the spell of the Grove left them immediately they smelled the +fleshpots. But Dolores still held the altar; and Stumpy, having a keener +memory perhaps than most of his fellows, took the warning that flashed +from her angry eyes. He shivered slightly as his gaze met hers, then, +hopping forward on his one good leg and club-foot, he swung a knotty +fist against Spotted Dog's creased jowl and growled: + +"A turn wi' that poison tongue, Spotted Dog. All hands, too, hear me +talkin'. Here's a royal feast spread for us, an' th' spreader's queen o' +th' pirates! Don't ever ferget that, lads. I ain't hankerin' fer what +Rufe'll get. Away wi' you, now, an' I'll slit th' winepipe o' th' dog as +says disrespect to th' queen." + +And so the rascals trooped down to their hut-village. Noisily, +profanely, full of horseplay and ear-burning jests; but never a voice +spoke any word that failed in its homage when Dolores was the theme. + +Snugly settled around the great rock door, the pirates' village looked +out from a broad level platform over the darkening evening sea. In the +center, its rear abutting on the rock itself, stood the great council +hall and the dwelling of Dolores. In front of this black slaves busily +heaped a great bonfire; torches were thrust into iron rings on doorpost +and tree-trunk; noisy ruffians tramped into a cool cave in the rock and +trundled forth casks and horn cups; while Sancho, the Spaniard, bent +over a whetstone, giving his knife a final edge against the arrival of +the meat. + +A venomous devil was this Sancho, and his contorted face, with the +missing eye covered by a black patch, worked demoniacally in the +gathering darkness with each leaping flame of the ignited torches. The +hand that clutched the knife was a thing of horror; two fingers and half +the thumb remained from some drunken brawl to serve the Spaniard in +future play for work or debauch; and the man, crouching low over his +stone, made a picture of incarnate hate that had no humor in it. + +"Where's th' flesh?" screamed Sancho, looking up, his mutilated thumb +running creepily along the knife-edge. + +"Whet your tusks, lads, here's the blessed manna!" squealed Caliban, a +hunchbacked terror, who kept his maimed carcass secure by virtue of his +viperish temper, coupled with an uncanny skill of the cutlas. "Milo's +our man! Huzza for Milo!" + +Out from the trees stalked the giant Abyssinian, and the shadows and +torchlight distorted him to grotesque proportions. He walked as if his +weight was nothing; yet on his great shoulders he bore a half-grown ox, +its feet hobbled, its tongue hanging from its panting mouth. Straight to +the fire he stepped and cast his burden down, turning again without a +word and going back to the rock portals. + +"Meat for men!" screamed Sancho, crouching again, knife in hand. + +"For men!" echoed Caliban ferociously, and whipped his cutlas out. +"Stand clear!" he howled, and Sancho dodged aside. The little terror's +blade sang through the air with a wicked whistle; it curved high over +Sancho, then flashed down and plunged through the throat of the ox, +pinning the beast to the earth. And when he recovered his breath the +Spaniard swooped upon the prize, and his knife completed what the dwarf +had well begun. + +Then began an orgy that must render description bald and colorless. +Casks were broached by knocking out the heads; long horns of cattle were +filled to slopping over with rare wine or powerful rum; and then up +leaped Hanglip on to an unbroached cask, cup in hand, and bellowed a +toast that set the trees, the sea, the skies clamoring with rasping +applause. + +"The next vessel as heaves in sight, lads! May her sails be silk, her +masts be gold, and her great cabin full o' rum, with a pretty wench +sittin' atop o' every keg!" + +From the fire came the odor of roasting meat, and the black night came +down outside, making of the small circle where the pirates sprawled a +blotch of infernal light, peopled with infernal shapes. But a sprinkling +of faces a shade less evil leavened the mass; for to the feast came +trooping the women of the camp: of a kidney with the men--yet women, +with women's beguilements and softnesses. + +Dolores sat alone in the great chamber, careless of the noise outside, +her beautiful face dark with somber passion. Beside her chair Milo had +placed her treasure chests; hers now, through the death of the terrible +old corsair who had amassed them. Idly she had heaped the table with a +glittering collection of gems that an empress might well have found +interest in; but Dolores frowned as at so much dross, for her thoughts +were far away. The filmiest of lace and silken shawls, jeweled +slippers, gossamer-gold head dresses, pearls and rubies from India and +Persia--all lay in confusion at her hand, and aroused no spark of joy in +her breast. From time to time her brooding eyes flashed and fastened +upon a priceless Rembrandt "Laughing Cavalier" on the wall opposite; +they flashed again when her gaze shifted to a colossal Rubens "Rape of +the Sabines"; her face lighted for an instant when her fingers in +groping closed upon a cobwebby golden net, scintillating with cunningly +wrought jeweled insects caught in the meshes, which had once graced the +all-powerful head of Pompadour. + +"Where such things are, are better!" she whispered vehemently, clenching +her strong, slender hands fiercely. "Where such are fashioned and worn +there are people worthy my power. My people! Pah!" she burst out +passionately. "My people? Dogs! Cattle! Brutes without souls! There--" +she flung a hand impetuously toward the "Laughing Cavalier"--"there is +the pirate who should call me queen! There"--with a gesture toward +Rubens's great canvas--"are men that I would command. Here, I must stay, +why? Because a dead man willed it so. May I wither eternally if I make +not my own laws. Milo!" + +She clapped her hands, and in a moment the giant was before her, +reverent awe in every line of his huge body. + +"Sultana?" + +"Are my beasts well fed?" + +"They eat like crocodiles, guzzle like swine, Sultana." + +"See that the liquor flows freely, Milo. And a word in thy ear. We shall +go from here as quickly as the fates will send a ship. Let no sail pass +henceforth." + +"Lady, that may not be--" + +"Silence! Give me no may not! When I, Dolores, will to go, who shall +stay me?" + +"Death lies beyond the horizon for thee as for all of us, Sultana. +Pirate the Red Chief was last of the band; every man who calls thee +queen is under sentence of death; the pillage of a hundred ships lies +here. Here is safety. The Red Chief's law--" + +"Peace! I am the law! Seek me that ship--and quickly. Shall I live among +such carrion, when the world is peopled with such as those?" she cried +with a sweeping gesture toward a life-size "Three Graces," by Correggio, +epitomizing feminine grace indeed. + +"Thou art fairer, Sultana," replied the giant simply; and the girl +flushed warmly for all her moody dissatisfaction. She smiled kindly upon +the slave, and said more softly: "Thy devotion pleases me, Milo. Yet is +my will unchanged. Seek me that ship. I will go from here. Stay, if thou +wilt, or art afraid." + +"Lady," returned the giant, "when the Red Chief, thy father, took me +from the slave ship he gave me liberty--liberty to serve him. He has +gone; my care is now the queen, his daughter. Going or staying, Milo +remains thy bodyguard. Pardon if I offended thee; thy father desired +what I have told thee. But the ship. This evening, at sundown, a sail +leaped in sight beyond the Tongue." + +"This evening! And ye said no word of it?" cried Dolores, blazing with +fresh anger. She leaned forward in her chair as if crouching for a +spring. + +"It passed as swiftly as it appeared, Sultana. No other eye save mine +saw it; the men know nothing--" + +"It is well, Milo. I had forgotten thy eyes were twice as keen as any +other man's. Keep that condor's vision of thine bent to seaward, and +tell no man of what comes into view. Bring me the news; I shall know how +to keep my rascals in hand. Now go and send to me a woman to serve me: a +young woman, nimble and deft; give the old woman to the cooks for +scullery drudge." + +"A woman here, Sultana?" + +"Here! What bee buzzes in thy great head now?" The giant again looked +grave; the girl's impatience surged anew. + +"Sultana, don't forget that, save thee and me, servant of the great +chamber, none may enter here and go alive?" + +"Now by the fiend, enough!" blazed the girl. "Again, I am the law! Wilt +have it imprinted on thy great body with my whip?" + +Milo made a low obeisance, departed without further speech, and in a few +moments ushered in from the bacchanalian revels a maid for his +mistress. + +"Pascherette will serve thee well, Sultana," he said, leading the girl +forward. He saw approval in Dolores's face and departed, his luminous +black eyes unwontedly soft and limpid. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +MILO SIGHTS A SAIL. + + +Day broke through a silver haze, and as the blue sea unrolled to view, +far down to the southeast, flashed a pearly sliver of sail lazily +drawing in to the coast. It was the merest streak of white against the +sky, and none but Milo's sharp eyes could have seen it. Even at that +distance, and indistinct though it was in the mist, the giant detected +the three masts crossed with yards that proclaimed the vessel a +full-rigged ship. He gazed long and earnestly, to assure himself of the +ship's progress, then hurried along the mountain toward the village. + +He strode with the free stride of a perfect creature, swinging from the +hip and covering the ground at a common man's running pace. His vast +chest heaved and fell easily and rhythmically, the golden-hued skin +rippling and flashing in the rising sunlight; every line of limbs and +torso was the outward and visible sign of abounding health; the straight +black hair falling to his shoulders framed a keen, powerful face of +Semitic mold, in which the high brow and calm, fearless eyes belonged +rather to one of the blood-royal than to a slave. And rightly, too, for +Milo, the giant, was of princely line in his own land, and his present +servitude was an accident that had yet failed to rob him of his +birthright of dignity. + +He came abreast of and above the haven where lay the stout sloop and +boats of the community, and the sounds of noisy industry about the craft +brought a frown and a sneer to his face. It reminded him too vividly of +his actual station, and violently dragged him back from the realm of +visions he had allowed himself to indulge in. The pirates were busily +overhauling their gear, filling water casks, calking dried-out seams, +and sluicing opening decks with copious streams of water, just as they +were used to do in the palmy days when Red Jabez kept them gorged with +pillage. + +Milo hurried faster, for he feared they too had sighted his ship, and +sprang down to the shore to accost surly Caliban. + +"Here, Milo old buck, stick yer beak into this, lad!" screamed Caliban, +thrusting forward a brimming horn of wine. The giant declined +impatiently, waving a hand toward the activity afoot. + +"What, won't drink luck, hey?" cried the dwarf, emptying the horn +himself. "Ain't got the news yet, hey?" + +"News? What news can such as thee have that I am not told?" demanded +Milo contemptuously. Caliban scowled viciously at his tone, but the +giant's hands were strong, and the little ruffian loved his warped life. +He flung down his horn and retorted: "We're to windward o' ye this time, +Milo me lad. Th' queen bade us be ready for a lamb headed this way, an', +sure enough, there comes a craft now, a'most in sight from here. Small +fish, true, but sweet after so long a spell o' famine." + +Milo knew that the ship he had seen could not possibly have been +detected from the village. It must be yet another craft, and, without a +word, he bounded back up the cliff and scanned the waters closer +inshore. There, sure enough, lay a beautiful white schooner, her paint +dazzling to the eye, her decks flashing with metal, her canvas faultless +in fit and set and whiteness. She was still five miles distant and +slowly edging along the coast, as if indifferent to her tardy progress. +The giant noted her exact position, then presented himself to Dolores. + +The girl was luxuriously submitting to the skilful attentions of +Pascherette; her wealth of lustrous hair enveloped her like a veil, +rendering almost superfluous the filmy silken robe she had donned. But +at sight of Milo all her feline contentment fled, and she thrust the +maid from her and stood up to receive his report. + +"A ship?" she flashed. + +"Two, Sultana. The men make ready now." + +"The men? Dolt! Did I not tell thee to keep such news for me?" + +"They saw the small vessel while I was beyond the Tongue. They have not +seen the ship I saw, nor have I told them. It is a great ship, lady; +theirs is but a small, poor thing." + +"I will see it." Dolores suddenly remembered the maid, whose presence +she had ignored. Pascherette stood apart, a small, fairylike French +octoroon, dainty as a golden thistledown; her full red lips were parted +in eager inquisitiveness, and her slim, small body leaned forward, as if +to catch every word; but at sight of her Dolores burst into knowing +merriment, for the girl's eyes told her story. They were fastened in +intense, burning adoration, not on the mistress but on Milo, the giant +slave. + +"La-la, chit!" Dolores cried; "keep thy black eyes from my property." +But more weighty matters than a maid's fluttering bosom demanded her +attention, and she commanded sharply: "Milo, summon the men to the +council hall at once. Let none be absent. Go swiftly!" Milo went, and +Dolores flashed around on Pascherette again: "And thou, hussy, take this +clinging frippery from me and give me my tunic. And, mark me, girl, thy +eyes and ears belong to me. Thy tongue, too. Let that tongue utter one +word of what those eyes see, those ears hear, and it shall be plucked +from thy pretty mouth with hot pincers. Remember!" + +Dolores put on her tunic and swept out to steal a long look at the white +schooner before entering the hall. + +Into the council hall the pirates came trooping, tarry, wet, soiled with +the estuary mud as they were, and stood in a milling mob awaiting speech +from Dolores, who entered from the rear and scanned their faces closely. +Shuffling feet and whistling breath would not be stilled, even in her +presence, for their appetites were already whetted for a victim, and the +fumes of the previous night's debauch lingered. They glared at the girl +and cursed impatiently. + +"Hear!" commanded Dolores with an imperious gesture, and every sound was +muffled, not stilled. "Hear, my brave jackals! For long ye have hungered +for employment fit for the royal corsairs ye are. Now the meal is to +hand." The hall reverberated with the clamor that went up. Cutlases +scraped from their scabbards and swished aloft; bold Spotted Dog +snatched out his great horse-pistol and blazed into the floor, filling +the place with acrid smoke and noise. Dolores's eyes flashed angrily; +she governed her fury, and went on when the uproar subsided: "Your boats +are ready?" + +"Ready and rotting wi' idleness!" roared Hanglip. + +"And ye purpose wasting powder and shot on some paltry craft of the +islands! Wait, my brave lads, I have better game at hand!" + +Now the crowd was hushed in earnest, for none of them saw more than a +frolic coming from such a small craft as the schooner. The girl went on +to tell them of the big ship that Milo had seen, and she painted it a +rich West Indiaman, loaded to the hatches with rum and powder, gold and +jewels, delicate meats and--with emphasis which she carefully cloaked +yet made vivid--dainty ladies, no doubt. + +"Take ye the sloop, then," she commanded, "and bring me no tale of +failure. Ten miles southwest from the bluff she lies becalmed. Let no +man return without tribute for me. Go now!" + +With a whoop the evil ruffians tumbled out, hurling themselves pell-mell +down to the shore, and splashing out to the boats. Their sloop, a long, +beamy Cayman-built craft, of eighty tons and twelve murderous guns that +were cast for a king's ship, could be handled by four men or a hundred. +She carried fifty men now, and she sped out of the estuary before the +faint breeze with a velocity that spelled certain doom for any +square-rigged ship she ever lifted over the horizon. + +Dolores watched them go with inscrutable face; then commanded Milo to +attend her in the great chamber. Pascherette, not yet over her fright, +hovered tremblingly near, and her mistress dismissed her with a +pacifying pat on the head, flinging, at the same time, a string of +pearls around her neck that brought mingled gratitude, greed, and +conceit into her sparkling eyes. + +"How stands the schooner now?" Dolores asked when the girl had gone. + +"She drifts slowly, Sultana. There is little wind. Yet she ever comes +nearer." + +"Milo, that is my ship!" breathed Dolores fervidly. "I have jewels and +silken trash, the richest in my store, which my father told me were +taken from such a vessel. A yacht, he called that craft. 'Tis sailed for +pleasure; trade never soils the holds of such craft; men who sail such a +vessel as that which now hovers near us are of the kind from which comes +such as that!" Once more she indicated the "Laughing Cavalier," and now +her form and face were filled with surging ambition strengthened with +ardent hope. + +"How goes our sloop?" she asked abruptly. + +"Swiftly, but with the dying breath of the wind. By noon she will be +swinging idly, Sultana." + +"Who of the boldest rascals remain with us?" + +"The noisiest dogs have gone. Sancho remains, for Stumpy cracked his +head last night in a brawl. The others here are but cattle!" The giant +uttered the words with bitter scorn. + +"Then, at noon, Milo, we move to secure my ship!" Dolores cried with +gleaming eyes. "Set slaves to move out the false Point and anchor it a +cable-length off the true. I will have a plan then to lure the schooner +on. We must not let her escape, Milo!" + +"Pardon, lady, I know a way!" + +"And that?" + +"I will swim to the schooner and command them to thy presence." + +Dolores smiled whimsically, for she was too wise to be ignorant of the +fact that such men as were in that schooner must first be caught before +they might be commanded. Yet the giant's plan suggested another to her. + +"Hear my plan," she said. "That chit--Pascherette--she's a dainty minx! +Does she swim?" + +"Like a conger, Sultana!" Milo's face lighted warmly, and Dolores +shrewdly guessed then that the petite octoroon's regard for the giant +was not altogether unrequited. + +"Then carry her abreast of the vessel, quickly, and bid her swim out to +it. Let her use some of the cunning that is in her pretty little head, +and make them wonder what else our island has to offer in dainties. +Then, ere evening, I shall have work for thee that shall complete what +Pascherette begins. Command the minx to bring forth all her fascinations +and allurements. Nay, friend, have no fear for thy sweetheart. I warrant +thee she can care for herself, if she will. Go! It is my command!" + +Milo departed, and Dolores went out to the Grove, climbed nimbly to the +cliff-top, and sat down to watch. She had a clear view of the schooner +now winging lazily along three miles away and a mile off shore; the +shore, from the point where her rascals were even now towing out a great +mass of interlaced trees and foliage planted upon stout logs to form a +false point, right along to abreast of the schooner, lay immediately +beneath her eye; the blue sea glittered and flashed under the hot sun, +unruffled by wind, and only bursting into a long line of creamy foam, +where it licked the golden sands. The tall palms nodded languorously, +their deep green heads faintly chafing like sleeping crickets; the +tinkle of the sands came up to her ears like tiny bells. + +Dolores followed with her eyes two swiftly moving figures on the shore +path, hidden from the ocean by a mass of verdure, and she smiled +cryptically. The giant Milo strode on his way like the embodiment of +force; at his side tripped Pascherette, her glossy black crown barely +reaching above his waist, her tiny hand hidden completely in his great +fist. And she kept her bright eyes raised to his great height all the +while, satisfied that her little feet should trip, perhaps, if only her +eyes tripped not from his face. + +Presently they stopped, and Dolores stood up alertly. There was but a +moment's delay, while Pascherette bound her hair more securely; then, +with a flirting hand-wave, the little octoroon darted from Milo, +wriggled through the bushes, and ran lightly down to the sea. In another +moment her small, black head was moving rapidly toward the schooner, her +golden skin flashing warmly in the sun as her arms swept over and over +in an adept stroke that carried her forward with the speed of a fish. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE PARTY FROM THE YACHT. + + +The schooner yacht Feu Follette swam sluggishly along shore, her lofty +canvas flapping in the faint air. On her spotless quarter-deck, Rupert +Venner, wealthy idler and owner of the vessel, lounged in a deck-chair a +picture of the utter finality of boredom. His guests, Craik Tomlin and +John Pearse, made perfunctory pretense of admiring the lovely coast +scenery along the port hand; but their air was that of men surfeited +with sights, tired of the languorous calm, _blasé_ of life. + +The schooner's appointments typified money in abundance. From forecastle +capstan to binnacle she glowed and glittered with massive brass and +ornate gilding; along the waist six burnished-bronze cannon stood on +heavily carved carriages, lashings and breechings as white as a shark's +tooth; over the quarter-deck double awnings gave ample clearance to the +swing of the main boom--the outer of dazzling white canvas, the inner of +richest, striped silk-and-cotton mixture. The open doors of the +deckhouse companion revealed an interior of ivory paneling touched with +gold, and hung with heavy velvet punkahs. The walls were embellished +with exactly the right number of art gems to establish the artistic +perception of the owner and to whet the expectation for more yet unseen. +But, with all this, the Feu Follette housed a discontented master and +discontented guests. + +"Oh, for a breeze!" grumbled Pearse, breaking in on the frowning +silence. "How much longer are we to drift around these stagnant seas, +Venner?" + +"The very next slant of wind shall wing us homeward," replied Venner +dreamily. "I, too, am sick of the cruise and its deadly monotony." + +Again silence, marred only by creak of gear and flap of idle sails. The +schooner barely moved now, though the western sky held promise of a +breeze later on. Then came a cry from one of the negro crew forward, +and its tenor stirred the party into mild interest. + +"De debbil, ef 'tain't one o' dem marmaids! Oh, Cæsar!" + +A ripple of panting laughter alongside brought Venner and his guests to +the rail in haste, and gone to the windless heavens was their _ennui_. A +gleaming, gold-tinted creature, a miniature model of Aphrodite surely, +arose from the blue sea and climbed nimbly into the main channels and +thence to the deck, where little pools of water dripped from the radiant +figure. She shook her small head saucily, and heavy masses of raven-wing +hair tumbled about her, provokingly cloaking the charms so boldly +outlined by her single saturated tunic of fine silk. + +"Who in paradise may you be?" ejaculated Venner, while his friends +stared with unconscious rudeness. + +"I? I am Pascherette!" laughed the small vision, and her black eyes +sparkled impudently. + +"Pascherette!" echoed Tomlin, bewildered. "Does Jamaica hold such +beauties?" He awkwardly brought forward a deck-chair, while Pearse stood +by in speechless amazement. Venner, as better became the host, ordered a +steward to bring a wrap for the astounding visitor, but the girl laughed +provokingly and declined both. + +"It is not for such as I, fine gentlemen," she said, and her sharp eyes +were roving busily about the schooner, appraising values like a +veritable pirate. "Keep thy courtesies for better than I." + +"Better than you, girl?" Venner's tone was incredulous. He was taking +mental stock of the priceless pearls about Pascherette's dainty throat. +"To be found here?" + +"If not here, where shall ye find such a one as my mistress?" +Pascherette retorted saucily. + +"Your mistress?" + +"Without doubt. I am but a slave, my lady is the queen, Dolores." + +"A queen--a white woman?" stammered Venner. + +"Oh, Venner, let us look into this!" exclaimed Pearse with unconcealed +curiosity. + +"Just what we have prayed for!" Tomlin supplemented eagerly. "Anchor, +Venner, like a good fellow. A jaunt ashore will brace us all up." + +"Nonsense!" objected the owner, albeit with a good trace of +inquisitiveness himself. "The breeze will come by evening; and who knows +what this coast harbors? A bad name sticks to this shore." + +Pascherette had wandered forward, and between sly glances aft and keen +scrutiny shoreward, she flung seductive smiles broadcast at the grinning +crew, prattling prettily to officer and man alike, as if she were indeed +a stranger to the ways of shipboard. While she made her rounds the party +aft entered into a warm dispute; their curiosity was whetted, but not +sufficiently in Venner's case, to whom the safety of the yacht was +paramount just then. They wrangled for half an hour, and the schooner +drifted on until she was within a mile or so of the outflung false +Point. Then they were again startled out of their self-possession--this +time by a cry from the girl who leaned over the bulwarks a picture of +ardent admiration for something in the water. + +Double awnings and snowy hammock-cloths restricted the view shoreward +from the quarter-deck chairs, and surprise as deep as that which greeted +the girl surged through the disputing three at a great splashing over +the side, accompanied by the boom of a voice that must come from a +powerful, free-breathing chest. + +"Room for Milo, servant of Dolores!" the hail rang out, and by the same +means as Pascherette had used, up climbed Milo, to stand motionless +before the white men, an astounding and awe-inspiring shape. + +"Another slave of the mysterious queen?" demanded Venner, when recovered +from his astonishment. "It gets interesting, gentlemen. And what is your +errand, Goliath?" he inquired of Milo. + +"I know no Goliath. I am Milo. I come to summon ye to the presence of my +queen," returned the giant with as much unconcern as if he were inviting +the pirates to a barbecue. + +A titter of amusement passed over the three yachtsmen. It was tinged +with resentment, though, and only curiosity, aroused by shock upon +shock, prevented an angry rejoinder to Milo's speech that could only +have ended one way: in physical damage to three idle gentlemen of wealth +and pleasure. + +"A summons, hey?" scoffed Tomlin. "Your queen values her rank, I think." +A dangerous gleam crept into Milo's eyes, and Pearse detected it in +time. "Venner," he said quietly, "you cannot let this adventure pass. +Here's every element of sport held up to us. Let us obey this command, +and get at least a thrill out of this humdrum cruise." + +Venner was thinking of many things, and his mind needed little making +up. He had never lost sight of those pearls of Pascherette's; his eye +could not be deceived; they were priceless. And Pearse had not failed to +notice the green jade skull-charm that depended from Milo's columnar +neck, a jade skull with pearls for teeth like the altar brooch of +Dolores. And Tomlin, for all his expressed scorn, was tingling with +ardent desire for such piquant beauty and vivacity as Pascherette's. If +such a creature were the slave, then what could the mistress be? He +assumed a more complaisant attitude, and added his vote: "A good way of +passing away this odious calm spell, Venner. Let us go." + +"Where is this great queen, my Colossus?" Venner asked. + +"I will lead thee to her presence," replied Milo. "Thy boat will take us +there in a few moments. Further on, beyond that point, the ship may lie +safely in the haven." + +Venner called his sailing master, and together they examined the chart. +It showed a sand-bar stretching off the point, a deep-water channel, +narrow but accessible, close to. + +"You can work into that anchorage?" asked Venner. + +"Yes, sir, if the air don't die away altogether. It seems good ground by +the chart." + +"Then carry the schooner in and bring up. Call away my cutter, and"--in +an undertone--"keep a good watch, Peters, this is an evil coast." + + * * * * * + +The shrill pipes reverberated under the awnings, and sailors, neat and +trim in white uniforms that contrasted beautifully with their dark +skins, ran to man the graceful white cutter. Pascherette sat in the +stern-sheets, cuddled up like a pretty kitten on a crimson silk cushion, +and Milo stood erect, as firm as if on solid ground, between passengers +and rowers as the boat sped shoreward. As the two craft separated the +schooner stood out in veritable beauty, an exquisite thing of gold and +ivory, pearl and rose. Venner's eyes lighted with pride at sight of her. +Even a long, eventless cruise had not killed the artist in him. He +touched Milo softly on the thigh and said with a smile: + +"Has your queen anything like that, my friend?" + +Milo cast a disdainful glance at the yacht, abruptly turned away again, +and replied shortly: "That is nothing." + +"Nothing!" said Venner. "Then where have you seen daintier work of men's +hands and brains?" + +"Thou shall see. Thy ship is a petty thing." + +"Now, by Heaven, Venner, he has you there!" laughed Tomlin, never +ceasing for a moment from ogling Pascherette, who purred with +contentment and smiled slyly at the frown that came to Milo's face. + +"Oh, yes, a poor thing!" laughed Pascherette, hugging her knees and +rippling over with amusement. "My mistress is a great queen. +These"--touching her pearls--"thy rigging could be formed of such, if my +queen willed." + +"And in the house of such a great queen, my girl, are doubtless other +things of beauty and worth?" put in Venner with growing sarcasm. + +"As witness this pretty wench!" smiled Tomlin, striving to fix the +girl's capricious attention, which persisted in flying ever to Milo. + +"Patience," returned Milo. "Do ye know of anything of untold worth--my +queen has that which will buy it? Have ye seen a thing of peerless +beauty--in my queen's house are many of its peers! Patience!" + +No word more would the giant utter. Like a bronze statue he stood erect, +guiding the cutter to a small landing with a silent gesture. And as the +boat swept alongside and the yachtsmen began to experience the thrill of +near expectancy, Pearse caught sight of a knot of men loitering on the +nearby slopes, and their appearance startled him. + +"Good Lord, look at those piratical ruffians!" he cried. + +His companions started, and doubt came into their faces. Then +Pascherette arose from her seat and pressed near to Tomlin, with an +insinuating, caressing movement; and that ardent gentleman exclaimed +impatiently: "Oh, never mind their looks! Come on Venner! This is what +I've dreamed of all my life! Come on!" + +Milo touched Pearse's arm, said briefly, "Come!" and that reluctant +visitor stepped ashore; while Venner, after a little twinge of +misgiving, succumbed to his curiosity regarding the hidden glories of +this strange realm, and followed the great black readily enough. + +Up the cliff they followed Milo, Pascherette running ahead and looking +backward ever and again with a seductive gesture of invitation; and in +good time they stood before the council hall, the loitering pirates +staring at them wonderingly, and from them to the graceful white +schooner just then entering the narrow channel. + +"Enter!" said Milo, and stood aside at the open door. + +The interior was dark and awfully still, and the three white men paused +on the threshold doubtfully, regarding each other with half-ashamed +faces. + +"Enter!" reiterated Milo, and curiosity got the better of them, for a +swirl of fragrance eddied out to them, and one by one, until the hall +was dotted with them, ruby and amber lights twinkled before them, +seeming to beckon them on to something mysterious in the shadows beyond +the soft lights. + +"Neck or nothing!" muttered Venner, leading the way. His friends +followed in silence. Then the doors closed behind them; but fear, doubt, +unbelief, all went to the winds at the spectacle that slowly unfolded +itself before their gaze. + +"Cleopatra reincarnated, by God!" gasped Venner. His friends could find +no words to express their sensations in that moment. + +Dolores glided out from the heavy hangings behind her chair of state, +and stood, a vision of majestic loveliness, on the dais. Clad in her +short tunic, her hair bound to her brow by the gold circlet that Milo +had made, she had calculated effects with the art of a Circe. Her +rounded arms and bare shoulders, faultless throat and swelling bosom, +radiant enough in their own fair perfection, she had embellished with +such jewels as subtly served to accentuate even that perfection. Upon +one polished forearm a bracelet was pressed, a gaud formed from one +immense emerald cut in a fashion that forced one to doubt the existence +of such a cutter in mortal form. About her neck a rope of exquisitely +matched black pearls supported a single uncut emerald which might have +been born in the same matrix with that on her arm. Her red leather +sandals were fastened, and her ankles crisscrossed, with such bands of +glittering fire as a goddess might have stolen from the belt of Orion. + +These things were revealed gradually by cunningly manipulated light +effects until Dolores blazed out entire before her stupefied guests. +They, seeking for relief from the spell, sought in her face some answer +to the riddle; but her expression was that of a being apart: +tantalizingly, inscrutably indifferent to their presence. Then Milo +advanced, prostrated himself before her, and reported his errand done. +"Rise, Milo, and I thank thee," she said, and her soft, yet vibrant, +voice sent a thrill through her waiting guests. Dolores waved a hand +toward the door. "Send Sancho in to me at once, Milo, and do ye watch +for the return of my wolves." + +The giant went out; yet the calm face of Dolores gave no relief to the +three yachtsmen; uneasiness began to sit heavily upon them, and it was +not lessened by the entry of Sancho, for such an awful impersonation of +evil in one man they had never seen before. + +"Sancho," Dolores commanded him, "it is my will that the vessel now +entering my haven be cared for as mine. See to it!" + +"The lads are hungry, lady; it is long since they tasted such--" Sancho +snarled his protest with wickedly curling lips that revealed ragged +yellow fangs. Dolores stared him down with blazing eyes, held his gaze +for a breath and uttered: "Go! See to it! Thy life is the bond!" and +Sancho slunk out like a whipped cur. + +There was an uncanny hint of dynamic force in the girl's swift +assumption of authority, and Tomlin found his throat very dry despite +the fact that he was drinking greedily of her beauty. Venner stole a +look at Pearse, and saw in that gentleman a reflection of his own rising +uneasiness. And then, at that instant of shivery doubt, Dolores smiled +at them; and in that same instant three men, with immortal souls, forgot +everything of the world and affairs in the mad intoxication of her +charm. + +"Welcome, sirs," she smiled, and stepped down to offer each a hand in +turn--not in handshake, but with an air that said plainly homage was due +to her; and whether he would or not, each of her guests raised the hand +to his lips with reverence. + +"What is your pleasure, lady?" asked Venner quietly. He was resolved to +show his friends the way into this magnificent creature's intimate +confidence; and the resolution promised interesting developments, for +each of his friends nursed a similar one. There was, even now, less of +comradeship in the looks with which the friends regarded each other. If +Dolores detected this, she made no sign. She gave a hand to Venner, led +him to the door, and smiled invitation to the others. They followed +hungrily. + +"I will give thee food and wine," she said; "then I have much to say to +thee. I have commanded that thy ship and thy men be cared for; to-night +ye are my guests. Come! But first give me thy swords. Thou'rt with +friends." They complied dumbly, dazed by her radiant charm. + +They stepped outside into the glaring sunlight; a light breeze was now +singing in the tall palms and making silvery music of the wavelets along +the shore; far away to the southwest a sliver of sail was in sight, and +to a practised eye could be made out as the pirate sloop returning. +Dolores glanced swiftly around, seeking some evidence that her commands +to Sancho were being obeyed; but she saw no man--no figure save the +ancient crone she had discarded and sent to the drudgery of the kitchen. +With a keen sidelong glance she saw that the schooner was heavily +grounded on the Point; a second glance told her that her guests were +thinking little of the schooner, for their eyes never left her face. But +notice was forced upon them, and the reason for the camp's desertion +impressed upon her, by the weird, drawn-out scream of jubilation that +issued from the old woman's withered throat an instant before her old +eyes gave her sight of her mistress and froze the cry at her lips. + +"Ha, ha, ha!" she shrieked, waving skinny arms. "That's the way Red +Jabez taught his lambs! Flesh your blade, my bully Rufe, and bring me +some of the meat!" + +Abruptly Dolores's guests swung around to follow the direction of the +old woman's arm, and the girl darted a look of fury at the scene. Out +from the point poured Yellow Rufe and a horde of strange mulattos and +blacks, and shots crackled from the schooner's rails. On the little bay +two boats filled with Sancho and his men pulled frantically toward the +fight, and the haven rang with howls of gleeful anticipation. Venner +uttered a smoking oath, and clutched Tomlin and Pearse by the arms. + +"Come fellows!" he cried. "This is treachery!" + +"Treachery? Ye wrong me, sirs!" Dolores's soft voice halted them. They +stared at her, and she gave them back look for look until she saw the +blood surge back to their faces and their eyes lose their hardness. Then +she laughed, low and sweet, and waved them back. + +"Wait. I shall preserve thy ship, and give thee back an eye for an eye +if thy men are harmed. Trust me, will ye not?" She paused a moment to +thrill them with her eyes; they stayed. They she sped down the cliff +like a deer. + + +TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month. + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE ATTACK ON THE FEU FOLLETTE. + + +By means of the floating blind the Point had been carried out across the +narrow channel until its edge rested on the bar; and the schooner lay +with a heavy list broadside on to the hard sand. Yellow Rufe and his +followers, runaways from the pirates' camp, maroons banished from their +homes for crimes against their fellows, rebellious slaves, and what not, +splashed through the shallow water and stormed the Feu Follette by way +of the jib-boom and head-rigging, while Sancho urged his boats on toward +the vessel's quarters. + +Dolores, uncertain yet as to Sancho's motives, but in no uncertainty as +to Rufe's, paused but to look around for Milo as she leaped down the +cliff. The giant was even then engaged in thwarting an inclination on +the part of the yachtsmen to follow Dolores, for, her spell gone for the +moment, Venner felt all an owner's solicitude for his property. But Milo +had been well schooled; he knew how to play upon little weaknesses; +Pascherette had told him, if he had not seen for himself, how +amorousness and cupidity formed the key-note of character in the +visitors; and now he used the knowledge to the fullest extent. The +little octoroon appeared as Dolores watched; she had hastily attired +herself in dry clothes, a single garment more filmy and daring than that +she had worn to swim aboard the schooner, and from her mistress's store +had borrowed jewels that transformed her into a beautiful little golden +butterfly. + +Dolores saw all this in a flash; she saw Pascherette take capable charge +of the three men, led them away from the cliff, and then Milo advanced +to the steep path. Turning swiftly to resume her career, Dolores uttered +a shrill, piercing cry that the giant understood perfectly, and she +plunged into the sea as he bounded down the slope to her support. + +The schooner's crew were already hard pressed; but they fought like men, +led courageously by Peters, the sailing master. As Dolores cleft the +sparkling water, speeding out to them like a gorgeous sprite of the +waves, men tugged at gun-tackles to swing a piece around to rake their +own decks, for Yellow Rufe and his ruffians had swept the forecastle +clear of defenders. And Dolores reached the vessel, climbed over the +low-listing rail nimbly as a jungle cat, at the instant when Sancho's +boats hooked on to the main-chains and took the crew in the rear. + +The pirate queen stood for a single long breath to grasp the scene in +its entirety. Panting slightly from her exertions, her blazing eyes and +heaving breast rendered her a figure of bewildering and awful +loveliness; and the Feu Follette's men paused in the fight out of sheer +amazement. + +Sancho's gaze fell on her the moment his evil head topped the rail, and +into his eyes crept an expression of detected insubordination. He sought +Yellow Rufe, but Dolores had seen all she needed to apprise her that +this was a concerted attempt to flout her authority. Then Rufe's hoarse +roar went up, and the tide of struggling men surged anew, and Sancho, +plucking up heart, rejoined with a scream. + +"Into the sea with the dogs!" he cried. "'Tis such a craft as Jabez +would love to see ye carry." + +The fight rolled aft, and Dolores was left standing alone by the midship +shot-rack. She singled out a few of her men by name, and commanded them +to rally to her side; then, seizing a cutlas from the deck, she glided +tigerishly to the main companionway, down which the pirates were now +driving the beaten crew, and the men she had picked out were shorn of +all indecision as Milo leaped on board with a bull-throated shout and +gained her side. + +"Sancho! Rufe! Have done with this play!" she cried, placing herself in +front of the blood-hungry horde. "Dogs, fall back! Have ye no memory +that ye forget how Dolores strikes?" + +Milo had picked up a handspike, and with it across his breast he bore +back the scowling rascals, smiling the while himself with quiet +contempt. But one, hardier than the rest, ran to the skylight, dashed in +the glass with his boot, and cried with outflung arm: + +"A plague upon her and her strokes. See yonder, lads--her cunning +trick--our sloop comes back empty-handed, as she well knew it would--and +here lies to your hands work that the Red Chief had reveled in. Down +with her and the big bull! Below is loot fit for bold fellows." + +Without moving from where he stood, Milo pivoted around, the heavy +handspike--six feet of true ash--rigid as a bar of iron, took the +overbold pirate at the base of the skull and spilled his brains into the +breach he had made. Growling with fury, a man from Sancho's crew sprang +to avenge the stroke with steel, and his blade creased down Milo's +sturdy ribs before the giant had recovered from his own swing. And with +the hissing slit of ripping skin Milo's debt was paid for him. Dolores, +agile as a panther, reached the pirate with her cutlas pointed, and the +steel hilt rang against his breast-bone. + +But in the momentary pause in her vigilance, a score of Rufe's ruffians +burst past her and poured below into the saloon, where renewed sounds of +combat told of the ferreting out of the beaten crew. + +"Milo, follow me!" cried Dolores, springing down the stairs herself, +careless whether her wavering half-dozen followed or stayed. Her whole +soul was sickened with the fear that this vessel, the long-wished-for +means of her release from what had become a hateful bondage, was in +danger of destruction at the red hands of Rufe's undisciplined dogs. And +swiftly approaching on the freshening evening breeze her sloop grew +momentarily clearer to the eye; it was easy to fancy she could hear the +howls of disappointed rage pealing up from her deck; it needed no second +sight to determine the side those humiliated pirates would take, when +they hove alongside another prey which promised at least a taste of +coveted loot. + +In the brief time since the pirates' entry the schooner's saloon had +become a place of desolation. All the magnificence of unrestricted cost +was there; and all the beauty of artistic selection; and over all was +the mark of the beast--blood and torn hangings, corpses and splintered +panels, chaos and sulfur smoke as the pillage started. Dolores sought +out through the smoke a breathing man in the uniform of the yacht, and +swiftly placed her lips to his ear, her mind made up to a terrible +expedient to save this vessel for herself. + +"Tell me quickly--where is the magazine?" + +The man opened his agonized eyes, saw that splendid blazing face close +to his own, and shook his head loyally. He would give his master's +enemies no assistance. + +"Speak, fool!" she hissed, shaking him. They were alone by the great +table-leg on the red-stained carpet. "I would defeat these sharks! Where +is the powder?" + +The man looked into her eyes again, and she smiled at him. It was +enough. He weakly pointed to a stout door on the starboard side, forward +of the sailing master's stateroom door, beyond which the sound of axes +already resounded. The owner's and guests' quarters were filled to +overflowing with ravenous wolves tearing and ripping in a frenzy of +pillage. At the after-end of the saloon a pirate stood over a great +cask, issuing jugs of liquor to such of his fellows as found time amid +the riot to drink. Milo gripped his handspike, waiting for a command +that should send him like awful Fate into the thick of the murderous +mob. + +"Milo! Bring me a powder-keg from that magazine!" Dolores said, still +crouching low and hidden beneath the smoke-pall. The giant entered the +room, shattering the lock with a lunge of his shoulder, and returned +bearing an unopened keg of cannon powder. + +"Place it upon the table." Then the girl rose to her feet with eyes +glittering coldly and lips pressed to a tight line. "Find me a lighted +brand--swiftly!" she said, and when the giant snatched up a splinter of +dry wood, lighting it at the steward's brazier in the little pantry off +the saloon, she swept majestically aft to suddenly confront the roaring +ruffian at the wine cask. + +"Milo, hurl this liquor cask away!" + +Milo picked up the heavy barrel as a man might pick up a cushion, heaved +it above his head, and flung it like a cannon-shot at the door, behind +which rang the greatest noise, while the pirate, whose care the wine had +been, gaped like a stranded fish. + +"Now this dog!" + +The man followed his cask before his mouth closed from his astonishment; +but as he flew his leathern lungs performed their office and warned the +pillagers of peril. Out from cabins and storerooms poured the rascals, +gorged with fine wines and delicate foods seized in their pillaging; +steamy with blood not yet dried on their bestial faces. And when the +great saloon was full, Dolores raised her torch above her head and +blazed out at them: + +"In five short breaths this vessel carries all thy black souls to hell! +Skulking rats, swim while the breath is in you!" + +The torch came down, Milo smashed in the head of the keg, revealing the +terrible contents, and as if in grim jest he snatched up a sprinkling of +the powder and flicked some grains into the flare of the torch. If there +had been any doubt as to the deadly earnestness of Dolores, there could +be none now, for sparks crackled and spit in fearful nearness to that +open keg. Men stampeded for the stairs, hurling each other down in their +frenzy; but Yellow Rufe and Sancho lingered. Theirs had been the +gravest fault; if they fled, it must be only to do penance some other +day; if they forced Dolores's hand, at least she and that scornful giant +must die the death also. They stood their ground, staring defiantly into +her expressionless face. + +Dolores spoke no word more. Milo stood like a bronze figure of Doom at +her side, his noble face expressionless as hers. Between them stood that +keg of terrible possibilities. The girl lowered the torch until the +flame all but licked the wood of the keg; a dropping piece of charred +wood fell audibly against the side. Sancho's breath caught painfully; +Yellow Rufe's bloodshot eyes wavered. Still they held on. + +"Milo, I give thee freedom!" said Dolores in a low, distinct voice that +carried to their ears like the sound of a silver bell. "Farewell, +faithful friend!" + +The torch swept around, fanning to a blaze in the eddying air, then +darted toward the keg. And with a yell that echoed on deck and far out +over the sea, Yellow Rufe and Sancho turned and fled, fighting with each +other, as had their less bold fellows, for the precious air of safety. + +Dolores laughed contemptuously, flung the torch aside and bade Milo +trample it out, then she, too, ascended to the deck to view her victory. +The sea was dotted with swimming men, the beach was full of running men, +terrified men made the cliff resound with their cries. Then, sure that +the schooner was free of foes, Dolores looked toward the sloop, now +within hail of the schooner and coming fast with sail and sweeps, while +her crew stared over the low bulwarks in puzzlement as to the reason for +the hasty exodus from the strange craft. + +"Here, Milo, is fresh fare of trouble. Hast brought my own flag?" + +"Here, Sultana," replied Milo, taking a carefully folded silken banner +from a pocket in his leathern tunic. + +"Hoist it, then, at the main! Perhaps Hanglip and Caliban, Stumpy and +the rest of my brave jackals, will forego their expected meal at sight +of it. And send forth a shout for slaves; this vessel must be cleansed +and her people's wounds attended to." + +Up at the schooner's lofty main-truck the Sultana's private flag +fluttered out; the mark and sign of Dolores's ownership. And while three +anxious yachtsmen on the cliff-top waited for her return, a hundred and +twenty hungry and thirsty baffled ruffians on the sloop cursed her +vehemently in their hoarse, dry throats. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +DOLORES DELIVERS JUDGMENT. + + +On the level sward before the village the three yachtsmen paced back and +forth in an ecstasy of apprehension. Pascherette had left them, after +playing them like fish with her own charms and a hinted promise of +Dolores's favors as bait; and the moment they were alone Venner shook +off the spell in a resurging determination to attend to the safety of +his vessel in person. + +"Follow me, Pearse; come Tomlin!" he said. "We are three mad fools to +stand here while these pirates loot and wreck the Feu Follette!" + +Tomlin shuddered as he started to follow. Pearse kept silence, but did +not hesitate. But they had not stepped ten paces before they realized +fully the completeness of their helplessness, for Venner, first to +attempt the path down, was brought to a halt by a musket leveled at his +breast, the musketeer showing only his head and shoulders above the +cliff edge. And as Tomlin and Pearse came up, they, too, were abruptly +halted in like manner; and a grinning Carib motioned each back with an +unspoken command which was none the less inexorable. + +They returned to their first positions, and resumed their nervous walk, +condemning themselves as utter idiots for venturing unarmed into such a +nest of vipers at the urge of curiosity, novelty, feminine attraction, +greed--whatever their motives had been. And here Dolores came upon them, +while all about them swarmed the disgruntled pirates from the sloop, and +those of the mutineers whose abject fears warned them to take whatever +punishment their queen chose to mete out rather than to escape only to +be brought back to endure penalties immeasurably more terrible. + +Yellow Rufe and Sancho were not minded to stay, however; they had +vanished; and Dolores's keen eyes noted this the moment she surveyed the +scene. She walked swiftly to the door of the council hall, turned to +face the mob, and lifted an arm for attention. Then fell a hush full of +anxiety or terror, according to the degree of culpability in the +consciousness of her audience. + +"Summon every creature in the village," she cried, "and let no man or +woman dare to leave this place until ye hear my thoughts concerning this +day's work!" + +Men scattered eagerly through the huts, calling by name all who were not +present in the crowd, and presently more of the community came out, +their faces mostly reflecting the terror that was in their souls; for +none might ever foretell the moods of their queen. Inscrutable as night, +her eyes were like pools of violet shadow wherein lurked promise or +threat of unimaginable things; every line of her face and form was a +line of a riddle that could prove in the solution either magnificent +generosity, fearless justice, or implacable vengeance: like the +lightning, Dolores struck where she willed, and in what fashion she +chose; it was useless to attempt avoidance. + +Venner and his friends looked on curiously, a feeling akin to awe +pervading them at the increasing evidence before their eyes of the power +wielded by this splendid fury, they had yet to know. When all were +present, except those whose activities on the schooner had already +procured them a passport to another world, Dolores swept the crowd with +a penetrating glance and called for Milo, who appeared from the rear of +the council hall laden with chains and bilboes which he cast down at her +feet. Then the angry impatience of the disappointed sloop's crew proved +too intense, and Caliban bounded to the front, squealing shrilly: + +"The fiend may take you with your irons! Shall we, men who followed Red +Jabez through a sea of blood, cower to a woman of such soft mettle? +Dolores, queen or woman or wench, it is for you, not us, to explain. +Lads--" he shrieked, flashing about and haranguing his companions--"back +me in this. We will know why the sloop lacked powder; why to-day's work +has brought no reward!" + +The deformed little demon stepped back to the crowd, and paced to and +fro with feverish gestures, scowling blackly at every turn that brought +him face to face with Dolores. The packed mob milled and murmured, some +afraid, many of Caliban's mind yet not daring to openly support him. +Venner and his friends sensed the thrill of it, for their brief +experience of the pirate queen left them in slight doubt as to the +outcome of Caliban's speech. Dolores herself stood motionless for a full +minute after the hunchback ceased his defiance, and under her lowered, +heavily lashed eyelids the dark eyes seemed to slumber; only in her lips +was any trace of the alertness that governed her brain, and those +scarlet petals, which seemed to have been plucked from a love flower in +the garden of passion, slowly, almost imperceptibly parted, until the +dazzling teeth gleamed through in a smile that none might yet determine +whether soft or terrible. And as the seconds heaped suspense upon +suspense, the overbold Caliban was seized with a choking fear that he +was to pay the price. Then Dolores spoke, slowly, quietly, almost +soothingly; and those of her hardened ruffians who thought they knew her +best hung on her words in shivery uncertainty. + +"For those bold words, Caliban, my father had stripped thy poisonous +skin from thy putrid flesh. Yesterday thy queen might not have proved +more merciful. Yet do I know how thy disappointment chafes thy brave +soul, and because of that thy rash speech goes unpunished." The hush +intensified, for the leniency of Dolores was little less to be feared +than her fury. A smile of ineffable radiance broke over her beautiful +face, and she extended her right hand and said, still in the same slow, +even voice: "Come, Caliban. Thou art worthy of my mercy. Kneel, that I +may know thy heart is right." + +Now the suspense reached its climax. Somewhere behind those softly +spoken words surely lurked some awful, cunningly cloaked threat. +Caliban went white, ghastly; his brave tongue stuck to his palate, and +the thin lips slavered with growing panic. + +"Come, Caliban!" + +The girl's command was uttered no louder, her expression was unchanged; +in her glorious eyes gleamed no trace of anything other than benign +forgiveness; she remained motionless as before, with her rounded arm and +shapely hand extended in a manner that revealed their every perfection. + +"Come, Caliban!" + +Again the words fell from her smiling lips, and now the quivering +hunchback obeyed, drawn irresistibly by her magnetism, sick with dread +of the stroke he in common with all his mates expected to fall. + +"Kneel! See, I give thee my hand to kiss," Dolores said, and smiled upon +the cowering wretch with a tender brilliance that sent a tremendous +flutter through the hearts of the three yachtsmen. + +Caliban knelt and took the proffered hand, then at her word he stood +before her, scarcely certain yet that his head was solidly established +on his shoulders. She motioned him to stand on one side of her, then, +aglow with warm color, she addressed the puzzled throng: + +"My bold sea tigers, the ship that escaped thy sloop is but one ship. +The seas are full of such. Yet, until to-day, how many have ye been +forced to let go because of thy poor equipment in craft? Thy sloop, how +small, how old--yet what rich prey escaped thy guns since the Red +Chief's swift brig laid her bones here? None! Yet ye complain because I +prevented thee destroying the beautiful schooner the gods have this day +sent to us!" + +Now the purport of her speech struck home; the seemingly soft-brained +weakness that had forbidden the rape and pillage of the schooner stood +in part explained. And as the light filtered through thick skulls and +shone upon all but atrophied brains, a deep muttering swelled into the +embryo of a throaty cheer that needed but one look of encouragement from +Dolores to spring into noisy life. As for Venner, his expression was +reflected in Tomlin, and both in Pearse; and awakening or resurrected, +fear was the keynote of all. + +"The vampire means to suck us dry after all!" whispered Venner hoarsely. +His friends could only squeeze his arm in mute sympathy. They harbored +no doubts at all. + +Dolores went on: + +"With such a vessel as this"--pointing to the schooner--"that Indiaman +to-day had never shown heels. And more, how think ye my store is +replenished? Dost think I tap the rock for wine? Does Milo crush the +granite and bring forth meat for thy hungry bellies? Are my treasures +kept at high tide by snatching the colors from the sunset? Fools!" she +cried, and for a moment passion conquered her calm. "In that schooner +are wines that will make thy hot blood living flame; meats that will put +teeth into the throats of the toothless; treasures fit for thy queen's +treasury. And more to thy hand, my brave jackals, those pretty pieces of +ordnance, which the sun even now paints with liquid gold, will outrange +the guns of a king's ship." Pausing, she bent upon the murmuring crew a +look of blazing majesty; then concluded with a vibrant demand: "Now dost +know why thy queen withheld thy senseless hands from witless +destruction?" + +Her question was scarcely heard before the answer came. From a hundred +rusty throats pealed a huzzah that rolled out over the sea and sent the +sea-birds squawking with fright to more peaceful surroundings. + +"Dolores! Dolores! That's a queen for the tribe of Jolly Roger!" howled +Hanglip, and tumult rang again. + +The girl raised her hand, and silence fell once more. + +"Hear my judgment upon such of ye as are not of thy mind," she cried, +and now the smile had gone; her eyes flashed and the words fell red-hot +from her scornful lips. + +"I demand no tales from thy mouths. Hiding among these woods Yellow Rufe +and Sancho, he of the one eye and the mutilated hand, think to ward off +my vengeance. By meridian to-morrow I command those traitors to be +brought to me. Fail in this, and ye shall see that Dolores can be +terrible, too." + +The crowd took this as a dismissal, and broke into parties to scour the +woods. Only slaves and women remained, and Pascherette ran to her +mistress's side and whispered, with a sidelong look of coquettish +allurement at Venner and his friends. + +"Something about to happen!" Venner whispered, hoping that it might +prove something in recompense for his day of stress. Dolores cast a look +of cool indifference toward them and told Milo: + +"Put these strangers in separate chambers, Milo. Iron them securely and +look to it well. Thou art answerable for them." + +No more. She took Pascherette and departed. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE SULTANA DECIDES SEVERAL THINGS. + + +There was a moment of cruel amazement for Venner and the others when +Dolores had gone; then Milo, approaching with his irons and chains, +awoke the captives to resistance. + +"No chains for me, by God!" shouted Venner, crouching to ward off the +giant's approach. "Tomlin, Pearse, break for the schooner! I'll hold +this savage. We shall perhaps fail; but by the powers of justice we'll +go down fighting on our own ship!" + +He sprang at Milo as he spoke, and his friends hesitated. Milo, without +haste, without change of countenance, dropped his irons and reached +Venner with great deliberate strides. And in that momentary hesitation +Tomlin and Pearse were lost with their host; for the giant stretched out +one tremendous arm, seized Venner by the slack breast of his shirt, and +lifted him from the ground, flailing with both hands like some puny +child in the grip of his nurse. + +Milo spoke no word. He gave no more attention to Venner's futile blows +than to the whispering of the sands of the shore. But bearing ever +toward the other two men, now seemingly paralyzed out of all volition by +the awful exhibition of strength, he reached out with his free hand and +added Tomlin to his capture as he had taken Venner. + +Pearse might even now have made his bid for liberty; but he was no +coward to desert his companions. He uttered a choking cry of mingled +fear and defiance, and rushed in between his friends to swing a heavy +blow with his fist fair upon the giant's unprotected temple. Now Milo +gave sign of interest. He laughed: a deep, rumbling, pleasant laugh of +appreciation for the courage that prompted the blow; but he never +blinked at the impact, nor did he attempt to avoid another blow that +came swiftly. Simply putting forth a greater effort of muscle he swung +his two captives apart, held them at arm's length while the sinews of +his mighty chest and beamlike arms writhed and rippled like snakes, and +rushed upon Pearse with the terrible resistlessness of an avalanche. A +shower of blows pounded his face and breast as he closed, then he +laughed again; this time triumphantly; for Pearse was enfolded between +Venner and Tomlin in a hug that spelled suffocation did he persist in +his struggles. + +The swift conquest had taken but minutes; none but a few women of the +camp had seen it; and they, well used to such scenes, simply chattered +and smiled pityingly, not with pity for the men, but for the futility of +their resistance. Milo, scarcely breathing above normal, called loudly: +"Pascherette!" and gave his prisoners another quieting squeeze. + +Pascherette was with her mistress. She did not answer, and Milo called +again: "Pascherette!" + +The other women drew near, and on many a wickedly fair face shone a +light of hope that its wearer might serve in Pascherette's place, no +matter what the errand; for it was not the _petite_ golden octoroon +alone who had sighed for love of the giant. + +"Pascherette is with the Sultana, Milo. Let me answer for her," spoke +out a dark beauty whose sparkling eyes held the craft and wisdom of a +harpy. + +"I--" and "I--" came other voices, and the women gathered around. "What +do you need, good Milo?" + +"Open three chambers behind the council hall. In each must be a +fettering ring. Make speed. Go!" + +The women ran, and Milo made his capture more complete. Flinging the +three men down, breathless and numbed from his grasp, he swiftly +clapped leg-irons on them one after the other, then stood up, holding +the long chains together in one huge fist until the women cried out that +the chambers were ready. + +The bruised and subdued yachtsmen were placed in their separate cells, +fettered to great iron rings, and left to cogitate over their probable +fate. They were not even permitted the solace of intercourse; but as +each grew more accustomed to the gloom inside, he discerned that it was +no part of the plan to permit him to hunger or thirst, for a subtle +gleam of ruby light shot into each small room from an unseen source, +intensifying gradually and touched with its infernal radiance a small +tabouret on which stood a silver flagon and a dish of the same metal +containing meat. + +Milo went to the great chamber in the Cave of Terrible Things when the +doors had closed on his prisoners, and presented himself to Dolores. He +found Pascherette prostrate on the floor before the queen, whimpering +and sobbing with terror. Over her Dolores stood like Wrath in person, +her beautiful face distorted with passion, fire blazing in her eyes, her +breast heaving tumultuously. In her hand she held a cat-o'-nine-tails--a +dainty, vicious, splendid instrument of terror--formed of plaited human +hair of as many shades as thongs, studded with nuggets of gold instead +of lead--and none the less terrible for that--set in a cunningly carved +handle of ivory. And as Milo entered, she held the whip aloft in a +quivering hand, and cried to Pascherette: + +"Speak, or I flay thee, traitor! What wert telling the villain, Sancho?" + +Pascherette whined and cringed; she could not, or would not speak. The +whip quivered, was about to fall on those dainty bare shoulders, when +Milo, uttering a choking cry, flung himself forward and took the blow on +his face. Dolores started back, a thing of fury, as Milo cast himself at +her feet, his head on the ground, and said with submission: + +"Spare the child, Sultana. Let my back bear her penance. She is faithful +to thee." + +Dolores halted an instant between redoubled rage and mercy; then she +flung down the whip with a hard laugh, seated herself in the great +chair, and bade Milo and the girl rise and come to her. + +"Milo, thou'rt a fool!" she said. "Were thy brain as great as thy great +heart the world might well be thine. I tell thee, child or no child, +that chit is woman enough to have bound thee her slave. She is woman +enough, too, to hold secret converse with my foes. Do thou speak to her +now and learn for me what traffic she had with Sancho the morning after +I took her as my handmaid. I give thee scant time; if I learn it not +swiftly neither thou nor she shall leave this chamber alive!" + +With her giant beside her, Pascherette's fears subsided in part. She +peered up at him shyly and stepped closer to him, as if to seek actual +shelter from the storm that threatened her; but her frightened, +dependent demeanor was scarcely in accord with the new light that +glinted in her sharp eyes when she dropped them from his face again. +There was cunning and craft in them; the brazen assurance of a thief +whose conviction is prevented by a lucky mishap. + +She spoke rapidly, for his ears only, and her face drooped in an access +of confusion that, beautifully simulated, satisfied Milo and sent a warm +thrill into his honest breast. + +"Pascherette says she only gave Sancho his answer," Milo told Dolores. +"He had demanded her for his mate." + +"A pretty tale!" cried Dolores impatiently. "If that be all, why so +fearful of telling me, girl? Why did Sancho, who well knows the price, +join Rufe against me?" + +"I was afraid," murmured Pascherette with a pretty shiver. She summoned +a rosy blush to her piquant face and added in a still lower whisper: +"Thy anger terrified me, Sultana. My tongue was tied. And Sancho did +what he did in rage, in jealousy against Milo." + +The giant drew himself more erect, and his face became transfigured. If +in his great heart there remained any room after his devotion to his +mistress, cunning little Pascherette occupied it all when she uttered +the half-admission that Milo was her man. Dolores regarded the pair +silently; her expression changed slowly from irritation to query; from +unbelief to amusement, and after a moment's reflection she smiled +without softness and said: + +"Milo, I would do much for thee. For double dealing I have no mercy. If +thy love-bird would have me believe, if she is ought to thee, bid her +seek Sancho and bring him to me. Let her bring him at her own hands +before my hunters run him to earth, and I forgive thee both. She has +fooled thee; she can fool Sancho." + +Pascherette lighted up with something higher than hope: it was +certainty; and while it made Milo happy it did not escape Dolores, whose +dark-violet eyes once again became fathomless pools in which none might +read her thoughts. She waved them from her presence, and they went out +together, leaving her sitting motionless until the hangings fell behind +them. Then she sprang up, ran to a great mirror, and stood for many +moments regarding her lovely reflection. + +"Yes, thou art beautiful!" she apostrophised. "Beautiful as an artist's +dream. And for what? To queen it over these beasts! To be called +Sultana, and to be in truth a caged eagle. Of them all, who save loyal +Milo may I trust? Of them all, where is one whose blood mixed with mine +could produce aught but devils! Yet I must slink away in the night like +a whipped cur, or leave behind these treasures which alone can secure me +station in the outside world." She began to pace the great apartment, +oblivious of her surroundings, conscious only of a surging rebellion +against even the small necessity of biding her time. The day's +happenings on the schooner had shown her clearly the explosive condition +of her crew; she had no mistaken ideas that for her to load up the +schooner and sail away was simple. Further, she detected in recent +events a growing unrest among the band, the cause of which she had but +begun to fathom. Even now, through the tapestry sounding-stone, her +keenly attuned ears caught a note in the cries of returning woods +parties that told her how precarious was her sway over some of the more +turbulent spirits. + +"Before me they cringe like the dogs they are," she muttered, halting +again at the mirror. "Behind my back they snap like wolves. They shall +have their lesson quickly--such a one as the boldest of them shall +shriek mercy." She gazed intently into the mirror, as if she would read +therein an answer to her unspoken longing; then her eyes grew dark and +hard; her round, strong chin set stubbornly, and she whispered +intensely: "Pah! Cattle! They shall not alter my will to seek my +rightful place in the world of the white man! What avails it that in my +veins runs my mother's noble blood, the red chief's fiery courage, if +this nest of soulless brutes is to witness my life and my end? Among +those three white men is one who shall release me. They--ah, they are of +a whiter, cleaner mold! Theirs is the blood that matches mine! Let them +show me which is the stronger. He shall mate with me, and I will make +him a king indeed, even in his own land." + +Dolores stepped back panting. Then she controlled herself and began to +put on garment after garment, jewel after jewel, all of superlative +magnificence. Every moment she glided to the great mirror; as often she +tore off a garment or a jewel, flung it down impatiently, and seized +others from her boundless store. At last she stood clad like a fabled +daughter of old Bagdad; a robe of shimmering silk reached her ankles, +outlining every grace of her splendid figure; upon her head she had set +a tiara, priceless with gems whose fire dazzled even their wearer; on +arms and fingers, ankles and toes, lustrous rings and bracelets made +flashing lightning with her every movement; at her girdled waist was a +dagger whose sheath could have ransomed a prince. + +She stood like a statue, except for the rise and fall of her breast; her +eyes glittered at her gorgeous reflection in the mirror. Then suddenly +her expression changed, her lips parted in scorn, and with a savage, +tigerish gesture, she tore off her splendors. She stood once more in her +simple tunic of knee-length, sleeveless, beauty-revealing; and picking +up her dagger with the gold cord she knotted it about her waist and +again regarded herself closely. + +And where before she had looked upon a gorgeous woman, royally clad, +weighted with gems formed by man's art, now she gazed into the limpid, +fathomless eyes of a living goddess--royally clad in her own peerless +loveliness, crowned with a wealth of lustrous hair in which the gleams +of gold outshone the tiara she had discarded. And her face lighted; a +delicate flush overspread her cheeks; the full, luscious red lips parted +in a veritable Cupid's bow; and she laughed a rippling, heart-warming +laugh that brought the small, even teeth glistening into view. + +Dolores was satisfied at last. Without further hesitation she hurried +along to the rear of the chamber and emerged into the Grove of Mysteries +by way of a door known only to herself and Milo. From there she made her +way silently and darkly toward the council hall. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +A REED SHAKEN BY THE WINDS OF PASSION. + + +Rupert Venner sat on the floor of his prison, tugging at his chains with +an absent, aimless, all but perpetual motion; for he had long since +convinced himself that his fetters could not be broken or loosed. The +ruby light that had shown him the food and wine placed for him had faded +away to the faintest red glow which scarcely sufficed to reach the +tabouret. That mattered little; Venner had eaten when he was hungry, +drunk when dry, and knew the position of the flagon and dish to the +ultimate inch. He was not caring about the light. His mind was filled to +the exclusion of all else with his plight and the predicament of his +schooner. + +"Confound me for a fool!" he mused aloud, gritting his teeth savagely. +"Led by the nose by a saucy little chit who knows how to display her +charms as well as her pearls!" + +He pondered over his situation with growing irritation; for he knew only +too well that his release could never be obtained by bribery; his keen +sense of values told him that neither in the yacht or at home could he +match the treasures he had already seen on the persons of Dolores, and +Pascherette, and the other women of the camp. Yet he tried to console +himself that after all these things might be displayed for his +impression; might in fact be the entire store of the pirate queen, +displayed for one gaudy, overpowering effect. + +"That's it!" he cried, striking fist to palm. "Just a theatrical trick. +That little jade, Pascherette, will sell her dark little soul for +diamonds or pearls, I'll wager, and she shall sell me liberty. Then I'll +see the queen creature, gaining entry by the same medium, and we shall +see if cultivated wits are not a match for this wild beauty." + +With something very like a smile of resignation Venner stretched himself +on the floor and composed himself to rest. He was quite certain that +Pascherette could be reached through his jailer, whoever that might +be--Milo or somebody else--and the entire plan seemed to him beautifully +simple and infallible. He dozed, awoke, dozed again, and the ruby light +seemed to intensify each time his eyes opened. Gradually the shaft of +light grew so strong that, focused on his closed eyes, it forced him to +full wakefulness; and now he stared hard at it, blinking, hypnotized by +the trembling radiance that seemed to shoot out from the main shaft +until a great moving circle of light appeared before him. And out from +the midst of the light stepped Dolores, bewitching, irresistible, +smiling down upon him with a tenderness that filled him with awe. + +Amazed, dazzled, the man sat up, quivering with a sensation that rippled +at his hair-roots and sent the blood singing to finger and toe-tips. And +Dolores, with one forefinger at her scarlet lips to enjoin silence, +glided toward him with her inimitable grace, and knelt before him +shaking her head and starting him on the way to intoxication with the +touch of her wonderful hair. + +"My friend, I grieve that thou art here," she said, and her glowing eyes +thrilled him afresh. "Wilt thou believe that it is necessary for a +while?" + +"Necessary?" repeated Venner, dazedly. He strove hard to burst into +angry protest, but his tongue refused to utter the harsh words in the +face of such a creature of beauty. "I don't understand why it is +necessary at all, lady. It is no choice of mine, or my friends, that our +schooner is aground and we are your prisoners!" + +"Ah, my friend, thou shalt understand," she answered, and laid a hand on +his shoulder, making his senses swim with the fragrance of her breath. +"But this is for thy ears alone. Thou wilt respect my confidence?" +Venner nodded, wondering if, after all, the adventure might not turn out +well. With Dolores so close to him that he could hear her tunic rustling +to her deep, even breathing, that her loosened hair continually brushed +his face, he would have nodded assent had she offered him a piece of +charcoal for his immortal soul. "Then listen, man of my own people. A +longing gnaws at my heart--this heart that beats under thy hand"--she +took his hand with a swift movement and pressed it to her breast--"a +longing to go far from this place and these brutish people, to thy land +and the land to which I belong. + +"And now must I say why thy ship is here? It is because I have chosen +thee, my friend, to free me from this detestable bondage." She paused +for a breath, leaning closer to him, then asked with a sudden grip of +his hand at her breast: "Wilt take me out into thy world?" + +Venner shifted uneasily beneath her blazing eyes. His soul was in +torment with the touch of her; yet somewhere back of his trained brain +lingered a spark of wit not yet extinguished along with his other wits +by her spell. He lowered his gaze and said: + +"Was there need to murder my crew, wreck my vessel, and fling me and my +friends into these cells? Could not you, who are queen here, board my +schooner yourself and ask a passage?" + +"The murder of thy crew was not of my seeking. And thinkest thou I would +go from here leaving behind my treasures? Or dost fancy my rascals would +permit me to carry them away? No, friend, it is not so simple. The man +who aids me to attain my desire must be strong and wise and true. He +shall mate with me, and my treasures shall be his. That is why I have +chosen thee." + +"That requires thought, lady," returned Venner, half-heartedly. "I would +assist you in getting free from this, since you wish it; but as for +mating or marriage, why, there is a woman at home waiting for me." + +"Woman!" Dolores cried with scorn. "Woman! I am Dolores!" She swayed +toward him, her arms went about his neck, and slowly, slowly her +glorious eyes fastened on his, her moist, warm lips sought his in a kiss +that dragged at his soul's foundations. + +"Canst refuse me?" she laughed softly, drawing back her head and peering +at him from under lowered lids. "See, I trust thee utterly!" Snatching +her dagger from the sheath she placed it in his right hand; then, with a +key from her girdle, she unfastened his chains and swayed back, still +kneeling. She clutched the single shoulder-strap of her tunic, tore it +from her bosom, and flung both arms wide apart. "See!" she whispered, +and Rupert Venner flung away the dagger, stumbled to his feet, and swept +her into his crushing embrace while she abandoned herself to him with a +long, quivering sigh. + +"By the gods!" he swore hoarsely, "show me what I have to do. Wonderful, +wonderful Dolores!" + +"Patience," she smiled, resting her head on his breast. "First tell me +thy name. What shall thy Dolores call thee?" + +"I am Rupert. Call me slave!" + +"Rupert. It is a name to love. Slave? Nay, it is I who shall be slave to +thee. But patience again, Rupert. When we two go from here, there can be +no other to share our secret; none save the slaves that I shall place in +thy ship to replace thy dead crew. Thy friends may not go. They must not +live to see thee go!" + +Venner shivered, and drew back, holding her at arms' length and staring +at her in horror. + +"What are you saying, Dolores?" he gasped. "My friends are to die?" + +"Yes, and by thy hand, my Rupert. For how else may I know thou are +worthy to be mate to a queen?" + +"Now, by Heaven! Witch, siren, whatever you are, my madness has passed!" +he cried. "Not for the key to a paradise peopled with such as you would +I do this!" He stepped aside, picked up her dagger, and glared at her +with steely eyes. + +Dolores laughed at him: a low, throaty little laugh that went clear to +his brain and set it on fire again. Yet, nerving himself against her, he +stood erect, dagger in hand, and met the blaze of her dusky eyes +bravely. He shivered violently when her rich voice thrilled his tingling +ears. + +"Hah, my Rupert, thou'rt not yet tamed. Let me show thee thy master!" + +With the words she reached him with her subtle, tigerish glide, swiftly, +startlingly, and with the dart of a cobra her hand gripped his which +held the dagger. Her warm body again pressed closely to him, her red +lips, parted still, almost touched his cheek; her hair smothered him +with its fragrance; and while his senses swam her supple muscles tensed +to living steel wire, her grip tightened and twisted at his wrist, and +the dagger was wrenched from his fingers. Then leaping back, laughing +mockingly now, Dolores slipped the dagger into the sheath, snatched up +the chains from the floor, and flew upon him with a deadly pounce that +bore him back to the wall. + +Aroused from his numbness, Rupert Venner fought back furiously, +humiliated, and ashamed. Whether he would or not, he forgot all his +chivalry, and strove to meet this appalling woman with strength against +strength; but in Dolores he met a thing of wire and whipcord where +moments before had been a creature of warm softnesses; a being of feline +agility, and devilish skill that reflected the devilish skill of her +teacher, Milo. The chain-links tinkled and clashed against their swaying +bodies, but she never let them fall; they hung from her girdle; her +hands were free; and she had both his wrists in a grip that outrivaled +the irons. Laughing, ever laughing, her hot breath playing over his +face, she placed one foot behind one of his, surged toward him heavily, +and, when his arms would have involuntarily gone out to preserve his +footing, she subtly twisted them back and up from the elbows, until she +rested against his chest with her bare arms tightly about his body. + +Now her head, with the gold circlet about the brows, pressed hard +against his chin. Her hair was in his mouth, tendrils of it stung his +eyes, but the gold band numbed his flesh and bruised the bone. Upward, +ever upward, she forced his chin until his neck was cracking with the +strain and he choked for breath. Then she suddenly relaxed. Her arms +left him, her wickedly lovely face once more smiled into his starting +eyes, and she took the chain from her girdle with leisurely swiftness, +falling to her knees at his feet. + +"There, my friend, thou art back in thy place!" she said, snapping on +his ankle irons. "Spend the night in thought, good Rupert. To-morrow I +shall come to thee again for thy decision. Now, pleasant dreams, +my--lover!" she whispered, suddenly slipping her arms about his neck +again and pulling his head hard against her panting breast. She softly +kissed his hair, then pressed back his head and kissed his lips long and +passionately. + +"Good night, beloved!" she said, and passed out of the room, leaving +behind the echoes of a rippling little laugh that set Venner's blood to +leaping. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +PASCHERETTE UNVEILS HER PURPOSE. + + +Milo and Pascherette stood outside the rock portals of the great chamber +after their dismissal by Dolores, and the giant's face wore a look of +perplexity which was not reflected in the little octoroon. If her task +was difficult, Pascherette seemed not in the least disturbed; rather in +her sharp eyes lurked something of bravado at having escaped her +mistress's anger so easily. And this expression perplexed Milo. + +"Art sure of thyself, Pascherette?" asked the giant, ill at ease for his +little companion. + +"Why not?" she laughed, peering up at his troubled face impudently. +"Thinkest thou Pascherette is a fool?" + +"No, thou art not a fool," replied Milo slowly. He laid a heavy hand on +her shoulder, turned her around to face the faint light remaining, and +gazed hard into her bright eyes. "Thou art not a fool, little one. But +Sancho--is it so simple to find him?" + +"Big, childish Milo!" she cried with a laugh that had no joy in it. +"Dost think I feared that verdict of Dolores? No. I fear her whip only. +My flesh creeps even now at thought of my poor shoulders hadst thou not +appeared in time. Sancho? Pah! I can find him easily enough." + +"Then, child, was there nothing in thy traffic with him save what I +heard from thy lips?" + +Pascherette looked down, tapping the sand with her tiny foot, and her +breast fluttered in agitation. Then she slipped her hand into his, +looked up shyly yet ardently into his eyes, and replied swift and low: + +"Milo, my love for thee must be my defense. I did have traffic with +Sancho, to the end that we--thee and me--might use him to our advantage. +Wait!" she cried, when he would have spoken, "hear me. Canst not see +Dolores's cunning intention? She goes from here, carrying her treasure; +what will she do with thee, once safely away? Will she carry thee always +with her, to be marked because of thy great stature? No, Milo, thy life +will pay for her desertion of her people, and she will laugh at thy +passing. And why should it be? Here, thou and I can rule these cattle as +she never could. With Sancho's deserters, and Rufe's followers, I can +give thee a band that will force the treasure from her greedy grasp, and +make of her what she has made of thee and me--a slave!" + +"Girl!" Milo's deep voice vibrated with passionate horror. "Cease thy +treason, or I crush thy wicked heart in these two hands. Dolores is +mistress of my soul--my body is but the slave of that." + +"Pish!" retorted Pascherette, contemptuously. "She has thee dazzled, +Milo. Say, dost thou not love me?" she demanded, standing tiptoe and +thrusting her piquant little face under his gaze. "Look in my eyes, and +then tell me another woman owns thy soul!" + +"Yes, I love thee," replied Milo, with simple earnestness. "I love thee; +yet will I kill thee ere Dolores suffers ill through thy scheming. Have +done with this talk. I hate thee for it!" + +"Love--and hate!" she laughed metallically. "Loving me, still thou hast +room to love another better. Hate and love! Thou great fool, it cannot +be!" + +"Pascherette, I love thee. Thou'rt entangled in my heart-strings. When I +hate thee, it is because of that love, which will not brook treason in +thee. Again, I love thee, golden girl; but, forget it not, I worship +Dolores as I worship my gods!" + +"Then wilt thou not seek her power for thyself?" whispered the girl +subduedly, awed for the moment by his tremendous and solemn earnestness. + +"Little one, bring Sancho as she bade thee. He has merited punishment. +Yet tell him the Sultana will be just. His punishment will but fit the +fault. Afterward we two will talk together, and I shall teach thee +loyalty. Go now, bring thy man to the council hall. I shall await thee. +Stay, I shall come with thee, for the woods are dark, and a storm +threatens." + +"I go alone, Milo. He will fly from thee. Have no fear for me; the woods +are safe, and the storm is in thy great head only." + +The girl turned, kissed her hand airily, and ran into the gloom of the +forest. And as she went she laughed again harshly and muttered: "The +great clod! His worship overtops his love. But I shall make love overtop +worship yet, my giant! Such a man--a slave? Not for a thousand +Doloreses! Wait, Milo; wait, my mistress!" + +The evening breeze had strengthened as darkness fell, and its breath was +hot and sultry. As Pascherette plunged deeper into the woods, the heavy +boom of the seas along shore died away and gave place to the softer, +more vibrant hum and murmur of the great trees. The track, little more +than a line of flattened underbrush, vanished before she had gone fifty +yards; but the little octoroon was no stranger to nocturnal rambles, her +keen eyes, and, keener still, her sense of direction, led her unerringly +through the shades toward the rearward spur of the granite cliff. +Creepers and hanging mosses brushed her face and limbs; alone she might +have ignored them; but there was a quality in the sighing and rustling +about her that seemed to give voices to the ghostly fingers that +touched her, and to support her courage as well as to warn Sancho of +her coming, she thrilled forth a merry little snatch of song: + + "Ho! for the Jolly Roger lads; + Ho! for the decks red-streaming. + A pirate's lass is a well-lov'd lass, + And there's gold through the red a gleaming! + + "Ho! for a cask in the fire's red glow; + Ho! for the heaps of plunder. + There are showers of pearls for the pirates' girls-- + The rain from the corsair's thunder!" + +At the end of her song Pascherette halted, listened, then called softly: + +"Sancho! Thy Pascherette calls!" + +Silence prevailed for several moments, and she called again, fearing +that her voice had gone astray amid the increasing confusion of the +trees. Then came a lull in the wind, the lull that always punctuated the +gathering of such tropical storms as now threatened; and in the hush she +heard voices--uncertain, disputing. Then Sancho growled, close to her +ear: + +"Art alone, jade?" + +"Oh, Sancho!" she cried, darting into the gloom to the sound of his +voice and flinging her arms about him. "I have feared for thee, my +Sancho. Now I fear no more, for all is well." + +"Well?" the pirate growled suspiciously. "Hast left thy hot-blood +mistress, then?" + +"No, Sancho. It is better for thee even than that. I have made thy peace +with Dolores. She has forgiven thee, and wishes to tell thee so." + +A fervid curse burst from some one yet invisible, and Sancho leaned back +to catch some whispered words. Then he, too, ripped out an oath, and +gripped Pascherette tightly by the arm. + +"This is a trick, little devil! Don't you value that pretty little head +more than to trifle with me?" + +"I trifle with thee? Thou art mad, Sancho!" she cried. "Did I lie when I +said I loved thee, then?" + +"The fiend knows! I know 'tis plaguey risky for thee if thou didst!" + +"Unbeliever!" whispered Pascherette with thrilling emphasis. "Shall I +tell thee again, in language even thy stubborn soul must believe?" + +The girl suddenly glided inside his arms, flung up her hands, each +clutching a mass of her glossy, scented hair, and enmeshed his +disfigured face. Then, straining upward from her small height, her rosy, +false lips sought his and fastened there while he staggered as if drunk. + +"There, heart o' mine!" she panted. "Dost believe now? Or must I tell +thee again that with such love as mine proud Dolores cannot hurt thee. +Come! Such a chance will never come thy way again. Man! 'Tis her +confidence Dolores offers thee. Shall it go begging because of thy +madness?" + +"Pascherette!" returned Sancho hoarsely. "I will go with thee. But, +girl, thy heart's blood pours at first sign of treachery! Mark that +well. And tell me now, does Yellow Rufe share in this mercy?" + +"No, Sancho. It cannot be. Dolores has sworn to hunt him down; the woods +are full of men even now, seeking him and thee. Only by going with me +wilt thou escape them and have advantage from my pleading with the +queen." She drew his head down to her ear, and whispered rapidly. Doubt, +then admiration, crept into Sancho's voice as he said: "Dost think it +can be done? Can he gain the sloop unseen?" + +"I will make it easy, Sancho. Bid Rufe have no fear. The storm will be +upon us within an hour. It is dark; there is wind aplenty. With six men +he may win clear; and listen: If he is stout of heart, what is to stop +him taking tribute from the stranger's white vessel?" + +"Lack o' powder, girl," returned Sancho angrily. "Thy mistress keeps us +short of powder, as well thou dost know, lest we become too strong for +her. Who of us has ever seen the store? Not I, by Satan! Canst thou get +powder and shot for Rufe?" + +"Simpleton! Can he not get with steel all he wants from the schooner?" + +"By the heart of Portuguez, he can!" cried another voice, and Yellow +Rufe strode through the bushes. + +"Rufe!" exclaimed the girl, feigning astonishment. Her ears were too +keen not to have caught Rufe's voice in the whispering that had gone +on. + +"Yes, Rufe, and obliged to thee, Pascherette. Dost say thou wilt help me +win away?" + +"Gladly, Rufe, for I like well men of your mettle. Follow close behind +Sancho and me. Count ten score after we go in to Dolores with Milo, then +for an hour thou'lt have the sea to thyself. Luck go with thee, Rufe; +thou'lt think of little Pascherette sometimes, I'll warrant." + +A rumble of thunder rolled up from the sea, and lightning played in the +tree-tops. Pascherette turned back toward the camp, and giving no heed +to Sancho save to listen for his footsteps, she ran through the darkness +sure-footed, sure-eyed as a cat. Rain began to fall, and the heavy +foliage thrummed with the growing downpour which yet did not penetrate +to the earth. As they neared the shore, the forest resounded with the +solemn boom and crash of long-sweeping seas outside the bar; the wind +screamed among the huts; all the women and those men who had returned +from their portion of the search were snugly under cover. The place +seemed deserted. + +"Farewell, Rufe," Pascherette whispered at last, when the great black +mass of the council hall loomed against the sky in a lightning flash. +"Count ten score. Thy safety is in my hands." + +Then she took Sancho by the hand, and led him through the plashing rain +to the rear of the hall and called softly: "Milo!" + +"Here. Hast found him?" + +"Take us to the Sultana quickly, Milo. I have told Sancho to trust in +the justice of Dolores." + +"He may well do that," returned Milo. "The great Sultana is ever just." + +"Yes, have no fear, good Sancho. I am Justice itself!" rejoined the +mellow voice of Dolores in person, who had a few moments before left +Rupert Venner. "Milo, I am minded to give Sancho proof of my mercy, +since he already believes in my justice. Open the great chamber. Sancho, +canst guess the honor I propose to do thee?" + +"No, lady," replied Sancho, an awful dryness gripping his throat. + +"Hast ever hungered for sight of the great chamber?" She paused smiling +at the uneasy pirate, who could not answer. "Of course thou hast," she +replied for him. "Which of my rogues has not? I am minded to show thee +this mark of my love, since thy conscience permitted thee to return +here. Hast any fear of the saying the Red Chief uttered? That none might +enter the great chamber and live?" + +Sancho suddenly sprang to life. His face was distorted; when the +lightning flashed it revealed him a ghastly picture of apprehension. + +"I will not go there! I have no wish to see what my eyes are forbidden +to see. I never sought to enter, Sultana. It was the others!" + +"Yes, Sancho, the others. That is why I select thee for the honor, +because thou wert patient. Come. I promise thee thy life is safe." + +Dolores passed on toward the great stone, where Milo stood guard over +the opened portals. Sancho, trembling violently, was drawn irresistibly +after her, partly fascinated by her calm strength, partly influenced by +the soft fingers and whispered prattle of Pascherette, who strove to set +him aflame with mention of some of the wonders he was to see. + +He paused at the rock door, glancing around with a vague premonition of +evil; but now it was Dolores's hand that took his; Dolores's rich voice +that lured him on; and he stepped after her, smothering a sob of +resurging terror as the great stone fell into its place behind. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +SANCHO SETTLES HIS ACCOUNT. + + +In the rock passage the hush was complete. For the space of ten long +breaths Sancho stood quivering under the weird spell of the infernal red +radiance from the hidden lights, while almost invisible ahead of him +Dolores bent to listen to a last moment's communication from +Pascherette. With Milo behind him, and the great unknown ahead, the +pirate's usual fierce courage oozed out through his boots. Yet he was +hypnotized by the vague glitter that shone at the end of the tunnel--the +glitter, though he knew it not yet, of the great sliding door to the +inner mystery. + +Suddenly the mighty rock reverberated and shook to a Titanic volley of +thunder, and Sancho shrieked with nervous terror. His shriek was echoed +by a rippling laugh from Dolores, and she came back swiftly toward him, +pushing Pascherette before her. She handed the little octoroon on to +Milo, and said, with a kindly pat on the girl's head: "Open, Milo, and +let thy sweetheart complete her good works. Now I shall have none but +faithful friends about me. Pascherette, thou'rt more than forgiven: +thou'rt my good friend. I shall reward thee fittingly when"--she smiled +dazzlingly at Sancho--"I have rewarded Sancho." + +The rock door rolled aside, and Pascherette passed out into the storm. +Sancho's nerves gave way utterly now, and he rushed toward the opening, +screaming: "Let me out! I want air! I want none of the great chamber! +Let me pass!" + +Milo again let fall the rock, pressed a huge hand on Sancho's breast, +and pushed him back, saying: "Peace, fool! Go with thy mistress. Thine +eye will never again witness the like. Go, I tell thee. Dost fear the +Sultana's justice?" + +"Come, Sancho. Thou'lt be a marked man among thy fellows when I have +shown thee what they yearn to see." + +Dolores again took his hand, bent her glorious eyes full upon him, and +Sancho followed her like a sheep, straight to the great door under the +jeweled yellow lantern, where he stood, stupefied with awe at the +barbaric splendors revealed. + +His lips went dry, and he licked them feverishly; his single eye blazed +with avarice; the two fingers and mutilated thumb of his right hand +worked convulsively, as if he would tear the gems and plate from the +door. And Dolores watched him from under lowered lids, her rich red lips +curled scornfully, one hand half raised to warn Milo to open the great +door slowly. + +"Well, Sancho, art better prepared for the greater treasures yet to be +seen?" smiled Dolores. The pirate's blazing eye seemed to dart flames as +the door slowly rose to Milo's touch. + +"Sultana!" he gasped, and his speech would do no more for him. + +"Enter, friend. This is thy great hour!" + +The queen pushed him gently inside, following herself, and Milo let fall +the door again, standing mute and motionless on the inside while his +mistress led the pirate to the center of the great chamber and waited +until his dazzled eye adjusted itself to the subtle lighting effects. + +Pascherette's last whispered communication to Dolores had told her of +Yellow Rufe's intentions; and while Sancho stood in amaze, she bent her +ear to catch the expected sound of voices through the sounding-stone +behind the tapestry. For there the little octoroon was to play a part +for Sancho's especial benefit. The thunder had become all but incessant; +with every crash the great chamber rumbled and echoed eerily; yet +between the crashes, brief as the periods were, human voices could be +heard. + +"Art ready to see my treasures, Sancho?" + +Dolores waved a gleaming arm around the place, indicating with one wide +gesture the glories of the walls and roof. But the pirate's senses +responded more readily to the tangible riches represented by gold and +gems, tall flagons, and jewel-incrusted lamps, littered diamonds and +rubies that strewed the big table. + +"Hah!" cried Dolores, with a low, throaty laugh. "Ah! my friend, I know +thy mind. Milo!" + +Milo advanced with a deep obeisance. + +"Milo, open the great chests for Sancho. Let him plunge his arms to the +elbows in red gold. Then I shall show him that which lies nearest to his +deserts." + +The pirate watched with lips no longer dry, but dripping with the saliva +of greed, while Milo flung open chest after chest, full to overflowing +with minted gold of many nations; looted jewels of royal and noble +houses, sacred vessels and glittering orders, weapons whose hilts and +scabbards, if ever made for use, could only have been used to bewilder +the eye and senses. + +Again the thunder pealed; and in the tremendous hush succeeding, the +voices outside penetrated the sounding-stone in more than a whisper. +Sancho jerked up his head and fear once more shone in his single eye. + +"Come, good Sancho," purred Dolores, running her soft hand down his bare +forearm. "Art frightened by petty noises, then? Plunge thy hands deep, +man! All thou canst grasp is thine for so long as thy eye can enjoy or +thy hands fondle." + +Now Sancho's sordid soul surrendered. His greed conquered fear, and he +delved deep into a coffer, chattering the while with frenzy. And now +when the thunder rolled, his ears heard it not. He drew forth his hands, +and a glittering mass of wealth fell about his feet. He glared up at +Dolores, laughing ghoulishly. + +"That is well, Sancho," Dolores said, and took his hand. "Now I will +show thee the rest; and I know thou'lt never tell of it. I trust thee. +Come. Put thy ear to this tapestry, and tell me what thou canst hear." + +Sancho laid his ear to the cloth, and his eye gleamed brightly. Milo +stepped silently behind him. + +"I hear Hanglip!" he gasped. "Is he, too, here?" + +"He is outside the cliff. But whom else canst hear?" + +"I hear Caliban--Spotted Dog--Stumpy--I hear a score as if they stood by +my side! And Pascherette! By the fiend! She has played Rufe a trick! And +me--" He sprang from the wall like a tiger, snatching at his weaponless +belt with slavering fury, to be gathered at once into the remorseless +hug of Milo. And he glared full into the mocking face of Dolores--soft +and generous no more, but the embodiment of awful vengeance. + +For many seconds she stood regarding him contemptuously, until he +subsided helplessly in Milo's grasp; then, motioning the giant to +follow, she passed along and stopped before a life-size painting of "The +Sleeping Venus" in a massive, gilded frame. With one hand raised high at +the side, she turned a pulley-catch, and the great picture slowly fell +forward from the top until it rested slopingly on the floor, forming an +inclined entrance to a gloomy passage, dimly touched by a dark-red glow. + +This was the secret outlet to the great chamber by which Milo had access +to the altar in the grove at such times as his aid was needed to +support Dolores in some exhibition of black magic. She stepped swiftly +along the passage, giving no further heed to the panic-stricken pirate +until Milo had carried and dragged him to where she awaited him. This +was still another dark excavation, running deeper yet into the bowels of +the cliff; and the devilish red glare was here intensified until +surrounding objects were vividly revealed. + +"Now hear the doom of a traitor!" cried Dolores, with haughty mien. +"What! Not a traitor?" she mocked at the pirate's frantic howl of +denial. "Then Dolores has erred, perhaps. There is a test, good Sancho. +Let me see if I am wrong!" + +She signed to Milo, and the giant swung Sancho around until he faced the +deepest recess of the cave. There, swathed in mummy clothes, preserved +by the chemical miracle of the stratum of red earth that formed the core +of the rock, the body of Red Jabez stood erect against the wall, bathed +in the red glow, diamonds glittering where the dead eyes had been. And +on the rock ledge at his feet stood a tall flagon of gold, in which +Dolores had brewed an awful potion for this event. Beside this ledge +stood a low brazier full of glowing charcoal; on a tabouret near by lay +several terrible implements the use of which needed no explanation. + +"Look upon the face of the Red Chief, and drink this draft--'tis his +blood!" she cried, seizing the flagon and thrusting it into Sancho's +hands. "Then, if thy heart held no treachery toward me, thy life and +limbs are safe. But have a care! A lie in thy heart will surely undo +thee. Drink!" + +A splitting thunder-crash filled the place with uproar; a gust of the +tempest from the outer entrance sent the wind swirling in. It was as if +the breath of the storm snatched Sancho's senses back from the +terror-land they had fled to; he ceased his howling, glared defiantly up +at the dead chief, and cried in desperation: "Give me the drink! I fear +neither gods nor devils; why should I fear you, dead man?" + +"Wait!" Dolores laid a hand on his arm, and stayed the flagon at his +lips. "Wait, till I tell thee more. Then, if thou art guiltless, and go +from here with the treasure I gave thee, thou'lt know thy friends and +thy foes. + +"Didst think Yellow Rufe was free? Thou fool! Thy wits are powerless +before a woman's. Did my pretty Pascherette tell him he might go free, +taking my sloop, escaping my vengeance, as thou didst think to? Didst +hear those voices? Then I tell thee, Sancho, that ten-score count, that +Rufe doubtless made in fear and trembling, but sufficed to raise his +hopes. For ere he had gained the sloop and started her anchor, +Pascherette had done her work. The stranger's schooner is full of my +men, waiting for Rufe to come for his booty. Let him take alarm, then +how far may he win? Thou'lt never know, false Sancho, for I have no +doubt of thy treachery. Now drink, if thou darest!" + +"Then, by the fiend, I dare!" shouted the pirate. Something in the tang +of the gale sweeping in from the unseen entrance reassured him of the +existence of the outer world; persuaded him that by taking a desperate +chance he might yet throw dust in the eyes of this terrible woman and go +hence with the secret of the great chamber. "I dare, Dolores! Blood, d' +ye say? What fitter drink for a pirate?" + +He lifted the flagon, took a deep draft in great gulps, so that his +determination might carry him; then his eye sparkled, he took the flagon +from his lips, and grinned at Milo. "By the great Red Chief!" he cried. +"This is justice indeed! I drink to ye, Sultana, and to Milo, ye big +jester!" and finished the drink with a greedy swallow. + +Then the flagon clattered to the ground, Sancho's face went livid, and +his mouth opened wide and loosely, as his body and limbs were seized +with subtle pains. His brain, too, felt an awful numbness creeping upon +it; for the draft had done its work. The rarest of wine from her store, +Dolores had mingled with it a devilish powder that first sapped the +strength, then attacked the brain, and eventually snapped the cord of +intelligence, leaving the victim a driveling imbecile. But that point +had not yet been reached. It would come perhaps in one hour, two, three, +perhaps six--but inevitably it must come. For the present the pirate +was simply in the grip of the unknown, yet having full power to realize, +but not resist, the tangible terrors at hand. + +"Milo, hasten the rest. I shall await thee at the gate. Put forth this +traitor by the Grove outlet, and see to it that he takes with him +neither power to see beauty, to utter treason, or to ever feel again the +scalding touch of coveted gold. Make speed, I command thee, for I hear +my stout trusty ones clamoring for the chase!" + +Dolores disappeared through the secret outlet, sprang down behind the +altar, and ran through the Grove. Beside the cliff were huddled Hanglip +and Stumpy, Caliban, and Spotted Dog, drenched with the teeming rain, +restless with impatience, peering ever to seaward in the lightning +flashes that continually illumined the scene. + +Among them Dolores appeared, suddenly, mysteriously, as coming from the +skies, and after a choke of amazement Stumpy flung a hand seaward, and +shouted above the turmoil of wind and rain: + +"Queen o' Night, thou'lt need thy magic now! See, there flies the +villain!" + +Dolores looked, and smiled disdainfully. The torrential rain beat upon +her bare head and shoulders, causing her to glisten and shine like a +golden goddess; but she heeded it not at all; her eyes sought out what +Stumpy had indicated. And there, in the next lightning-flash, flying +seaward, was the sloop. Rufe had taken alarm, and had foregone his plan +of looting the schooner. + +"Let him go; he'll fly not far," she said calmly. "Come with me to the +great rock, my bold fellows; daylight shall show thee Rufe where I would +have him--paying the price, as Sancho has paid!" + +She glided around the rock, followed by her silent faithfuls, while from +the Grove rang a shriek of mortal agony that sent fierce hearts aquiver +with terror. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +DOLORES FLOATS THE FEU FOLLETTE. + + +"Hell's breath!" screamed Caliban, as the cry rang out. "Have ye devils +in the Grove, mistress?" Hanglip and Spotted Dog, too, cringed back in +fright. Stumpy concealed his uneasiness, yet his eyes searched Dolores's +face questingly. None truly believed in the queen's magic powers; yet +none was bold enough to openly avow his unbelief; and the added grimness +of the storm, assisted by the unearthliness of that howl of anguish, +brought the four godless pirates to the verge of superstitious terror. + +"Yes, I keep my devils there," replied Dolores; "and that is the traitor +Sancho answering to them for his perfidy. So watch, and obey me, lest +thy cries, too, go up from my altar!" + +She stood apart at the great stone, listening, and presently Milo rolled +up the rock barrier, and appeared in the gloom, calm and cool as if he +had no association with devils, imaginary or otherwise. A livid +lightning-flash played on his features, and the pirates drew back, +muttering at his black eyes which glowed with red points like rubies in +the heart of twin coals. + +"Milo, there flies Rufe," said Dolores, flinging an arm seaward. Beyond +the false point, in the midst of black seas dappled with rushing +white-horses, under a lowering black sky that seemed to lean down to the +verge of the ocean itself, Rufe's sloop was pictured in the next flash +of electric radiance a thing of desolation and panic. Fully a mile away, +the craft vanished in the pervading blackness between every flash. "I +need thy condor's vision now as never before. Take the swift, small +sailboat, and flares; follow the sloop as long as thy eyes can pick her +out; we shall follow thy flares in the schooner until we overtake thee. +Haste now; Rufe has grace enough!" + +Milo stayed only to get his flare-powder and tinder-box, then +disappeared down the cliff. + +Dolores despatched her four attendants to the schooner, prepared to +follow, then, with an afterthought, halted two of them. + +"Here, Hanglip, Spotted Dog, wait!" She swiftly entered the council +hall, went to the three small chambers, and released her captives from +the ring-bolts. Driving them before her, bewildered by the sudden +emergence from tranquillity to the turmoil of the storm, she gave the +two pirates each a chain, held the other herself, and led the way down +to the stranded schooner. Her motive was not only uncertainty about the +people left at the camp, who might prove susceptible to bribery if not +pity; she also felt a sort of whimsical desire to impress these +strangers with the utter inevitability of her power. + +The Feu Follette lay on the edge of the bar, as she had lain since +stranding, except that with tide after tide her keel had worn itself a +place in the sand, and she was less closely held than before. Of her +rightful crew but five survived the fight; one was the sailing-master, +Peters, and all were imprisoned under jailers in the forecastle. On the +schooner's sloping decks, when Dolores and her party climbed aboard, +were a score of nondescript pirates, besides the crew's custodians, at a +loss to account for the escape of the sloop, and worked up to a pitch of +nervousness where they were only fit for sudden, strenuous action with a +merciless taskmaster. And such they speedily had. + +Dolores ordered her three captives to be taken to the great cabin, and +their chains were fastened to the ornately paneled mainmast which ran +down through both decks and formed the support of a gorgeously furnished +sideboard. Then the companionway was locked on them, and the girl sprang +to tremendous life. + +"Aloft with thee, Stumpy!" she cried, selecting him because after Milo +his eyes were keenest of them all. "Keep thy eyes open for Milo's +flares, and mark well the direction. Hanglip, thou surly dog! Take ten +men and lay me out a good anchor astern, with a stout hawser. Be brisk! +Come aboard in ten minutes, or thy back shall smart." + +Sancho's boat had remained at the port quarter, and into this Hanglip +drove his crew while Spotted Dog with the rest of the men got ready an +anchor to lower to them. + +"Caliban, cast off the gaskets from fore and main!" cried Dolores next. +"Where are thy rascals? Plague take thee, hunchback! Couldst not say +there were not men enough? Below with ye, and bring up the schooner's +people. Have sail on this vessel before that anchor takes hold, or I'll +flay thy hump!" + +Cursing venomously, the deformed little demon sprang into the forecastle +and drove up Peters and his four men with kicks and blows. They, too, +were bewildered by the tremendous uproar of sea and wind, and went like +sheep to the fore and main masts at Caliban's bidding. + +"Ready for the anchor--lower away!" roared Hanglip in the boat, where +already was piled coil on coil a great hemp hawser. + +"Handsomely, ye dogs, handsomely!" shrieked Spotted Dog in turn. The +anchor sank into the boat to the screeching of tackles and the groaning +of boat-timbers, and was carried out astern. + +"Carry the end aft!" Dolores commanded; the hawser was taken along and +the end passed around the quarter-deck capstan. "Up with those sails!" +cried the girl now, and Caliban's gang sweated at the halyards, while +slackened sheets permitted the booms to swing and present the luffs to +the screaming gale, bearing no resistance. While the boat pulled away +into the darkness astern, carrying the anchor to the full scope of the +cable, Dolores kept her eyes ever aloft, and over the sea, and upon +every detail of the work. Her eyes fell upon Peters, standing in sullen +mood at the belaying-pin which held a turn of the main-throat halyards. +And as the croaking cry of Caliban ordered "Belay!" she called Peters to +her. + +"Thou'rt sailing-master, hey?" + +"I was." + +"Art still, if thy heart is as stubborn as thy face!" cried Dolores, +laughing at his scowl. "Canst sail thy ship now?" + +"I can sail any ship that floats, but neither I nor your sharks can sail +this schooner now," he replied surlily. "Your false marks did their work +well." + +"Then thou'd rather pull a rope than hold a wheel, hey? 'Tis but a +wooden sailor, after all. I hoped such a ship would boast a seaman as +master. I'll show thee seamanship, sheep-heart!" + +Out of the darkness astern came a roar: + +"Anchor's down! Heave away!" + +And from the darkness aloft Stumpy bawled: + +"There she flares! Mother o' me!" The prayer, curse, whatever the last +words might be, were called forth by a paralyzing flash of lightning +that shone over the raging sea like a gigantic calcium-light. The +schooner's deck resounded with superstitious howls, which rose to awed +cries from the weakest as from trucks and gaff-ends glowed and flickered +the blue brush of St. Elmo's fire. + +"Heave away, heave away!" Dolores's voice rang out on the hubbub, +forcing obedience even in face of terror. The capstan went round to the +urge of a dozen pair of fear-stimulated arms; and fathom by fathom the +great cable came in dripping and glistening; fathom after fathom was +heaped on the deck, and still the schooner remained fast. And ever from +aloft came Stumpy's hail, reporting Milo's flare fast fading in the +distance. + +"You can't do it! I knew it!" shouted Peters defiantly. + +"Peace, sheep!" answered Dolores, slapping him upon the mouth. She stood +at the wheel, and no part of the vessel's situation escaped her. She had +yet a trump to play: a hazardous one, truly, but the big one. The big +fore and main sails swung and crashed idly at their sheets, filling the +air with the thunder of their flinging blocks. At each boom a seaman +stood, and each held the double block of a boom-tackle, waiting the word +that now came. + +"Clap on those boom-tackles!" Dolores commanded, and four men flew to +each as it was hooked to the rigging. "Haul away! Boom the sails square +out!" The great sails filled with a crash as the gale took them on the +fore side, flinging them violently aback. + +"You'll pluck the spars out of her!" screamed Peters, in a frenzy now as +his cherished masts whipped and cracked to the tremendous backward +strain. Dolores ignored the crazed man, but a scornful smile wreathed +about her lips, and her dark eyes gleamed. "Out with them!" she cried. +"More hands there! And heave, ho, heave away on the capstan! Burst thy +arms, bullies! Here comes Hanglip and his bold lads to help ye! Round +with her! Out with them! Heave, good bullies!" + +The girl stood by the wheel, a splendid figure of matchless energy and +courage. Aloft the topmasts bent like whips; Stumpy's voice came down +in ever-increasing fear as his perch grew shakier; the great expanse of +canvas, which should have been treble-reefed even in a floating ship +going forward, tore at boom-tackles and earrings, tacks, and mast-hoops, +shaking the vessel to the keel and filling her with cataclysmic thunder. + +"By the bones of Red Jabez, she comes!" roared Spotted Dog, peering over +the side. "Heave, lads, and never doubt the girl again! Fiends o' +Topheth! See her slide!" + +The schooner shuddered from forefoot to sternpost; the big hawser +slipped in through the lead with gathering speed; the groaning masts +imparted an impulse to her that drove her astern like an arrow, and now, +triumphantly, Dolores cried: + +"An ax! Quickly--cut the hawser! Caliban, get a jib loosed! Hanglip, +open the companionway, and bring up my prisoners. I would have them +enjoy the sail." + +A curling sea poured over the taffrail, sweeping Dolores from her feet; +she met it with a ringing laugh, gripping the wheel as her safeguard, +and the moment the ax severed the hawser she gave the vessel a sheer +with the helm, and again her orders rang out: + +"Let go both boom-tackles! Hoist away the jib! Haul the jib-sheet to +starboard, and stand by fore and main sheets!" + +Out of the darkness ahead came the fluttering of canvas, and soon +Caliban's hoarse croak rang aft: "Hoist away th' jib!" The great booms +swung amidships again when the tackles were cast off, and now the +headsail flew up the stay, the restrained sheet to starboard causing the +canvas to fill aback as had the greater sails before. The pressure was +ahead and to one side; the schooner's head began to fall off, then +faster as she gained momentum, and the fore and main sails again began +to thunder at their blocks. + +"Let draw the jib! Bring in the fore sheet; bear a hand aft here, main +sheet, lads, smartly!" cried Dolores, twirling the wheel to meet the +vessel's swift leeward leap. And as the liberated Feu Follette heeled +dizzily to the gale, under full spread of sail, and her owner and his +guests appeared into the storm, Stumpy's cry rang out: + +"There's the flare--and she's burnin' steady!" + + +TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month. + + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +YELLOW RUFE'S FINISH. + + +"How bears the flare?" Dolores demanded, steadying the helm. + +"Three points on lee-bow!" came from aloft. + +"Sing out when we point for it!" Dolores gave the wheel a few spokes, +and at her command the main-sheet was rendered until the schooner fell +off from the wind, and Stumpy hailed: "Steady! She heads fair for it!" + +"Does it still burn?" + +"Aye, blazing bright! And low down, too, for the seas hide it every +moment!" + +"Keep thy eyes skinned, and seek for the sloop, too." + +The schooner came to a more even keel as she squared away from the gale, +and the splendid speed of the craft sent a thrill through Dolores, as +through the less impressionable pirate of the gang. Fast as Rufe's sloop +was, this dainty plaything of wealth and leisure sped over the snarling +seas at a gait that promised to overhaul the smaller vessel two fathoms +to one. + +Even Rupert Venner and his friends, shivering with the wet and sudden +change from the cabin to the deck though they were, found much to soothe +them in the glorious sweep and swing of the Feu Follette; much to admire +and envy in the perfect poise and _sang froid_ of the magnificent +creature at the wheel. + +Dolores stood on feet as steady as the great, deep eyes that were fixed +on the compass-card before her. Her heavy, lustrous hair streamed about +her from under the golden circlet; in each lightning flash she stood +out, a thing of wild, awful beauty; the rain glistened on her bare +shoulders and arms, rendering her golden skin a gleaming, fairylike +armor. And the blustering wind caught her wet tunic and wrapped it about +her closely and tightly, revealing every grace and glory of her perfect +body. + +"Saints! Was there ever such a creature?" said Tomlin hoarsely. + +Pearse's face was set and grim; he made no rejoinder. Venner, too, kept +silent; but his eyes held venom as he glared at the speaker. Dolores +suddenly raised her eyes from the binnacle, looked toward them as they +crouched shivering in the lee of the deck-house-companion, and she, warm +and glowing in a flimsy, wet garment, laughed mockingly, and called to +them. + +"I am forgetting what is due to my guests. Do ye feel cold? Will ye go +below?" + +And they, shivering and uneasy as they were, were content to shiver if +only they might not lose sight of her. Their reply was unintelligible; +neither would look at the others; yet their mumbled response was +understood, and the girl laughed again, loud, ringing, and full of +allure. + +"Such courage comes only of true sea stock, my friends! I shall not +forget this fortitude when I have done with the schooner." + +"Flare close aboard!" roared Stumpy; then: "Seize my soul if I see the +boat, though, mistress. Satan! Now the flare's gone out!" + +"Whereaway?" cried Dolores shrilly. Big Milo was out there in the +blackness. + +"Right under the bows!" bellowed the lookout. "Luff, or bear away; ye'll +run him down!" + +And from the raging seas off the lee-bow came the deep, calm voice of +Milo, unperturbed as if on dry land, though no boat was to be seen in +the murk. "Hold the course, Sultana, I am here!" + +And on the heels of the words came a flash from the skies, blazing full +upon the dripping figure of the giant as he reached a great arm up, +gripped the lee-rail, and swung himself on board with the unconscious +ease of a perfect athlete. + +"Thy boat, Milo?" inquired Dolores. + +"Sailed under, Sultana. I have held the flare aloft in my hand while +swimming until a moment ago, when the powder burned out." + +"And Rufe?" + +"The sloop is close by. Thou art sailing fair at his stern if thy course +was not changed to avoid me. His topmast is gone; he sails slowly." + +Then without more ado the splendid human animal clutched a backstay and +swarmed aloft with the agility of an ape, showing not a whit of strain +after his battle with the roaring seas. He reached Stumpy, sent that +numbed mariner down, and searched the waters with his keen vision, +waiting for another lightning flash. And when it came, fainter now as +the thunderstorm receded, his resonant voice boomed down: + +"Broad abeam the sloop lies! She runs before the wind!" + +"Slack away the main-sheet!" cried Dolores, heaving the helm up. "Hail +every minute, Milo!" + +"Shall I send him a shot immediately, lady?" roared Hanglip, at the +schooner's foremost gun. + +"Hold with thy shots, villain! Does Rufe deserve no sport? Stand by with +the grappling-hooks. I'll run him down!" + +"The sloop is dead ahead!" hailed Milo, though none on deck could detect +anything of her in the blackness. Dolores listened intently; then +twirled the wheel, and cried: "I hear her! Ready the grapnels?" + +"Aye, ready!" + +"Then watch--and heave!" she commanded; and with the suddenness of light +the schooner swept around in a swift arc, the black shape of the flying +sloop stood out against the angry sea crests, and the two vessels came +together with a crash of timbers and a rattling of gear. + +A distant rumbling of thunder succeeded a faint flash, and wind and rain +came down with increased fury as if to balance the defection of the +electric element. The darkness of Erebus fell upon the surging vessels, +and men groped at the rails in a blind effort to make out a footing for +boarding the sloop. + +"Follow me; I want Yellow Rufe alive!" cried Dolores, leaving the wheel +and springing to the bulwarks. Instinctively Peters stepped to the +wheel, and as he passed his employer he leaned to whisper in his ear: + +"Let them once leave these decks, sir, and we'll up hellum and away!" + +Venner's eyes glittered at the prospect; but he could not see the faces +of his friends; he could only hear Pearse's low tones beside him, and +the mumbled words indicated no great agreement in the scheme. Uncertain, +his mind confused between desire to escape and desire to see more of +Dolores and her hidden cave of wonders, Rupert Venner hesitated in his +decision; and in the next moment it was out of his power to decide. For +Rufe, in desperation now, met the boarders at the rail, backed by his +half-dozen crazed adherents, and murderous steel glittered dully against +the inky sky. + +"Beat down his cringing curs, but leave me Rufe!" cried Dolores, +opposing her own dagger to the sweep of the pirate's cutlas. And as the +schooner's crew roared at Hanglip's heels, storming over to the pitching +sloop's decks to pursue mercilessly the panic-stricken runaways, the +girl pitted agility and splendid knife-craft against the terror-driven +strength and wolfish fury of the trapped traitor. + +"Hah! Thy black heart fails thee!" taunted Dolores, leaping down from +the rail to the schooner's streaming deck and thus avoiding a whistling +stroke of Rufe's cutlas. The pirate fell forward with the impetus of his +blow, and stumbled in a heap at the girl's nimble feet. "Up, man!" she +cried, leaping back to permit him to rise. "What, art afraid of a woman? +Here, then, I prick thee! Now wilt fight?" She darted her dagger swiftly +downward, and the partially healed cross on Rufe's cheek blazed red +again. + +"Woman or devil, I'll see thy heart for that!" swore the pirate, and +rose with a bound and hurled himself at the girl. She stepped aside +agilely and laughed mockingly at him, while as he again stumbled with +the swing of his avoided blow she darted close, and her knife ripped his +sword-arm from wrist to elbow. + +Mouthing crazily with fury, Rufe leaped backward until his shoulders +struck the rigging, and, seizing his cutlas in his left hand, he poised +it by the blade for a deadly javelin cast. + +Now upon the scene flared a great blaze, and Stumpy's scowling face +appeared at the back of it. He, with readier wit than his fellows, had +sought out a tar-pot and lamp; and at the moment his mistress stood +defenseless before the impeding steel, the club-footed pirate poured +lamp-oil into the tar, and cast the flaring wick on top of all. + +A circle of light spread from wheel to foremast, with Yellow Rufe at the +main rigging in the center of it. The light dazzled him for a second, +and his throw was stayed. The three yachtsmen, huddled in their chains +aft, stared in helpless amazement at the tableau; for such it became, +when the fight stopped for a breath and every man's passion-filled face +was lighted by the red glare. + +"Shoot him down!" shouted Pearse in horror. + +And Venner and Tomlin strove for words without success. Venner was dumb +and sick in face of Dolores's peril. Yellow Rufe uttered a grim, +Satanic growl of laughter, and drew back his arm for the cast. His +plight was utterly desperate; he knew death waited for him with +clutching talons, and with his last breath he would reap toll that +should make his name a thing to recall with dread afterward. + +"This for thy witch's heart!" he howled, and his arm quivered. Then out +of the shadows aloft, above the smoky flare, came down the tremendous +shape of Milo, forgotten in his post at the masthead, but never taking +his eyes from his Sultana. + +Like a gorilla he slipped down the backstay with one hand; with the +other hand he reached downward with a swift, sure clutch, and as Rufe's +wrist flexed to cast his javelin Milo's hand gripped him by the neck +from behind and swung him bodily off his feet, while the wide-flung +cutlas flashed through the air and plunged with a hiss over the side. + +"I thank thee again, Milo," said Dolores, slipping her dagger into the +sheath and looking on at Rufe's struggles with the unconcern of one far +apart from the actual conflict. "I wished to take him alive; yet had +almost been forced to cut too deeply. Bring the villain to me. And, +Caliban, get more flares, lanterns, lights, and make us a theater of +justice here." + +She stepped aft, saw Peters at the wheel, and smiled as she realized how +her boarding of the sloop might have resulted. + +"Hah, but it would have availed thee nothing!" she smiled at Venner. "I +read thy heart as I read the stars, friend. Watch how completely Yellow +Rufe pays his debt to me. He has fled me through forest and mountain; +through a sea of howling storm; yet he pays. And thus all men pay who +think to flout Dolores. Keep thy eyes wide, friends, and watch." + +Yellow Rufe was brought before her, and his swarthy face was pallid in +the red light. There was something of the splendid beast about this +fellow, too; a quality that showed even when he faced certain death and +no merciful one. He had run, and when overtaken he had fought; and now +he must pay. + +"Hanglip, to the wheel here!" Dolores commanded. "Six of you bring back +the sloop. The rest attend me! Bring the schooner to her course, +northwest, Hanglip; and, Spotted Dog, rig me a whip at the foregaff-end. +Yellow Rufe, pray or curse while ye may. Thy course is run. There is +nothing left to say. Ten minutes remain to thee." + +The doomed pirate stood in silence while the preparations were being +made; but when Spotted Dog brought down the end of the rope he had rove +through the block at the end of the gaff, and stood grinning +anticipatively before Dolores, Rufe's tongue came loose, and he burst +into a torrent of futile, raving blasphemy. + +"Take the rope end forward, and pass it around the bows, so that the +rope passes beneath the keel," Dolores ordered, and every eager villain +in the band knew now what fate awaited Rufe. The schooner, not being +square-rigged, was badly fitted for the operation of keel-hauling; but +Dolores's inventive brain had devised a refinement of even that +refinement of torture. She waited for the rope end, and when Spotted Dog +brought it aft, on the weather side, passing clear from the gaff to +leeward, under the keel and up to windward, she stood aside so that the +yachtsmen could witness all. + +"Tie his hands, Milo!" she said. It was carried out, in spite of Rufe's +fierce fight against it. "Now place the noose about his throat tightly." +That, too, was done, and now the rope led from Rufe's neck, over the +weather rail, under the schooner, and up to the gaff. Three men stood by +the hauling part of the rope, and at a gesture from the girl six others +joined them. On every face was a little doubt, for none saw exactly what +was coming, least of all Rufe. + +"Now release him!" said Dolores quietly, and Rufe was left standing +alone, his hands tied, but his feet unfettered. He glared around as if +he saw a slim chance yet for life; the hope died the next moment, for +Dolores signed to the men at the rope, they began hauling, and the +terror leaped into Rufe's eyes afresh. + +For a moment Venner and his friends saw what they imagined to be a piece +of grim jesting; but they, as well as Rufe, speedily saw there was no +jest in this. For as the rope tightened, and other roaring ruffians ran +joyously to take a pull at it, Rufe was drawn irresistibly toward the +weather rail with a choking drag on his throat. He seized the rail, and +strained with his every sinew to fight that deadly peril; the rope only +tightened more; it was either go or strangle for him; fight as he might, +he was forced to climb on the rail, to aid in his own funeral. + +The yachtsmen turned dizzy with the awfulness of the man's end; but they +could not take their fascinated eyes from the scene. They saw Rufe +topple over the rail with a choking curse, and saw the rope pull him +under the vessel; they saw the rope quiver to the pirates' lusty pull as +the victim was battered against the keel. And they saw the terrible +figure leap from the sea to leeward and fly to the gaff-end as the men +ran away with the rope to a roaring chorus. But they saw no more. Their +eyes refused to look at a repetition of that horror. And Dolores, +watching them keenly, came to them, after giving final orders regarding +Yellow Rufe's body, took their chains in her hand, and said: + +"When again the thought comes to leave me, gentlemen, think well upon +what I have showed thee. Now come below. I owe thee some refreshment +after a night of storm. 'Twill be approaching dawn ere the schooner can +beat back to my haven. Come. I will serve thee with supper." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE FIRES OF THE FLESH. + + +In the schooner's saloon the atmosphere was peaceful by contrast with +the hurly-burly outside; yet even here the steep slant of the deck, the +shrill, protesting squeal of working frames and beams, the sullen thud +and swish of racing seas along the vessel's skin, kept the storm ever in +mind: the dizzy plunge of the bows into great gray seas, with its +accompanying rise of the stern and the hollow jar and thump of the +rudder-post in its port, kept the interior humming with sound as from a +distant organ. + +Again chained to the mainmast, the three yachtsmen stood gloomily +regarding Dolores, whose capable, battle-wise fingers now performed a +task more in keeping with her sex and charm. Under the great swing-lamp +in the skylight she leaned over the table, mixing wine in low, stout +cups, spreading a silver salver with food from the pantry. And a +thrilling picture she made in the soft glow of the lamp. The beautiful +face was warm with color; the scarlet lips were slightly opened in a +brilliant smile; intent upon her task, she swayed with superb grace to +the tremendous lurches of the driving schooner, ignoring all outside +affairs. + +Her preparations completed, she placed tray and cups at the end of the +table nearest the mainmast, turned around the deep armchair which had +been the owner's own, and sat down, offering a cup and the tray with a +little laugh of satisfaction. + +"Come, friend Rupert," she said, thrilling Venner again with her vibrant +voice, "thou shalt be first. Eat--and drink. See, for thee I do this." +She raised the cup to her lips, and kissed the brim, fixing her +fathomless eyes full on Venner as she did so. + +He struggled with his feelings for a moment, and hated himself heartily +for even debating his attitude. But he fell, as he had done before, +dazzled by her witchery. His eyes blazed, his blood leaped, and he took +the cup with a mumbled attempt at thanks. Dolores smiled at his +confusion, and in that smile was the allure of a Circe. + +Venner's expression became less tense as he noted the faces of his +fellows; for in their eyes he read jealousy, rank and stark, and it +warmed him to the marrow. In the next instant his warmth rose to fever +heat, and malice twisted his features; Dolores had taken another cup, +and now she offered it to Pearse, with a smile yet more gracious than +before. + +"My silent friend, here's to thee, too," she murmured. His cup she +kissed twice, and presented it carefully so that the place she kissed +was against his lips. "Drink. I have sweetened it." + +As Venner's brows darkened, so did John Pearse conquer his first flush +of self-contempt and put on a smile that irradiated his usually serious +face. And Tomlin brightened, too, waiting in what patience he could +muster for his turn, which must come next. To him Dolores turned, cup in +hand, and rising at the same time gave him his wine with a brief: "Here, +drink, too. I must leave thee a while." + +She forced the cup into Tomlin's trembling fingers, gave him never a +glance, but went out of the saloon on her errand. + +When he realized she was gone, Craik Tomlin dashed down the wine like a +petulant boy, and cursed deeply and fiercely. And not until then did +Venner and Pearse awake to the true artistry of the woman; for here, +instead of making of Tomlin a raging foe, willing to plot with all the +power of his alert brain for their ultimate release, she had aroused a +demon of black jealousy in him which promised to set all three by the +ears. + +Restricted as their movements were, they were forced to nurse whatever +feelings Dolores had implanted in them in full sight of each other. And +Tomlin left no doubt as to his feelings. At the farthest scope of his +chain he flung himself down on the slanting floor and crouched there +with dull-glowing eyes bent loweringly upon his friends. Venner laughed +awkwardly, and glanced at Pearse; the laugh died away and left a silence +between them that was vividly accentuated by the manifold voices of the +laboring vessel. For in the swift meeting of eyes, John Pearse and +Venner, host and guest, friends to that moment, saw in each other an +established rival, a potential foe. Involuntarily they drew apart; and +when Dolores returned from the deck she found them spread out like star +rays, having nothing in common except a common center. + +She gave no sign that she noticed them; but her heavy, fringed lids +drooped over eyes brimming with gratification. As she stepped from the +stairs the schooner swung upright, the deck overhead thundered to the +slamming of booms as she came about, and then the cabin sloped the other +way, rolling the scattered wine-cups noisily across the floor. Neither +man looked up; but Tomlin's cup rolled so that it struck his foot, and +he gave voice to a deep oath, terrible in its uncalled-for savagery. +Then Dolores gave them outward notice for the first time. + +With a low, pleasant laugh, she stepped quickly to Tomlin's side, laid a +hand on his sullen head, and forced him to look up at her. + +"I owe thee something, friend," she smiled, and Tomlin flushed hotly +under her close regard. "I treated thee badly in my haste. Come"--she +went to the sideboard, filled another cup with wine, and came back, +kneeling before Tomlin in the attitude of a slave while her big eyes +blazed full into his. + +"Drink, for I like thee best," she whispered, sipping the wine and +putting the brim, warm from her lips, to his. + +And Tomlin drank deeply, greedily, trembling under her close proximity. +He felt her hand take his chain, heard the tinkle of links, and knew, +without seeing, that she had unlocked his fetters and he was free. + +"Now sit here with me, and thou shalt tell me about thy world, my +friend, the world thou shalt take me to." + +Her soft, thrilling voice set Tomlin's blood leaping; and as she spoke +she led him to Venner's great chair and sat him down in it. Then, facing +at the length of the table her other two captives, she stood behind the +big chair, her arms on the top, leaning low to Tomlin's ear, her lips +almost brushing his cheek. + +And she whispered to him musically, seductively; her jeweled fingers +played with his hair; the soft, warm skin of her arms slid over his neck +and face; when, in a frenzy, he reached impulsively for her hand and +gripped it, she laughed yet more deliciously and permitted him to hold +it. + +"Why must you seek another world, Dolores?" Tomlin said hoarsely. "Here +you are queen. Out in the greater world you can be no more. Stay, and +let me stay with you." + +"And would my paltry possessions pay thee for renouncing thy people, thy +home?" she asked. + +"Home? People? God! I renounce Heaven itself if you say yes!" + +"We shall see, my friend," Dolores sighed, and Tomlin felt her tremble +slightly. "My chief desire is to leave behind me this life of herder to +human beasts. To go into the world whence comes such as thee, Tomlin; to +live among the people who can make such as these"--she indicated the +rich furnishing of the saloon, the sideboard silver and plate, the +stained glass of the skylight. + +"All these things I have, and more--nay, but thy treasures are nothing +compared with what I shall show thee in the great chamber--yet must I +keep them hidden because of the beasts that call me Sultana! Where they +came from, these treasures, must be men like thee, Tomlin, women like +the painted women of my gallery, people with the art to make these +things instead of the brute power to steal them. And there I will go, +and thou art to be my guide." + +"Then, in Heaven's name, let us go now!" cried Tomlin, trying to rise. +She laughed in his ear again, and her soft, warm arms pressed him back +in the chair with a power that amazed him. "We shall go, in good +season," she whispered. "But--" The rest was murmured so faintly, yet so +tremendously audible to his superheated brain, that he drew back and +stared up at her with an awful expression of mingled unbelief and horror +distorting his face. + +"Do you know what you say?" he gasped, and shot an apprehensive glance +toward Venner and Pearse. + +"Surely, my friend," she crooned. "Thyself alone, of those who came in +this ship, may return. If I am desirable, see to it that I can be +pleased with thee." Dolores stood up, bent upon him a dazzling smile, +leaned as if to kiss his lips, then with a tinkling little ripple of +mirth blew a kiss instead and ran up the companion-stairs to the deck. + +Tomlin stood glaring after her as if fascinated. His face, deeply +flushed a moment before, had gone deathly white; his profile, turned +under the lamp toward his companions, showed deeply puckered brows over +stony eyes, lips parted as if to utter a cry of horror. And Venner, +fuming inwardly, had seen enough to recall some of his badly scattered +wits. He called Tomlin by name hoarsely, softly, and exclaimed when he +looked around: + +"Tomlin, shall we three be ruined body and soul by that sorceress? Come, +help us out of these chains, and we will make a bid for liberty. We can +reach Peters and such men as are left, by way of the alleyway to the +forecastle; I know where weapons are to be got, and we'll put our fate +on the cast. Come. Pearse is of a like mind, eh, Pearse?" + +Pearse did not reply at once, and Tomlin saved him the trouble; for, +recovering himself with a shudder, he put a hand on the companion-rail +and started up the stairs with a laugh of contempt. + +"I have no concern with your troubles, Venner," he said. "As for +liberty, I am free as air. I believe patience is the medicine you need." + +Tomlin reached the deck with tingling ears, for even Pearse came out of +his reverie to curse him. But curses or benedictions counted nothing at +that moment. In every patch of light he saw Dolores's devilishly lovely +face; in every swing of the vessel he saw her consummate grace; he was a +thirsty man seeking a spring, knowing full well that a draft must kill +him. He stood alone outside the companionway, wondering at the absence +of people, at the absence of Dolores. A solitary man stood at the wheel; +and, looking around for others, Tomlin noticed vaguely that the black +storm was broken, that watery stars were winking down, and that almost +in the zenith a gibbous moon leaned like a brimming dipper of +quicksilver, ready to drop from the inky cloud that had but just +uncovered it. + +Then voices reached his ears from forward, voices full of wondering +anger, and he stepped out clear of the deck-house and peered ahead on +the windward side. There, two miles away, the land loomed black and +forbidding; and high up, on a crest, a great red blaze leaped and +swirled against the flying clouds. + +As he stood, Dolores ran aft, ignoring him utterly in her haste. Her men +grouped themselves along the waist of the schooner, waiting for +commands. The Feu Follette was already doing her best; that is, the best +under such sail as was safe to carry. But there, to windward, and yet +two miles distant, some part of the pirate village was burning, and none +might say yet what part it was. + +The one thing certain was that it could not be the great chamber. That +was of rock; it might be destroyed by an explosion; never by fire. So +there was a ring of exultation in Dolores's tone when she sent the hail +along: + +"Loose both topsails and set them! Caliban, thou small villain, out and +loose the outer jib. Main-sheet here! Oh, haul, bullies! Flat--more +yet--so, belay!" + +Then the girl flung the man from the wheel, seized the spokes herself, +and began to nurse the schooner to windward with truly superhuman art. +Closer yet she brought the graceful craft; closer, until the luffs +trembled and the seas burst fair upon the stem and volleyed stinging +spray the full length of her. And as she drew nearer, the blaze seemed +to diminish and blaze afresh as if fire-fighters were there indeed, but +lacking weapons to fight with. + +"Is it the treasure-house?" Tomlin asked anxiously, stepping beside the +girl. She stood in deep shadow; the dim radiance from the lighted +binnacle touched her face, breast, and arms with soft light, and her +eyes, as they flashed swiftly toward the man, glittered with some subtle +quality that sent a shiver running down his spine. + +"Treasure-house?" she repeated, and her voice was no longer soft and +alluring; it was metallic and menacing. For the second time, first in +Venner, now in Tomlin, she had seen the true source of their +fascination. "No, it is not the treasure-house. It is the council hall, +where thou wert lodged." She snatched her gaze from the compass and +fixed him with the cold, unwinking stare of a snake. "Where thou wert +lodged, my friend who would renounce all for me. Where, had I cared to, +I might have left two of ye, taking with me to safety only the one whose +brains are not afire with soulless gold and jewels." + +Tomlin grew hot and uneasy. "My brain is on fire with your beauty, +Dolores," he returned, trying to force her gaze to meet his again. + +"Prove it to me, then," she replied shortly, and waved him away, +devoting her attention now to making the anchorage, already close to. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +PEARSE ENTERS THE CAVE OF ALADDIN. + + +Lucky it proved that Pascherette had been left behind when the schooner +sailed after Yellow Rufe. Even Dolores, with all her consummate wisdom, +had forgotten the existence of the old woman she had degraded to kitchen +drudge; still more utterly had she forgotten the relationship existing +between the old woman and the late victim of her terrible vengeance. + +Sancho had called the old crone mother, whether with blood reasons or +not none knew. And at bottom, much of Sancho's rebellion had come of +anger at the treatment meted out to her. And it was Sancho's despairing +cry, when Milo cast him out into the Grove, that brought the old woman +from her concealment in the forest. The awful plight of the unlucky +wretch had aroused in the woman's withered breast a demon of revenge +that knew no limits; and the departing schooner, then barely visible to +her, filled her brain with the knowledge that the strangers who came in +that vessel had been the indirect cause of her Sancho's fate. + +She knew they had been placed in the cells behind the council hall; she +knew nothing of Dolores's last-minute decision that had taken them with +her. She knew nothing as to who or how many were left in the camp; but +she knew, she had terrible and ever-present proof in that moaning, +groping, brainless thing that was Sancho, that her mistress had shown a +leaning toward the strangers at the expense of her own people, and that +she herself might expect no mercy if ever caught. And with the low +animal cunning that served her for intellect she knew her penalty could +be no greater if she struck one blow in revenge before taking to the +woods in final flight. + +Her plan was simple. Watching Sancho for a while, so that she might not +lose him, she searched for dry wood among the drenched underbrush, piled +it against the rear of the council hall, and set fire to it, fanning the +faint flame and feeding it, guarding it with her scanty garments, until +the red tongues shot up in a powerful, self-supporting conflagration. + +Then she had darted back to the forest fringe, found Sancho, and turned +his sightless, blank face toward the blaze so that he might feel the +warmth and guess the cause. But she knew nothing of his cracked brain; +she knew only of his physical agonies; the utter absence of interest in +him when she would have shown him what she had done shook her to the +foundations of her own reason; and her eldritch scream pealed up among +the trees as she flung her arms aloft and cursed the place. + +It was the scream that brought Pascherette out of the hut, where she +sheltered from the storm, to see the council hall in flames. It was the +scream that told the little octoroon where the fire had birth. And +Pascherette, too, believed that the three strangers were still within +the cells. She had plans of her own that required the safety of those +men, at least for a while. And her active brain gave her the solution +before the old woman had ceased to curse. + +Like a small, sleek panther Pascherette ran toward the old woman; she +saw Sancho, too, but instinctively knew that after Milo's treatment of +him he could not be dangerous; ignoring the man, she drew her knife as +she ran, and with a brief, panting, "That for thee, witch!" struck the +old woman down at Sancho's stumbling feet. + +Now she gave all her energies to subduing the fire; and, swiftly +rallying every man or woman in the camp she drove them with blows and +shrill invective to beating the blaze with sodden boughs and wet sand. +She set men with poles to batter down the doors to the cells; but the +doors had been built to oppose that kind of entry. Frantically she drove +the fire-fighters to another place, while she heaped up fresh fire +against the doors in the hope of burning down what could not be burst. +And it was the last up-blazing shaft of fire as the doors fell that +Dolores saw in the moment she brought the schooner to anchor. +Pascherette was emerging, singed and blackened, with dark rage in her +glittering eyes at having found the cells empty, when Dolores and her +crew arrived on the scene with Venner and Tomlin and Pearse in their +midst. + +"What! Pascherette again?" cried Dolores, glaring at the girl with red +suspicion in her face. "Is this thy work? Speak!" + +Pascherette stared in surprise at the three strangers, and her painfully +scorched lips strove to answer. Her throat was dry, and at first words +refused to come. But in the pause, when fifty faces glowered at the +girl, something stumbled across the open in the firelight, and Milo's +sharp vision distinguished it. He went up to Pascherette, with deep +concern in his devoted eyes, and laid a strong arm about her trembling +shoulders. She relaxed toward him, and managed to whisper to him. He +flung out his free hand toward the open space, and cried to Dolores: + +"There is the traitor, Sultana! This is the avenger." + +Dolores looked; every eye was turned where Milo pointed; and the brutal +laughter of some of the hardiest pirates mingled with the groans of the +three yachtsmen, whose escape from a horrible death by fire could not +reconcile them to the staggering vengeance that had overtaken the wretch +who had attempted that death. Bathed in an infernal glow, grotesque as a +creature of a diseased brain, the unhuman Sancho staggered across the +glade and into the darkness of the forest, bearing in his handless arms +a ghastly burden in which the hilt of Pascherette's dagger glittered and +flashed as the firelight touched it. + +"Back! Let him go!" cried Dolores; and a score of shouting ruffians +returned from swift pursuit, leaving Sancho and his burden to pass into +the oblivion of the great forest. + +Milo examined the damage, and reported. The cells were useless now, +except merely to confine captives. They did not fit in with Dolores's +plans thus, and she sent Milo to a distance with John Pearse while she +carried into effect a new fancy. Her crew had gone to their own places, +to soothe the fatigues of their night's work in carousal; Pascherette +stood near by, gazing at her mistress with mute appeal that she, too, be +permitted to seek alleviation of her own sore burns. + +"Wait, child," said Dolores, seeing the girl's trouble. "I'll cure thy +hurts soon." + +Then she separated Venner and Tomlin, taking each in turn to a vacant +hut. And to each she whispered patience and faith; to each her voice +imparted a renewed thrill. To Venner she said: + +"Thy anger with me was foolish, good Rupert. I did but smile at thy +friends to make thy task easier. Now see; I leave thee unfettered, and +thus." She drew his head down and lightly kissed his hair, laughing with +a little tremor: "Think of what I asked of thee, Rupert. To-morrow I +shall ask thy decision." + +In turn to Tomlin she whispered: + +"The night has been arduous for thee. I was impatient with thee. Thy vow +of devotion to me rang true, though I doubted it at the moment. +To-morrow I will hear what thy heart speaks. To-night, see, I free thee. +For thy own safety, though, do not venture beyond these doors save with +me. My rascals are fierce creatures of jealousy and suspicion. Good +night, friend." Him, too, she left tingling with her kiss, and whatever +others in the camp did that night, two men found sleep elusive and vain. + +Milo brought Pearse to her at her call, and together they went to the +great stone before the chamber. Milo rolled back the rock, while his +expression showed uneasiness. But he had learned his lesson when +protesting against Pascherette's admission to the cave of mystery, and +uttered no warning now. + +Pascherette, in spite of her burns, bent a roguish face upon Pearse as +that puzzled gentleman waited for some word or motion that should give +him the reason for this unexpected favor. + +Still Dolores said nothing. The rock rolled away, and Milo stood aside, +she entered, touching Pearse on the arm as she passed him, and he +followed meekly, Pascherette bringing up the rear with Milo after the +giant replaced the great stone. Then Dolores turned back to Pearse, +under the soft, red glow of the unseen lamps, and flashed a bewildering +smile upon him. + +"Wilt believe now that I love thee?" she whispered, and her lids drooped +over swimming eyes. "Beyond that great door lies the chamber to enter +which costs death. Art afraid?" + +"Lead on," replied Pearse hoarsely. There was no trace of fear in his +voice or in his eyes; but Dolores warmed gladly to the knowledge that +here at last was a man whose thoughts were bent upon her and not on her +chamber of treasures. + +They stood before the massive sliding door of plate and jewels, and here +the human side in John Pearse showed through for an instant. Under the +great, yellow lantern the gold and silver plates, the glowing rubies, +the glinting emeralds, made a picture of fabulous riches that even he +could not ignore. But at the upward slide of the door his eyes left the +richness of it without a flicker; he waited for the heavy velvet +hangings to be drawn, and when Dolores's eyes sought his they surprised +his deep, ardent gaze fastened full on herself and not upon what might +next be revealed. + +"Enter, man of my heart," she smiled, and stood aside to permit him to +pass. + +In the first steps over the threshold John Pearse saw little save a dim, +cool hall, vast and full of vagrant shadows; then, when Milo had +arranged the lights so that they gradually grew in power, flooding the +chamber with mellow radiance, his soul seemed to burst from his throat +in one choking, stupefied gasp. + +"The Cave of Aladdin!" he choked, and stood open-mouthed while Dolores +laughed softly at his shoulder. + +"Nay," she reproved. "'Tis the Cave of Dolores. 'Tis mine, and"--she +turned her face up toward his alluringly--"may be thine, if thou'rt a +true man!" + +With shrewd artistry she twisted away as he strove to clasp her, and +there she left him standing, in the midst of untold treasures that every +moment were increasingly revealed to him. Without another glance for +him, or apparently another thought, she took Pascherette by the hand and +led her down the chamber to the great chair. Here she busied herself +with salves and lotions to assuage the scald of the girl's fresh burns, +which were more painful than serious. And every moment she was thus +charitably employed her gleaming eyes were fixed upon Pearse from under +concealing lashes; every moment Milo's dusky face was bent upon her from +the end of the chamber with an expression of absolute adoration and +gratitude. For tiny Pascherette was custodian of the giant's green +heart; and honest Milo never sought very deeply for motives. It was +enough for him that Dolores, his Sultana, the being he worshiped as he +worshiped his gods, was ministering with woman's infinite tenderness to +her maid, a creature as humble as himself. + +Pearse, too, even in his intoxication of senses, saw and warmed to this +evidence of real womanliness in one he had small cause to think anything +other than a bewilderingly alluring fury. He could not hide his +thoughts, and Dolores saw them betrayed on his face; Pascherette +surprised the look on her mistress's lovely face that told her the +imperious beauty possessed a heart of living flesh and blood. And +Pascherette shuddered nervously at the fear of what must happen should +that heart ever feel humiliated. + +"Keep still, child," Dolores laughed happily, mistaking the reason for +the girl's shudder. "It is finished now. Thy hurts will pass in thy +sleep. Go to thy big man there, and have him pet thee. I have no need of +thee until I call. Go, take him away. I would be alone with my guest." + +The girl ran to Milo, and together they went down to the gallery beyond +the picture door. Then Dolores set out with her own fair hands wine and +sweetmeats, the confections taken from the yacht, strange and new to +her, but in her mind something desirable to such men as Pearse, else why +had they brought such things? And again using her innate witchery, she +set a chair for Pearse at a distance from her own, where she could look +straight into his face or hide her own, as her fancy dictated. + +"Hast seen the like before?" she smiled, looking at him over the brim of +a chased gold flagon. + +"Never, never, Dolores!" he said, and his eyes blazed into hers. He +moved his chair close to her, and reached for her free hand. + +"What! Hast thou no eyes for these things?" she exclaimed in simulated +surprise, taking her hand away and indicating the wealth around the +walls. "Man, thy eyes are idle; look at those gems, those paintings; +hast ever seen the like of those 'Three Graces,' then, that they have no +interest for thee?" + +"Yes, I have seen the like, wonderful, wonderful being," he returned +hoarsely. "You I have seen; you, you, I see nothing else but you, +Dolores!" + +She dazzled him with a seductive smile, full of fire-specked softnesses, +and offered him her flagon. + +"Drink, comrade. Drink here, and we shall talk of thee and me, and what +concerns us both nearly. Art sure thy eyes are not blinded by the nearer +beauty?" + +"I am not blind! I never saw with clearer vision!" Pearse cried, taking +the flagon with tremorless hand. "I care nothing for these tawdry +gauds." + +"Ah! Then thou'rt the man. Come, thy faithful soul deserves reward. +Come, I will show thee treasures thou hast not dreamed of yet; and all +shall be thine, with me--at a price." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE TREASURE TEST. + + +Dolores gaily took John Pearse by the hand and led him down the chamber +to the dais on which stood the vacant chair of state of the dead Red +Jabez. The great canopied bed still stood there; but it was curtained +in, out of sight, and unused; Dolores preferred her own low couch, with +its strangely beautiful composite furnishings of silk and tiger-skins, +velvet and snowy polar-bear rugs, heaped high with luxurious cushions +that made it a restful lounge by day as well as a sleep-inviting couch +by night. + +Beside the couch, between it and the dais, Milo had set the +treasure-chests, leaving the lids wide-flung, the contents but thinly +concealed by silken shawls. The end of a rope of matchless pearls hung +over the edge of one chest carelessly, without apparent motive; yet when +she guided Pearse to the couch and seated him, Dolores scanned his face +with glinting eyes that peeped out through narrow slits. She saw his +look of interest; then his mouth turned upward in a smile that said +plainly: "Here is a theatrical trick to impress me!" + +"Now thy reward is come," whispered Dolores, leaving him with an arch +smile and kneeling before the big chests. She tore away the shawls and +plunged her hands into the glittering hoard to the wrists, flinging out +upon the couch and the floor, upon Pearse's knees and into his hands, +rubies and emeralds, diamonds and pearls, golden chains and ornaments +for the hair in a bewildering, stupendous litter. And, her face turned +from him, her narrowed eyes were fixed upon him, and in their gleaming +depths burned a smoldering anxiety that was nearing impatience. + +For John Pearse cloaked his feelings better than his fellows; he smiled +at the shower of riches, met her questing glance with a smile, and +smiled again with shaking head when she stood before him, aglow with +yearning for his decision, and asked simply: + +"Well?" + +"Baubles, playthings, Dolores!" he laughed up at her. He seized her +hands, stroked the satin-skinned forearm, and said softly: "These are +not worthy of such a woman as Dolores. These are but the gauds of a +beautiful woman. To fit you, they should be the adornments of a +goddess!" + +"Oh, then thy lips uttered truth!" she cried delightedly. She stooped +swiftly to him, twined her arms about his neck, and laid her warm cheek +to his. "Now I shall show thee treasures indeed, my John!" + +She ran to the one chest yet unopened, and flung away the silk covering. +Here were the gems of the craftsman's art. Stones of unparalleled color +and size were in this chest; but their chief merit lay in their cunning +settings, their consummate delicacy of workmanship. Here the art +collector might find his El Dorado; in all the world such a collection +could scarcely be found in one place. Here were shrines and temples, +carved from single immense stones or pieces of jade; here was a woven +thing of gold and silver, in which the warp and woof lay close as +tapestry, portraying as no tapestry could portray it the fabled valley +of "Sinbad," in which the sands were gold, the sky silver, and the gems +were gems indeed. + +"Is this to thy mind?" Dolores cried, tossing to him a golden ball which +by some amazing internal mechanism played fairy chimes as it whirled +through the air. + +Her lips parted in flushed pleasure at the result of her display, for +John Pearse was smitten with the collector's fever. He missed her ball +through sheer inability to tear his eyes from the other treasures. And +as his brain began to grasp the stupendous truth, to more readily +estimate values, his eyes turned from the more gaudy works of art, and +noticed, for the first time clearly, the pricelessness of many greater +things of canvas and wood, ivory and glass, with which the apartment +abounded. + +"Now thy heart craves my treasures, too, eh?" she chided, gliding to him +and laying a hand on his head. Yet she felt glad of his awakened +interest. It was merely another card she might yet have to play. + +"Astounding!" he gasped. His gaze fastened upon a boule bric-à-brac +stand, on which stood an Aretine vase two feet high, of peerless form +and glaze. The ticking of the great Peter Hele clock drew his attention +to a work of ebony and ivory as scarcely could be believed as coming +from man's hands. + +"Now thou'rt of a kind with thy fellows!" she cried in anger. "Look at +me! No, thy eyes will not deign to seek me now!" + +Pearse snatched his eyes away, and answered her with a laugh that sent +her blood leaping again. + +"My Dolores forgets she demanded my admiration for her treasures," he +said. "What would you have, splendid one? Shall I say these treasures +are still paltry, when I see their countless worth? Still I say you are +the treasure beyond price. These are but a little more fitting for you. +That is all. Am I forgiven?" + +He leaped to his feet, seized her hand, and attempted to slip an arm +about her waist. She, lithe as a leopard, slipped from his grasp with a +glad laugh that rippled in a low murmur to his hot ears, and intensified +the glare that had come into his eyes. She failed to see that glare. It +was the glare of greed; stark and utter greed, that counted no cost and +brooked no opposition in driving for its ends. + +"Thou art forgiven indeed!" she replied, panting and disheveled, a thing +of wondrous loveliness. "So far art thou forgiven that I shall put thy +heart to the grand test at once. Of thy fellows none can compare with +thee for scorn of wealth and desire of me. Sit down again, my man; let +us reveal our inmost hearts to each other." + +She told him, keeping him at provoking distance, of her heart-hunger for +the outside world, the world of art and things of beauty. She thrilled +him with her vibrant voice, mesmerized him with her distant, caressing +touch and glorious, limpid eyes. She made his blood pulse hotly with +desire with her soft-spoken offer of self-surrender to the man who +should lead her from her sovereignty over human beasts and set her feet +in the high places of the earth. + +"And with these my treasures, I shall make my man a king in truth," she +said, slipping along the couch toward him and laying both hands clasped +on his arm. She threw back her head, shaking loose her great masses of +lustrous hair, and poured her soul at him from half-closed, moist eyes +that gleamed like midnight pools in starlight. "Yet must my chosen man +assure me of his love for me, and his contempt for my riches. For, +though my treasures shall be his, yet will I be first in his heart or +forget him." + +"And first you are, and shall be, Dolores," whispered Pearse, leaning +his chin on her forehead and glaring covetously at the littered wealth +of the chests. "What man of warm blood can see any other being or thing +when Dolores is by?" + +"Then come. I believe thee," she said, rising slowly. "Come with me, my +man above price. See here." + +She swept back a piece of tapestry at the rear of the chamber, and +disclosed a dark and gloomy cavern, hewn out of the solid rock, as was +the greater cavern. From a brazier she took a pine splinter, lighted it, +and beckoned Pearse into the cave. And as soon as his eyes adjusted +themselves to the gloom, he saw the place stowed tightly from floor to +ceiling with kegs and half-casks, hooped and marked with black +characters. + +"Gold?" he gasped, perspiration starting to his brows. + +"Gold!" Her rejoinder was tense, almost savage; she glared at him from +under the torch, a quivering shape of disgust. + +"Why, Dolores, don't look like that," he laughed. "I did but wonder. If +this were all gold, it could not enhance your worth in my eyes." + +"Then the proof will be easy. This is not gold. It is gunpowder. Our +whole store. My rascals are not to be trusted with more powder than they +can use at once. From this store I dole them out their rounds; thus are +all safe. But at this moment I have other use for this powder. Stay +here; or no, help me. It will be finished the sooner." + +Dolores ran out into the great chamber again, Pearse following her +wonderingly. She left him in wonder but a short time; for, gathering up +a great armful of treasure she started back to the cave, crying: "Come, +fill thy arms, too." He paused, and she took up his hesitation swiftly, +feeling again a surge of doubt and disgust rise in her breast. She +called to him, scornfully: "What, art afraid? Come, faint one; beyond +here is my secret outlet from this place. Now art satisfied?" + +And John Pearse followed into the cave, a-tingle with the hope that he +was indeed the elect. He saw her fling her riches down on the tops of +the kegs; she bade him do likewise, and then led the way back for more. +And so she went, and so he followed; journey after journey was +completed, until the gunpowder-kegs were almost buried beneath the +wealth of an empire. Then the girl stepped outside, and called Milo. The +giant appeared with silent speed. + +"Milo, burst me one of these kegs," she ordered, and her voice forced +Pearse's attention; it was so cold, passionless, utterly controlled. The +keg was burst, and a trickle of coarse cannon powder ran on the floor. + +"Lay a damp train out to the ledge over the grove, Milo!" + +Milo disappeared through the gallery, trickling moistened powder from +his fingers as he went. Then, when his voice sounded back along the +passage, Dolores again took Pearse by the arm and said, looking him full +in the eyes: "Thy test, friend. Here am I. Out there is the grove, and +beyond it the sea. Take this torch. Put light to the powder train, and +thou and I will depart in the white schooner. We shall leave nothing for +these vultures to fight over. But together we will go far away into thy +world, thee and me." + +"And leave my friends here?" he asked, huskily. + +"Ay, my man, but not alive!" she whispered, thrusting her dark, flushed +face close to his, and letting her lips breathe their fragrance upon +him. "They, thy friends, are not as my beasts. They have the brains of +the white kings of the earth; they have the cunning which makes of all +other races slaves and dependents. Leave them here, living, and in a day +they will rule these rabble and together they will hunt us down. Come, +haste. Put thy fire to the train." + +"Not yet! Tell me what deviltry is to be worked upon my companions." + +"Hah! Then thou'rt but lukewarm in thy love. Am I not Dolores? Am I not +worth thy two friends? Listen, I'll tell thee my price, friend. If thy +friends are to live, then destroy this trash ere we go, so that they get +it not. If thy heart is bent upon saving this treasure, then thy hand +must first put thy friends into their long sleep. Nay, peace! There is +no alternative. The man who mates with me shall be a man indeed; no +petty, squeamish lover whose weak heart sickens at removing a rival." + +"Give me until morning," he replied, dry of throat, and pallid of face. +"It is a terrible thing you ask, Dolores. Yet I dare not say the cost is +too high. As for destroying these treasures, that I know is but a trick +to try me. You could never go out into a new world and take a low +station. That you would have to do if I set fire to that train." He +suddenly darted a look of fierce challenge at her, "There!" he cried. +"The trial is yours!" + +He flung down his torch, and the powder-train began to splutter and +fizz. Dolores flashed a look of approval at him, and burst into a +ringing, happy laugh. She kicked aside the torch, and trampled out and +relaid the train; then ran to Pearse impulsively, and said with simple +earnestness that utterly deceived him: + +"Now I believe in thee again, and for ever. 'Twas but to try thee, John. +We will leave nothing of worth when we go. But that makes it the more +imperative that thy friends have no power to harm us afterward. Think +not that Dolores will take a lower station. I shall be queen wherever I +go, and my man shall be made a king by my power. + +"I give thee until noon to think over thy answer. Go, and the gods +protect thee and make thee faithful to me." + +Calling Milo back, she bade him conduct Pearse from the great chamber, +and as they passed out, little Pascherette peered up at Pearse with an +impudent smile, and with her head on one side like a bird she chattered: + +"White stranger, thou'rt a fool! What Dolores wills, will surely come to +pass. If thy heart fails thee, and thy friends are safe at thy hands, +dost think they will have like scruples? Fool again! One of them will +kill thee and the other, and that man will gain a peerless mate. And, +bend down thy tall head, thou imitation giant--already thy two friends +are liberated, each seeking the life of the other, though neither knows +of the other's freedom!" + +"What?" stammered Pearse, gripping the girl's slim shoulder fiercely. +"If you lie--" + +"Pshaw! One need not lie to befool thee!" Pascherette retorted +scornfully. "Sleep, and if thy throat is not yet slit on thy awakening, +make thy decision quickly, and tell it to Dolores." + +Pearse would have answered her with more questioning, but she laughed at +him, and bade Milo shut him out. So the great rock fell, and Pearse +wandered into the camp, not knowing where he went, and caring little. He +had no place to sleep, so far as he knew; yet he felt no wonder. He +walked through the sleeping-camp, across the grove, and into the forest, +his brain on fire and seething with the problem before him. + +"The treasure, with or without the woman!" he muttered, clenching his +hands savagely. "The treasure! Ye gods! There must be the wealth of +_Monte Cristo_ there!" He broke off into a harsh laugh at thought of his +challenge with the torch. "The witch!" he chuckled. "She was clever, but +John Pearse overreached her. Now I know her heart. But--" + +He wandered on, and his mind was centered upon Venner and Tomlin. The +more he thought over the situation, the more he found his ideas forming +themselves after Dolores's. + +"Why should I share it?" he asked of the winking stars. + +And while he communed with himself regarding her and her demands, +Dolores overlooked Milo in a task that brought a sparkle to her eyes and +a gleaming smile to her lips. They were repacking the great treasure +chests. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +PASCHERETTE DEALS AGAIN. + + +Dolores spent her night in slumber as peaceful as a babe's. When Milo +had completed his task with the treasure chests he went to his own +couch. John Pearse wandered deep into the eery forest, his brain filled +with tumultuous fancies, while Craik Tomlin and Rupert Venner lay in the +dark before the open doors of their separate cells, struggling for a +decision with their own good and evil natures. But Dolores, before +retiring called Pascherette to dress her hair and gave the little +octoroon some secret instructions against the morning. + +"Now to thy bed, girl, and wake with bright eyes," said Dolores, her +toilet completed. "Let thy busy tongue wag its liveliest then; see to it +that the strangers hear whispers and rumors, yet keep them apart and +from harm a while. Thy task with the other rabble is easy. I care not +how they are divided. But divided they must be; to the point of mutiny. +Go, and sweet dreams to thee." + +It was then that a subtle happiness stole into Dolores's face; then her +great luminous eyes closed slowly in utter peace; then that she lay down +with a gentle sigh on her couch of furs and slept care-free and smiling. + +Dreams not of the brightest might have ruffled her calm had she seen the +night watch of her maid. For the moment Pascherette was dismissed, and +gave a second thought to her orders, a light of dawning hope, +prospective triumph, broke over the small, gold-tinted face and +sleepiness fled for the night. + +"Divided they shall be!" she whispered, and hugged herself rapturously. +"Divided to her disaster and--Milo's triumph!" + +Then the maid wrapped herself in a robe, and went out to the camp. + +Like a fantom she appeared to Venner, and as swiftly vanished; but in +the moment that she bent over him she whispered in his ear that Tomlin +was the chosen of Dolores; that he and Pearse were doomed at the hands +of their friend. + +"I tell thee, watch," she said. "By noon to-morrow the truth shall be +shown to thee." And in leaving him she placed in his hands the rapier +that had been taken from him by Dolores. + +To Tomlin next she appeared, and his rapier also she returned; but in +his ear was breathed the name of John Pearse. To find Pearse himself was +harder; but she waited, and shortly before the dawn he emerged from the +forest and walked dully toward his own charred cell. + +"Hah, my friend," she said to him, suddenly appearing from the shades. +"I fear thy tardiness has defeated thee. Now thou'lt need to look to +thyself, for the man Venner has vowed thy life to Dolores, and that of +Tomlin." + +"What! Venner?" + +"Surely. Why not? Is not Dolores worthy such a sacrifice then? Hah, but +Venner is a man of decision. Thy eyes saw the treasure? It's lost to +thee--unless--" she whispered, peering up into his angry face. + +"Unless?" + +"Unless thou prove the better man. Dolores would have thee before all +the rest, friend; but she despises a waverer. I tell thee thy fortune is +yet in thy hands." + +"How?" + +"Here, I have thy sword. Take it, and keep aloof and watch. When thou +canst see men carrying the treasure chests out to the white vessel, then +will be the time to strike. Join thyself with the men who seem faithful +to my mistress. There will be fighting; and the spoils are for the +victor." + +Pearse would have stayed her, but she ran from him with a tantalizing +laugh and vanished into the women's quarters. + +In the morning, when the men had breakfasted, a hum of activity pervaded +the place which was attributable to the octoroon's subtle influence. As +if by prearrangement, men drew apart into little knots, each gathering +about a leader and showing indecision until each man ascertained exactly +where his fellows were going. Then Dolores appeared with Milo, and she +faced four distinct parties before the great stone. + +The sun was metallic in its redness, rising from behind a group of +low-hanging, hazy clouds, casting its fierce beams on the point and the +low shores of the anchorage. A brazen sky overtopped the scene, giving +to green foliage and yellow sands alike, a glare as of terrific +artificial light. + +As Dolores appeared, the party headed by Caliban stepped forward, +muttering angrily, and every man kept hand on knife or cutlass. Caliban +himself, nervous and yet determined, glared at the formidable giant and +suddenly sprang out alone, shaking his first at Milo, and working +himself into greater fury. A frown darkened the face of Dolores; she had +commanded Pascherette to bring about a condition of unrest, but nothing +like this; for in all four parties was an attitude of suspicion of +herself, not of each other. She spoke in a low voice to Milo, then +raised her hand and advanced toward Caliban. + +"Well, whelp of a deformed dog!" she cried. "What do ye seek with me? Is +this the way I've taught thee to beg?" + +"I beg nothing!" screamed Caliban, pacing to and fro restlessly. "We +demand, not beg!" + +"Demand? Have a care for thy loose tongue!" + +"My tongue's my own! We are tired of thy trumpery state. Tired of thy +mystery and falsity. We know thy plot--know thy cunning scheme to carry +thy favorites away from here--to carry away the treasure that is ours, +not thine! Think ye we men will let ye go, to set the dogs of war-ships +upon us? Here and now we demand a settlement." + +"Demand, again? Good Caliban"--she said softly, and smiled upon +him--"thy training has been faulty. Come, I will answer thee." + +"Ye answer us all, or none. I know thee too well to trust thee. Answer +these men, who ask thy reason for keeping these three strangers to the +detriment of thine own people. Sancho paid dearly for his sight of thy +great chamber. Did the stranger who was in there with thee last night +suffer, too?" + +"That's the talk; answer!" shouted the crew, led by Caliban's band and +supported less vociferously by the rest. + +"Silence, then; I will answer!" cried Dolores, quivering with suppressed +rage. She spoke again to Milo, then turned to face the mob, her head +erect, her eyes ablaze. + +She flashed a keen glance toward Pearse, who had sidled over to the band +led by Stumpy, who seemed less accusative than the others; she nodded +faintly, approvingly, and sought the others. Venner stood aloof, on the +fringe of Hanglip's crowd; Tomlin stood almost by the side of Spotted +Dog. + +"I will answer. I see among ye men of troubled minds, who are not yet +disposed to flout my authority. Thee, Caliban, I have forgiven before; +yet here thou art, venturing again to confront me with demands. I will +not reply to thee, nor to any one man or party. To ye all, my people, I +have my answer. In one hour, in the grove, ye shall hear and be +satisfied. That is my answer now. Come Milo." + +She walked slowly and steadily straight through the midst of the +muttering, grumbling mob, Milo at her back like a gargantuan shadow. And +looking neither to one way or the other, meeting eyes that glared in her +path with cold, dignified disdain, she proceeded through the camp, +across the grove, and to the ledge behind the altar. Savage curses +followed her; men jostled at her heels and dared Milo to prevent them; +the giant, calm and cold as his mistress, moved forward like a human +Juggernaut, laying a resistless hand upon a presuming shoulder here, +flinging aside a leering ruffian there. + +And as the mob thinned, and Dolores entered the cool glade, something in +the situation which she had failed to realize before now struck her with +force; she started at the thought, then uttered a low, rippling laugh of +satisfaction. For Pascherette, in her cunning scheme of double-dealing, +had played into her lady's hands to an extent unhoped for by Dolores. + +"Milo, the wolves are ready to tear," she said. "And they shall +tear--not me, but themselves! Didst note the three strangers? Even they +shall help more than I had hoped." She stepped up behind the altar, and +as she waited for Milo's assistance in climbing to the secret entrance +to the great chamber she asked: + +"Thy blow-pipe, hast forgotten its use." + +"As soon forget the use of my fingers, Sultana!" replied the giant, +permitting a grim smile to wrinkle his face for an instant. + +"Then get thy darts. Have thy pipe ready here, thyself concealed, and +watch thy time to strike. But first light the altar fires. The rogues +believe in my magic no longer; I shall teach them anew, and such magic +as shall convince some of them." + +From the camp arose a babel of uproar, men shouting against each other, +curses and threats alike aimed broadcast. And impatient of the delay, +small groups straggled into the grove to wait, Stumpy's party first, +their leader striving fiercely to quiet their noise. Dolores reappeared +soon, dressed in her altar robe, and her flashing eyes told her quickly +that John Pearse wavered between staying with his chosen party and going +in search of his companions. She caught his eye, and smiled brightly at +him, beckoning him to her. + +He went up to the altar slowly, his face dark and sullen. She waited for +him, ignoring the mutterings of the pirates, and as he approached her +she gave him her hand. + +"My friend, it pleases me to see thee among my faithful ones. Hast made +thy decision?" + +"Decision! False woman, the decision was made while yet I was with you. +The decision was yours, not mine." + +"False? Why, good John, what does that mean?" she asked, frank surprise +on her face. + +"Have you not taken Venner for your man? Is he not your chosen mate, at +the price of my life and Tomlin's?" + +"Fool!" she cried, fiercely. "Thy dreams have mixed thy brains. What +nonsense is this? I told thee thou wert my man, at a price. But thy +decision! Time is short. Say quickly what thou wilt do." + +"Prove to me that I have heard that which is untrue, and I give you my +answer at the hour you demanded it--at noon." + +"If thou remain here, the proof shall be shown thee," she replied, dark +with passion. Not yet had she quite seen through the cunning of +Pascherette. And a growing tumult beyond the trees warned her of greater +stress at hand, she had no more time to spare in argument with Pearse. +She waved him back, and with fire in her eyes commanded Stumpy to take +his men to one side. + +"Stand there! Thy rascals will not dare to flout me!" + +"We don't want to, lady," growled Stumpy, sullenly. He motioned his men +to follow, and took up a position at the right of the altar. But he +glared fearlessly at Dolores as he went, and added: "Ye have none more +faithful than Stumpy, if thy heart is still with us and for us. But +things begin to look plaguey rough, Dolores, since ye spared the white +schooner and her owner." + +Swiftly Dolores stepped down and glided to Stumpy's side, his men +drawing back involuntarily, not in sufficient numbers to be able to +cast off their old awe of her. + +"Thy ear, good Stumpy," she whispered. "Art for thy fellow pirates, or +for me? Speak quickly." + +"I'm for you, lady," he replied, shifting awkwardly on his mutilated +foot. "For you, but not if what we heard is true." + +"I tell thee it was false. Now art for me?" She bent upon him a smile of +dazzling beauty, soft-eyed and almost tender, and the pirate's face grew +ashamed; he knelt at her feet in humble obeisance, and the girl laid her +hand on his head, and bade him rise. + +"Then remain faithful, Stumpy, and thou and thy men shall share in my +fortunes. Look well to the stranger there. Keep him with thee. I hear +the vultures coming." + +She returned to the altar, took her place behind the swirling smoke, and +stood motionless, awaiting the arrival of the crowd whose noisy progress +could be traced step by step. And presently they broke into the grove, +unawed and uproarious, Caliban leading. Still the parties kept apart. +Hanglip and Spotted Dog ranged themselves on either side of Caliban's +gang, and every eye glared redly at the statuesque figure at the altar. + +"Answer! Give us yer answer!" cried Caliban. + +"Hear, my people!" Dolores cried, raising her arms for silence. "My +answer is this. Among ye is a traitor. That traitor has spread lies +among ye. Ye are my people, and none other. Did I not save the white +ship for ye? What if I preserved her people. They are here, and here +they shall remain. Had I thought to desert ye, could I not have gone in +the night? Who should say no? Am I not queen of ye all? Then why this +childish talk of leaving ye?" + +Dolores was carefully fighting for time; she wished to dissect the +feeling of the crowd before her, and while she spoke her irrelevant +nothings, her keen eyes roved over every face. And Spotted Dog drew and +held her gaze as no other did; his face was awork with savage unbelief, +his loose lips wreathed and curled in his impatience to speak. At last +his fury could not be longer restrained; he sprang to the front, and +howled: + +"Lies, all lies! Thy chit of a maid--" + +The words were choked in his throat with terrible suddenness. Like +something unearthly, reaching from the unknown, the hand of death +gripped Spotted Dog and he stumbled and fell forward, gnashing his teeth +and clawing futilely at his breast. Dolores did not move. Her expression +did not change. Milo had again proved faithful. + +But others of Spotted Dog's band, the greatest malcontents, stood +forward and peered down at their fallen leader; then with a shout of +rage they leaped up, faced the altar, and urged their fellows on. + +"More infernal witchcraft!" they cried. "Tear the black witch and her +altar down!" + +A moment of frightful silence followed, for the speakers felt the same +mysterious hand that had reached for and grasped their leader. One by +one they dropped in their tracks, smitten none knew how or whence; and +even Pearse, with Stumpy's band, shivered at the terrible uncanniness of +it. Then Caliban shook off his terror, sensed human agency in the silent +death, and looked around for the hand that sped it. As he glared, a dart +entered his own breast; but this one, ill-sped, failed in its mission. +The pirate staggered, his eyes widened, then he seized the protruding +dart. For an instant he hesitated; then taking the direction indicated +by the slanting missile, he flung an arm toward Stumpy's crew and +howled: + +"There's the dog! There's the sudden death! Tear 'em up, bullies! Pull +Stumpy down!" + +In an instant the grove seethed with a terrific conflict, in which +Stumpy's party was set upon by three times the number. And John Pearse +was carried into the thick of the fight; unwilling or not, his skilled +rapier began to take toll of the roaring furies about him. And while the +battle raged, and Dolores stood calmly looking on, one of the pirates +whose duties had kept him at the anchorage of the schooner appeared with +a rush upon the scene and shouted: + +"Lads, ye're being fooled! The slaves are even now taking the treasure +down to the schooner!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +WHILE VICTORY HANGS IN THE BALANCE. + + +The cry rang through the Grove like a trumpet call, and the fight was +stayed instantly. Every eye flashed upon the bringer of the news, and +behind him stood Pascherette, partly hidden by the trees, her small, +eager face peering from behind a trunk. And as she took in the scene, a +great terror stole into her eyes and her lips opened in a gasp. + +The octoroon had played her great coup. She had carried a lie to the +pirate, hoping that his telling of the treasure to his fellows would +precipitate such an assault upon Dolores that nothing could survive it. +Now she saw the attack already launched without her connivance; she saw +the pirate, dead, and saw Stumpy and one of the strangers stoutly +defending the queen. + +As she stared, at a loss, Caliban staggered out in front again, +clutching at his wound, and screamed: + +"Satan seize ye if that witch escapes ye now! Tear her down! Tear her +down! Then none can keep the treasure from ye." + +His last word ended in a sob. From the hidden giant another dart was +sped truer, and Caliban pitched headlong on the steps of the altar. And +Pascherette, terrified now that they would leave their work incomplete, +swarm after the false treasure report, and thus leave her at the mercy +of the enraged Dolores, frantically sought for Milo among the press. She +knew nothing of his secret duty with the blow-pipe: seeing nothing of +him among the defenders, she surmised he was inside on other duty bent. +In desperation she placed all upon a single hazard, and, running out +into the Grove she screamed: + +"The man lies! It is a lie, to make ye forego thy vengeance. There is no +treasure taken away. Make thy work complete!" + +A medley of conflicting cries arose as the pirates again separated into +three parties. Hanglip's crew, with those of the fallen Caliban, +detached themselves from the rest and from two sides threatened the +altar, where Dolores stood like a statue, glaring at her maid with +deadly fury. Hanglip himself seemed irresolute in the face of the maid's +denial; he stood with cutlas raised, not yet sure whether to attack or +first see to the treasure story. The decision was made for him; for the +pirate bringing the news, seized Pascherette in a fierce grip, and with +knife at her breast shouted: + +"This little snake told me the loot was going, lads! Get the job over, +as I do this!" + +Pascherette squirmed in the pirate's grasp, but all her cunning now +could not avail her. The knife flashed downward, and she fell to her +knees, her tiny golden hands pressed to her side, blood trickling +through her fingers. And her face froze in a mask of horror when from +behind Dolores stepped Milo, armed with a great broad-ax, and bent his +deep black eyes full upon her with terrible accusation in them. + +The giant saw the coming storm, and knew the futility of trying to stem +it with his blow-pipe. He emerged, armed with his ax, at the moment when +the pirates, answering their mate's cry with a shout, surged up the +altar steps with blood in their eyes. + +Dolores now shook off her seeming unconcern, and with alert vision took +in the tremendous crisis. Stumpy's band, with Pearse at their leader's +side, had been driven back in the first attack to the rock itself; and +now stood with their backs to it grimly waiting for the second onset. +They had fought hitherto for her; she saw to it that they did not change +their allegiance. Leaping up to the ledge behind the altar, she cried: + +"Stumpy! Thou'rt my man. Bring thy fellows up here; one man may hold a +score here. Milo! Make way for my faithful ones!" + +With Stumpy on the ledge, and his score of men, the battle became dead +for the moment. Few of the pirates had firearms, except on forays, and +then their ammunition was doled out to them. By this means they had ever +been kept in subjection; and now the plan was to prove their undoing; +for they could not reach their prey, whose cutlas points presented an +insurmountable barrier to their storming the rock. And with John Pearse +up there among the defenders, Tomlin and Venner found themselves +wondering just what their own position was. They, unblinded by the rage +of the pirates, saw the futility of storming that rocky wall with steel, +and in the momentary hush and indecision they withdrew from the mob and +stood apart, thinking over what was to come. + +To Dolores, the hesitation of her foes was something she could not +brook, for her great hope now was to set her rascals at each other's +throats to their ultimate annihilation. She whispered into Milo's ear. + +"Get thy blow-pipe again. Send a dart into Hanglip's black throat, and +let every man see how 'tis done." + +The giant obeyed. The slender, six-inch dart sped fair to its mark, and +Hanglip dropped. But as he fell his eyes saw, as did his men, whence had +come the mysterious death that had already taken heavy toll among them. +And Dolores saw her plan work to amazing effect; for Hanglip, with his +last wheezing breath, raised himself on his elbow, and barked: + +"Now ye see the magic! 'Tis but a man's breath. Up, lads, and take pay +for me!" + +The assault started in grim, silent fury. In waves the attackers mounted +the altar; men gave comrades backs, flung them upward, only to catch +them again as they recoiled from the steel of the defense like broken +seas at a rock base. + +But as the fight advanced, and stricken men were piled high on the great +altar, attacking steel reached higher and began to reap results. +Stumpy's men, now fully persuaded of their queen's regard for them, +fought like paladins, roaring out their rough sea-cries as they cut and +stabbed with increasing gusto. Even Pearse fell under the spell of +fierce action; his rapier played among the heavier strokes of cutlas and +broad-knife like summer lightning. And did a hardy pirate gain the ledge +in spite of all, there stood Milo, like a bronze Fate, with deadly ax +poised to turn success into death. Yet Stumpy's little band grew less; +and Dolores, standing over all like an Angel of Doom, saw that something +must be done speedily unless she was to be left with too great a number +of survivors from this lucky conflict. + +"Make a swift assault, Stumpy. Milo, swing that great ax of thine for +only five minutes," she said. Then when the fight raged higher yet, she +drew Pearse by the arm into the secret entrance. + +"Here, friend, are muskets and pistols. Load them while I pass them out. +We shall see how hungry for our blood these wolves are." + +She showed him the store of arms, in a small cave next to the powder +store, and musket powder and bullets were also there. As he loaded the +weapons, she passed them out in armfuls, then gave Stumpy a flask of +powder for priming, and told him to hold out until Milo could bring up +other resources as yet unknown. + +"And," she said, leading Stumpy inside for a moment, "here you see a +powder-train. There, on the floor. Now hear me, my faithful one, should +thy foes still beat thee back, bring all thy men along this passage, but +before ye come, touch a fire to this train. I shall await thee at the +end, Stumpy, and together we shall see these dogs destroyed." + +She called Milo, gave him a command, and then took Pearse with her into +the great chamber. Here she answered his questioning glance with a soft +smile, and seated him in the great chair. + +"Thy sword has done nobly, good John," she said, laying her hand on his +head. "The peril is over now. Rest. In a little while Milo will have +that which will fill these hungry dogs to the gullet. Rest here. I'll +soon be with thee." She leaned down, laid her lips lightly on his face, +and whispered: "And be of good cheer; the end is in sight for thee and +me." + +She left him sitting there, wrapped in his confused thoughts. Then she +flew to help Milo with his new engine of war which was to decide the +day. From a corner of the apartment the giant dragged a brass culverin, +mounted on a swivel, stolen from the poop-rail of some tall Indiaman in +years gone by. This was charged with powder, and Milo searched for +effective missiles for it. He brought a handful of musket balls to +Dolores; she shook her head decidedly after a moment's thought and +objected: "Those round pellets are too merciful for such cattle. What do +they want? Treasure! Give them treasure, good Milo--their fill of it." +As she spoke she ran swiftly into the treasure chamber and seized +handfuls of gold chains, while at her command Milo followed her with +great gold coins in his huge hands. These they rammed into the cannon, +until links of gold fell from the muzzle; then Dolores regarded the +terrible thing with a mirthless laugh and bade Milo get to work with it. + +"Bid thy men fall back into the gallery as if beaten," she said. "And +when the vile bodies of those howling wolves fill the opening, deliver +the treasure to them, and may their souls be shattered with their +bodies! And that none may remain to repeat this day's mischief, when +they break and fly loose, Stumpy and his dogs shall harry them and +pursue them into the depths of the forest. Let the maroons finish what +we so well begin. See thy gun does not harm the-- Wait," she cried, +"hold thy artillery until ye see me across the Grove! I shall give thee +a sign, then loose thy hell-blast." + +Leaving Milo, she ran again through the great chamber and out by the +rock door, which was rolled aside and standing open. Then around the +mass of the mountain and skirting the grove, past the prostrate +Pascherette she sped, casting a glance of bitter hate at the sorely +wounded octoroon, but never halting until she reached a point of the +underbrush immediately behind the spot where Venner and Tomlin still +ranged back and forth uneasily watching the fight. + +She rustled the foliage noisily, and the two men swung around in alarm. +She thrust her head through the leafy screen, and showed them her face +full of tender solicitude. Her great dark eyes were very soft; her +scarlet lips were parted in a rosy smile. Venner glared at her, then +flashed a glance of reawakening distrust at Tomlin, who returned it +tenfold. + +"Peace, good friends," she said, softly, laying a finger on her lips and +nodding toward the raging battle. "Come with me. Both of ye. The day +goes badly with me, and I would undo much that I have done toward ye. +Come quickly, and with caution." + +A momentary distrust for her made them hesitate; then she whispered +intensely: "Haste. This is your opportunity." + +Venner first shook off his moodiness and followed her into the brush; +and Tomlin was close behind him. When she had them in covert, she +stepped out once more, waited to catch Milo's eye at the ledge, then +gave him the sign. And the defenders fell back as if suddenly broken and +beaten. She waited still, until the attackers swarmed over their own +dead, stamping over her altar, and gained the entrance, where they +crowded in a milling, roaring mass. Then she glided back to the +underbrush and said tersely: + +"Come!" + +Venner and Tomlin walked on either side of her, not caring to meet each +other's eye, for their subjection to Dolores's spell was complete +whenever in close proximity to her. Hurriedly she led them around the +cliff to the great entrance, beyond which they had never stepped. And +they went full of tremendous hopes and suspicions, in which the hope +predominated; they failed even to cast a look at their schooner, then +lying free at anchor, with a few men visible on her decks. Three of the +pirates' long boats lay on the shore abreast of her. + +They stood in the entrance to the great chamber, sensing some of the awe +that filled the mysterious place, peering into the gloom where the ruby +lights now failed to cast their glow in the broader light of day +entering the open aperture. Dolores led them in with a gesture and a +smile, and they reached the massive plated sliding door and stood +beneath the yellow lantern, gazing in speechless wonder at the richness +of that barrier. And while they waited, mystified and uneasy, from +beyond the mountain came the crash of Milo's gun, and the tremendous +discharge reverberated through and through the rock, making the passage +where they stood rumble and quake as if the mountain were about to fall. + +Their faces went white, and Dolores gave them a reassuring clasp of the +hand while she pressed the side-post of the door and started the pulley +and weight mechanism that would give them entry. + +"Welcome, friends. Enter," she smiled, standing aside to permit them to +pass. And Rupert Vernier and Craik Tomlin, forgetting their gloomy +thoughts regarding each other, entered the great chamber, and were +brought to a sudden halt at the sight of John Pearse sitting at his ease +through the strife in the high chair of state. + + +TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month. + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +DOLORES DEMANDS A DECISION. + + +Milo let loose his infernal blast, and the smashing report was followed +by a hush as of death. Then through the blinding and choking powder-reek +came the groans and shrieks of the mutilated wretches whose evil fate +had placed them in the path of the horribly despatched treasure. The eye +could not penetrate the smoke that filled the narrow rock passage; +Stumpy and his men were blackened and smeared with smoke and sweat, +demoniacal to the ultimate degree; and these were the men Milo hurled +forth now to make the _débâcle_ complete. + +"Out upon them!" he cried, urging Stumpy to the ledge. "Leave not one of +these dogs alive, Stumpy, and thy fortune is made. Thy Sultana will +reward thee magnificently. Out with ye!" + +Stumpy hitched his poor clubfoot along in brave haste, and flourished +his cutlas in a hand that dripped red. For once in his stormy life the +crippled pirate felt something of the glow that pervaded the heart of +devoted Milo: for a moment he felt he was redeeming himself by enlisting +his undoubted courage in a worthy cause. + +"At 'em, lads!" he roared, leaping down through the smoke. "Dolores, +Dolores! Give 'em hell, bullies!" + +He stumbled and fell, his crippled foot playing him false. He sprang up +with a curse of pain, bit hard on his lip, and plunged into the huddled +remnants of the attackers, his roaring bullies at his heels. His +onslaught was the one thing needed to put terror into the hearts of the +survivors of Milo's blast. Coming through the leek like so many devils, +Stumpy and his crew put their foes to flight and followed eagerly, +hungrily; the forest rang and echoed with the clash of action and the +smashing of underbrush in panicky flight. + +Now Milo, his duty to his Sultana performed, thought of Pascherette. The +little octoroon lay where she had fallen, a pitiful little huddled heap; +never once had her pain-dulled eyes left the giant, or the place where +he might appear. And now she saw him coming toward her, not as a +ministering angel, but like a figure of wrath, swinging his great +broad-ax in one hand as easily as another man might swing a cutlas. She +shivered as he stood over her, accusing. + +"Milo!" she panted, gazing up at his magnificent height in plaintive +supplication. + +"Serpent!" he replied, and the utter contempt in his voice went to her +heart like a sword-thrust. "Hast a God to pray to before I send thy +false soul adrift?" + +"I have but one God, Milo; to Him I should not pray." + +She fixed her burning gaze upon him, and in her pained eyes blazed all +the tremendous love that actuated her small being. + +"A God thou canst not pray to, traitor? Art afraid, then?" + +"Not afraid, Milo," she whispered, and her eyelids drooped. "I cannot +pray to one who looks down upon me as thou dost." + +"I?" The giant's expression changed to frowning displeasure rather than +anger. "I?" he repeated. + +"Thee, my heart. Thou'rt my god, my all. For thee I have done this +thing. For thee, who even now canst not see where lies the falsity. +Milo"--her weak voice sank to a low murmur--"I beg thy forgiveness. My +love for thee caused me to sin. My life is to pay the supreme price. Let +me die at least in thy forgiveness." + +"Forgive? Forgive thee, who worked for the destruction of the being I +worship? Rather shall I speed thy soul!" + +Pascherette struggled to a kneeling position, crossed her tiny hands on +her panting breast, and looked full into his eyes as a wounded hart +looks at the hunter. Her lip quivered, her small, gold-tinted face, once +so piquant and full of allure, had taken on a gray hue from her pain, +but there was no hiding the great, overwhelming love for the giant that +gleamed in her eyes. + +"Milo," she said, and the word was a caress, "Milo, if thou must, strike +swiftly. Yet again I ask, forgive." + +The giant slowly lowered his great ax, and his honest heart answered the +pitiful plea. His deep chest swelled and throbbed; into his face crept +the look that had been there on that day when he told Pascherette he +loved her--loved her, yet worshiped Dolores as his gods. Letting the ax +fall to his elbow by the thong at the haft, he stooped and tenderly +picked up the girl, carrying her as a child carries a doll; yet his face +was averted from Pascherette's passionate lips that sought to kiss him. + +"Not yet can I forgive thee," he said. "Be content that I shall not kill +thee, girl. Perhaps, if thy acts have failed in their end, I may forgive +thee; not yet." + +He carried her around to the great rock, and through the passage into +the great chamber, bursting in upon a situation of growing intensity. +Dolores sat on a corner of the table, with all her seductive lures in +her beautiful face, smiling invitingly at Rupert Venner. Craik Tomlin +glared at both, yet his gaze seemed hard to restrain from wandering +around the gorgeous chamber, whose wealth he saw now for the first time. +Venner, too, had been seized by the jewel-hunger, although neither he, +nor Tomlin, guessed at the immensely greater wealth that had been +revealed to Pearse. As for Pearse, he sat glowering in his chair, +nervous and smoldering; ready at a hint to draw steel without caring +what the object. He simply saw rivalry where fifteen minutes before he +had thought his own course clear. + +Milo appeared to them; carrying his sobbing burden, and the interruption +brought a blaze of fury to Dolores's face. She went pale, and her hands +clenched and opened nervously. + +"Well, slave?" she cried, and Milo started. Never had she used that tone +to him. + +"Sultana, I thought thou wert alone," he replied, haltingly. "I have +brought Pascherette to thee for forgiveness." + +"I forgive? Pish! What care I for thy chit? Take her where ye will, and +trouble me not with such trash. Out, now! Let me not see her face again, +and I care not what ye do with her. But haste. I have work for thee and +a score of slaves. Bring them here quickly!" + +Silently Milo bore Pascherette to the small room beyond the great +chamber, which had been her resting-place while not in attendance on +Dolores. And there, still shaking his head to her plea, though with +deepening trouble in his eyes, he left her, crying herself into a fitful +slumber. + +Then with slaves dragged from the corners where they had cowered during +the fight, he entered the great chamber, and at Dolores's command set +them to carrying out the closed treasure-chests that stood in their old +places around the walls. + +And the sight of the great chests actually going out brought fiery +jealousy back to the eyes of the three yachtsmen. Now Dolores +half-closed her own inscrutable eyes, and watched them, catlike, +cunning. Pearse sprang from the great chair and began pacing the floor +in a heat. Venner alone seemed to retain any vestige of control over +his feelings; and he rapidly lost his color and began to peer about him. + +One chest went out, and the cries of the slaves could be heard as they +lowered it over the cliff. They returned for another, and now Dolores +leaped to her feet and followed them, flinging over her shoulder a smile +of invitation. Pearse answered instantly; the others paused. Then she +laughed like a siren and held out her hands to the hesitant ones, and +said softly and pleasantly: + +"Have no fears, timid ones. Thy minds are indeed hard to fathom. I but +want to show thee how I am repaying thee for thy sufferings here. Come." + +They followed her, and together they entered the rocky tunnel. At the +end of it the yellow sunlight blazed like a fire, in the circular +aperture was framed a picture of wonderful beauty. The blue sky, flecked +with fleecy cloudlets, filled the upper half of the circle; then the +sparkling sea of deeper blue lifted its dazzling whitecaps to the kiss +of the trades and formed a gem-like background for the brazen sands, the +glowing green-and-purple of the Point, and the dainty ivory-and-gold of +the white schooner. + +It was all mellowed and diminished as seen through a glass at great +distance; and on the shore the men toiling to load a great +treasure-chest into a long-boat looked like tiny manikins posed about a +delicate model of marine life. The second chest yet stood on the +cliff-edge, slaves about it lashing double slings and tackles that led +from a boulder for lowering it down. + +Dolores stepped back, permitting the three men to take in the view +without restriction. And she watched them again, her face enigmatic if +they glanced at her, breaking into an expression of nearing triumph when +they looked away, and left her free to scrutinize them. She saw John +Pearse step a pace behind the others, and his fingers clutched absently +at his rapier-hilt while the veins on his neck stood out and throbbed +like live things. + +"One more chest, perhaps two, and I shall see who will be my man!" she +whispered to herself. + +Then she left them without a word, and returned to the great chamber, +where she snatched up an immense rope of pearls and resumed her seat on +the edge of the table. There she sat, giving them no glance, when the +three men came back, hastily, uneasily, one behind the other, with +Tomlin bringing up the rear, scowling at Venner's back malevolently. + +Idly now Dolores rolled her pearls on the table, and one by one she +crushed them with her dagger-hilt--crushed in one moment the wealth of +many a petty princeling, and still crushed gem after gem without so much +as a flicker of interest on her cool face. The three men glared at her, +and at each other, and the stress they were under could be felt like an +impending electric storm. Tomlin's teeth gritted together harshly, his +lips were dripping saliva, and he could stand it no longer. He stepped +suddenly before Dolores, seized her hands, and cried: + +"Woman, you are mad! Do you know what those things are? They are pearls, +woman, pearls! Stop this crazy destruction, and in God's name let us go +before you madden us." + +Dolores turned her cool gaze upon him, drew her hand away easily yet +without apparent effort, and crushed another pearl between her gleaming +teeth. + +"Pearls?" she repeated, tossing away the shattered gem. "Pearls, yes, +friend. What of it? Do ye value these trifles, then? Pish! I have such +things as these, aye, one for every hair on thy hot head. But let ye +go--ha! That is in thy hands, my friend, thine and thy companions." + +"Yes, we know your price!" gasped Venner hoarsely, staring full into her +eyes. "But what is to prevent us now, when we have you alone, and that +great giant is away, from binding you fast and sailing away with the +treasure you have already put in my vessel?" + +"What can prevent?" she echoed, simulating surprise that such a question +should occur to any one. "Nothing shall prevent, my friend, if any of ye +think to try it. Have I not said my treasure is for the man who wins it. +Am I not waiting for the man able to take it, that I may go with him, +too? Here--" She suddenly flung down the pearls at Tomlin's feet, +glided close to Venner, and thrust her red lips up to him, her violet +eyes like brimming pools behind her drooping lashes. "Here, tie me, my +Rupert. Here are my hands; there my feet. Bind me well, and go if thou +canst. What, wilt thou not? There, I knew thee better than thou knowest +thyself." + +She stepped back with a low laugh, and her arm brushed his cheek, +sending the hot blood surging to his temples. John Pearse crouched +toward Venner, as if waiting for him to lay a finger on Dolores at his +peril. She smiled at all three, and stepped over to the side of the +chamber, where she carelessly pointed out sacred vessels and altar +furnishings, gems of art and jewel-crusted lamps. + +"Here, also, is a reason why ye will not go, my friends. Your eyes, +accustomed to these things in the great world outside, dare not ignore +their worth. And I tell ye that all the treasure now going to the vessel +could not purchase the thousandth part of my real treasure, which I will +not show, until I know my man." She glanced at Pearse as she spoke, and +saw rising greed in his eyes. He had seen the real treasure; he was ripe +for her hand. Milo and his slaves returned for another chest, and +Dolores waited until they had gone; then she glided swiftly toward the +passage, and turned at the door. + +"I shall return in fifteen minutes, gentlemen," she said. "Then my man +must be ready, or I will drop the great rock at the entrance, and leave +ye all three caged here until ye die. For go I will, mated or mateless, +with all my treasure, ere the sun sinks into the western sea." And as +she left them she flashed a look of appeal at John Pearse. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +THE SLUMBERING SAVAGE. + + +Pearse followed her with his eyes until she vanished into the passage; +then with muttering lips and harshly working features he strode down the +chamber to the great tapestry behind which lay the powder store. The +suspicion had come to him that Dolores was fooling them all regarding +her real treasure; for he believed she had shown him everything, and if +those heavy chests contained but a tithe of the whole, life was certain +that the gems around the walls were not what she meant when she said she +had still a thousand times greater riches than the chests contained. + +He tore aside the tapestry, and tried to see through the gloom of the +cavern. His eyes could not pierce the blackness, and he looked around +for a light, while Venner and Tomlin walked toward him with sudden +interest in their faces. Over the tall Hele clock a lantern hung; a +gaudy thing of beaten gold, in which an oil wick burned, gleaming out in +multicolored light through openings glazed with turquoise and sapphire, +ruby, and emerald. He took this down, and impatiently tore away the side +of it to secure a stronger light. Again he went to the powder store, and +now Venner and Tomlin were at his back, peering over his shoulder or +under his arms in curiosity as to his quest. + +And, sensing their presence, he swung around upon them savagely, +muffling the cry that answered the message of his eyes. Flinging the +lantern down, he trampled it out, and with snarling teeth he faced them, +his rapier flickering from the sheath like a dart of lightning. + +"Back!" he barked, and advanced one foot, falling into a guard. "This is +no concern of yours, Venner, nor yours, Tomlin. Back, I say!" + +Tomlin stared into his furious face and laughed greedily. His keen eyes +had seen a vague, shadowy something in the cavern, that filled him with +the same passion which consumed Pearse. + +"So you are the lucky one, eh, Pearse?" he chuckled, and his hand went +to his own rapier. He stepped back a pace, and, never taking his eyes +from Pearse, cried: "Venner, it's you and me against the devil and +Pearse! A pretty plot to fool us, indeed; but Pearse was too eager. Peep +into that hole, man, and see!" + +Venner glared from one to the other, not yet inflamed as they were. But +what he saw in their faces convinced him that great stakes were up to +be played for, and he edged forward bent upon seeing for himself. + +"Back!" screamed Pearse, presenting his rapier at Venner's breast. +Venner persisted, and the steel pricked him. Then, as Tomlin's weapon +rasped out, Venner's blood leaped to fighting-heat with his slight +wound, and in the next instant the three-sided duel was hotly in +progress. + +Three-sided it became after the first exchanges. For Pearse, the most +skilled in fence, applied himself to Venner as his most dangerous foe, +and with the cunning of the serpent Craik Tomlin saw and seized his own +opportunity. Let Pearse and Venner kill each other, or let that end be +accomplished with his outside help, and there was the solution that +Dolores had demanded them to work out; one of them left, to be master of +the wealth of Croesus; to be the mate of a magnificent creature, who +could be goddess or she-devil at will. + +With a satanic chuckle Tomlin drew back, leaving his friends to fight +themselves weary, his own rapier ever presented toward them, urging them +on with lashing tongue. And Venner flashed a look at him as Cæsar did at +Brutus, and suffered for his lapse in vigilance. For with the pounce of +a leopard Pearse was upon him, and his rapier grated over Venner's guard +and darted straight at his throat. But Venner's time had not come yet; +Tomlin flashed his own weapon in and parried the stroke for him, backing +away again with a murderous snarl. + +"Not yet, my friends!" he cried. "You're too strong yet, Pearse. At him, +Venner; let me see you draw blood as he has, that I may see my own way +clearer." + +From the other end of the great chamber Dolores watched the conflict +from the concealment of the velvet hangings over the door; and her hands +were clasped in ecstasy, her lips parted to the swift breathing that +agitated her breast; in her blazing eyes her wicked soul lurked, sending +out its evil aura to envelop the combatants and instil deeper hatred +into them. + +The fight raged back and forth around the powder store; once a sudden +onslaught by Pearse forced Venner back to the great chair; Tomlin's +swift rush to keep close brought all three into a tumbled crash at the +dais, and the chair was overturned in a heap of flying draperies that +entangled their feet. And while Pearse and Venner struggled vainly to +maintain their footing, Tomlin began to accomplish his own dire ends. +Crouching, with his dark face full of evil passions, he drove his point +first at one, then at the other, stabbing through the involved silk and +skins. + +In his furious haste to complete his murderous work, he sprang forward +carelessly, his foot became entangled, and he pitched face downward upon +his victims. Now Pearse seized the opening; but when he arose, +stumblingly, there was a different expression on his face, a +horror-stricken realization of Tomlin's treachery. Venner lay, still +unable to disentangle himself, but slightly hurt, and he, too, regarded +Tomlin with a look of sorrow and reawakening sanity. + +"Up, murderer, and fight!" rasped Pearse, stepping astride Venner and +glaring down at Tomlin. "Venner, draw aside. Let me punish this +scoundrel we have called friend; then meet me if you wish." + +Tomlin looked up with a snarl of baffled rage, expecting swift reprisal +for his treacherous attempt. Gone was the last vestige of civilization +from his face; greed of gold, jewel-hunger, blood-lust, all played about +his reddened eyes and cruel, down-drawn mouth. The primitive came +through the veneer of culture and showed him the man he really was. And +evil though his spirit had proved, in this final test his courage showed +up like that of the tiger. He leaned on one elbow, watching Pearse like +a cat, then slowly knelt and stood, keeping his point down. With the +bestial cunning that had overwhelmed him, he circled away from the +trappings and draperies of the chair that had brought him down, and +responded to Pearse's chivalrous waiting with a sneer. + +"You had better have made sure while you had the chance, Pearse," he +grinned, showing his teeth wolfishly. "Venner can wait. There is no +treasure for three; Dolores is mine! Guard!" + +With the word Tomlin made a savage attack without waiting for Pearse to +fall into guard. And Dolores came from her concealment, advanced +half-way down the chamber, and watched with a new intensity that was +not apparent while Venner was in the fight. + +Pearse avoided his opponent's thrust at the expense of a pierced left +hand, which caught the other's point a hand-breadth from his breast. +Then the duel dropped to equality. Swift and silent they fought, silent +save for the rasp and screech of steel on steel, their feet padding +noiselessly on the deep-piled carpet. Venner drew aside and watched, his +eyes losing their hard glare, and some of his old expression returned to +his face. It was as if his resurging emotions were bringing back to him +the shame and remorse of a gentleman inveigled into performing a +despicable action. He, too, saw Dolores approaching; saw the tensity of +her expression; sensed some of the tremendous hopes that actuated her, +now that she saw the rapid culmination of all her plots and seductions. + +She stood quite near to him now, leaning forward in an attitude of utter +anxiety. She saw nothing of Venner; her great, violet eyes were dusky +and full of yearning, her hands clutched at her breast. And all the +intensity of her gaze was fixed upon Tomlin. She responded to his +momentary success when he drove Pearse back with a savage assault, with +a panting little cry of joy; she fell back with widened eyes when a +counter-attack forced Tomlin almost upon her. And her lips opened in a +gasp when a vicious clash of steel told of a pressed onslaught, and +Pearse lunged heavily forward. + +In the instant when Pearse followed his first plunge, Dolores stood in +uncertainty through which dawned jubilation. Then her face went white, +she seemed to lose all her splendid vitality; for her astounded eyes +fastened upon Pearse's rapier-point, protruding a foot from Tomlin's +back, and slowly the stricken man sagged away and fell at her feet, +clutching at the steel at his breast and snarling like a beast. + +A hush fell over the great chamber. Then from a distance came the sound +of voices, voices of men down at the shore, ringing clear and sharp on +the still air, accentuating the deathly hush that clung around the +actors in the scene like a heavy mantle. It startled Dolores into +renewed life. She ran with feverish eagerness toward Tomlin, hurling +aside the others, and crouching upon the body in dry-eyed rage. + +Venner sought to catch the eye of the victor, and saw in Pearse a +reflection of the feelings that had possessed himself. John Pearse +showed every sign of horror and awakened sanity that had marked his own +expression before the fatal fight had started. Their eyes met, and there +was no challenge in them. Both dropped their gaze involuntarily upon the +huddled figures at their feet; and it was Pearse, the man who had +precipitated the conflict at first, who nodded with his head a silent +invitation to withdraw. Venner stepped after him, softly and with bowed +shoulders, shuddering violently as he passed the expiring Tomlin. + +They reached the door together, and with the rocky tunnel open before +them, once more holding up to their eyes the picture of absolute beauty +of sea and sky and shore, they filled their lungs with fresh, wholesome +air, and shook off the last of the evil spell that had held them. + +"In God's name, Pearse, let us fly from this hellish place!" whispered +Venner, dropping his rapier to the rocky floor with a clatter, and +thrusting his hand out in reconciliation. + +"Yes, Venner, and pray Heaven we may forget!" replied Pearse fervently. +"But how shall we get away? The giant and his crew are yet at the +schooner." + +"We must wait. They will return soon for more booty. Then we must seize +the chance. Is that somebody coming now?" + +Milo's great shoulders reared above the cliff, and behind him came the +slaves. They came directly toward the great rock, and Pearse flattened +himself against the wall in the shadow of the portals, pressing Venner +back also with a hand across his chest. + +"Hush! Hide here. Let them enter, and we'll make one leap for the +shore." + +The giant swung into the passage, his black eyes blazing with some +emotion that the hidden pair could not fathom. It was something on the +border of fear, but of what? Fear and Milo was a combination hard of +reconciliation. The slaves at his heels followed dumbly, slaves in +thought and action; if their dulled brains ever awoke, it was but to +the call of animal appetites; they were incapable of devotion such as +Milo's, and as incapable of shock should their obedience fail reward. +They passed into the great chamber, and a throaty cry of alarm burst +from the giant at the sight of his Sultana prone on the floor. + +"Now!" whispered Pearse, taking the lead. "Swift and silent!" + +Like ghosts they ran from the tunnel, glanced around once as they +reached the cliff path, then leaped down the declivity. That swift +glance showed them the camp deserted except for the wondering women, who +wandered idly among the empty huts, ever looking toward the forest +wherein had vanished all their men, waiting with bovine patience for any +one to settle their uncertainty for them. + +And the forest was yet very still. The Feu Follette lay at a single +anchor, heading in the light breeze fair to seaward; a few heads showed +above her rail, and the stops had been cast off from her snowy sails. At +her gangway a single boat lay, the painter made fast on deck; on the +foreshore the other two long-boats were drawn up on the sand, planks +running up to their sides in readiness for the embarkation of yet more +treasure. + +Venner and Pearse raced down the steep path, using little precaution, +sending showers of stones and clods flying before them. And Peters, the +schooner's sailing-master, saw them coming, and his voice rang out +calling for hands to man the boat. Two men answered and entered the boat +as the two fugitives reached the shore and ran along the Point. Pearse +counted the minutes at their disposal, and saw the futility of waiting +for that boat. He clutched eagerly at Venner's arm, and panted in his +ear: + +"Tell them to hold on! Let them get the schooner ready for swift +departure. Come, we must swim for it." + +Venner hesitated but a second. Then his hail went hurtling over the +still haven, and the two seamen scrambled out of the boat again. + +"Swim it is, Pearse," he said, leading the way down to deep water. "Swim +it is, and may the ever-cleansing sea wash out of us the last traces of +insanity." + +Together they plunged into the blue sea and swam swiftly out to the +schooner. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +THE FLIGHT OF THE FEU FOLLETTE. + + +Dolores, flinging herself down upon Craik Tomlin, seized his face +between her hands and raised his head, placing her knee beneath it. She +panted like an exhausted doe, yet the fire that leaped from her eyes +gave the lie to her attitude of sorrowing humility. Her lips moved +feverishly, but she could not or would not speak aloud. Tomlin's eyes +were closed in agony, his teeth were clenched tightly upon his under +lip; he gave no sign that he knew of her presence. And a sudden fury +seized her at his irresponsiveness. She shook his head between her hands +savagely. + +"Wake! Speak!" she cried hoarsely. "Art indeed dead, at the moment of my +triumph?" + +Tomlin's eyelids flickered, and his lips strove to speak. One hand went +weakly to his face, to grasp her fingers. And into her anxious ear he +managed to whisper: + +"Evil luck fought with me, Dolores. Yet I die content if you care." + +"Care!" she echoed, shaking his fingers loose impatiently. "Care? Yes, +this I care, bungler: I care because of all three of thee, thou alone +wert covetous enough to obey my conditions. With thee alive, there was +hope of thy friends' speedy death. With thee dead, which of the others +will wipe his fellow from his path for me? Why, think ye, did I fawn on +John Pearse? But to arouse in thee the demon of jealousy; why did I +smile on Venner, and call him my Rupert? To steel thy arm against him. +And for what?" + +She suddenly laid his head down on the floor, leaned over him with her +lips almost brushing his cheek, and whispered fiercely: "Speak! Canst +live?" + +Tomlin's face lost some of its pain. The thin lips straightened into the +semblance of a faint smile. His glazing eyes opened slightly. + +"I am done for," he whispered. "Dolores, kiss me again. I die for you." + +The beautiful fury sprang to her feet, spurning him. She glared down at +his chalky face in utter scorn. + +"Kiss thee? Thou die for me? Pah! I kiss no carrion. A half-hundred men +have died for me this day, I hope. I kiss him who lives for me and +conquers, not the weakling who dies!" + +Without deigning another glance at her victim, she turned away and went +to meet Milo. He now entered with his slaves. + +"Where are the two strangers?" she demanded harshly. + +Milo returned her stare with a look of simple surprise. He had seen +nothing of them, and had thought of them being yet with his mistress. + +"I saw them not, Sultana," he replied. + +"Saw them not, great clod!" she blazed at him, clenching her hands in +rage. "Are they here, then?" + +Milo looked around in bewilderment. In all her life Dolores had been his +especial care; in her many moments of temper she had perhaps pained his +devoted heart, but never had she used to him the tone she now used. It +seemed to his simple soul that the foundations of his faith were being +wrenched loose. + +"I will find them, Sultana," he said quietly, and turned to leave by the +tunnel. + +"Stay here, thou blind fool!" she commanded him. "I will find them +myself. Here is work more fitting for a slave. How many chests are going +to the ship?" + +"Three." + +"And how many have ye yet empty here?" + +"Three, lady." + +"Then get them quickly. Until I return, bid thy fellows replace the +treasure that is still in the powder store. And haste, for I will leave +this place this day, though all the fiends say no." + +She ran along the tunnel, and Milo set his men to their task. As he +passed along to the powder chamber, a low moan arrested him, and he +halted in sudden remorse for Pascherette, whom he now felt he had judged +harshly. He left his fellows and went to the tiny alcove where the +little octoroon lay, and his great heart leaped in response to the +worship that shone in her dark eyes. He saw the dry and cracked lips, +the flushed face, and fetched water and wine before he would speak to +her. Then, with her small head and slender shoulders against his immense +chest, he gave her drink, soothing her pain with soft speech and +caressing hand. + +Pascherette's wound was deep, and bleeding internally; a fever already +burned in the tiny maid's veins. She peered up at him wistfully, all of +her mischief, all her piquancy gone and replaced by a softened, humbled +expression that wrung Milo's heart-strings. + +"Will ye not kiss me now, Milo?" she whispered, with a pearly drop +brimming from each eye, where laughter had so lately dwelt. + +"Pascherette, thy fault was great," he answered, yet in his face was a +look so forgiving, so excusing, that the girl shivered expectantly and +closed her eyes with a happy sigh. + +Yet the kiss was not given. From the great chamber the angry voice of +Dolores rang out. + +"Milo! Where art thou, slave!" + +And the giant tenderly laid Pascherette down again, and ran in answer. + +"Sultana?" + +"Blind, idle dolt! While thou art fondling that serpent of thine, thy +mistress's affairs may go hang! Haste with the treasure, or feel my +anger. While thy useless eyes were mooning on nothing, the strangers +have escaped. They are even now getting sail on the white vessel. Carry +the chests down to the Point as soon as ye may. I will stay them yet, +and they shall learn the cost of flouting Dolores! Hasten, I tell ye!" + +Milo winced at her address; his black eyes, usually holding the utter +devotion of a noble dog, glittered with tiny sparks of resentment; yet +the habit of years could not be lightly cast off, and he bowed low, even +while Dolores had turned her back on him, and picked up a great empty +chest to carry it to the powder store. Here in the flickering light of a +pine splinter the slaves worked feverishly, their abject eyes sparkling +with borrowed radiance from the riches they handled. + +And while they worked, Dolores emerged from the tunnel, flashed one long +glance of derision at the moving schooner, and sped down the cliff to +stop her flight. + +The Feu Follette was poorly enough manned with Peters and his four men. +With the ready help of Venner and Pearse the getting of the anchor and +the hoisting of the heavy fore and main sails was an arduous job, but it +was accomplished under the tremendous urge of remembrance. None wished +to have the experiences of the past days repeated; Peters was anxious to +get his beautiful vessel into safer waters; the Feu Follette's owner and +his guest were doubly anxious to drop those blue hills of ominous memory +below the horizon forever. They gave scant attention to the three great +iron-bound chests that stood between the guns along the waist; getting +clear occupied every faculty. + +The tide setting directly on the Point, with a breeze dead in from +seaward, forced the schooner perilously close to the bar that had been +her undoing before; but, with the lead going, Peters speedily found that +his previous mishap must undoubtedly have been due to clever misleading. +After touching lightly once, and getting deeper water at the next cast +over the lee side, he understood the trick of the extended false Point +and stood boldly along shore. + +And as the schooner gathered steerage-way, hugging the Point closely, +Dolores ran out along the sandy beach and plunged into the sea abreast +the moving vessel. + +"Here's that vixen woman, sir!" cried Peters angrily, looking toward +Venner for instructions. Peters had the helm, and owner and guest stood +against the companion, ready to lend a hand at the sheets, forward or +aft. + +Venner and Pearse stared at the swimmer, then turned and gazed +searchingly at each other. In the face of each lingered a trace of the +subjection they had fallen under; neither could quite so quickly forget +the allurements of this woman. Her kisses had been as sweet as her fury +had been terrible; and the absence of Craik Tomlin was an additional +incentive to memory. + +"Shall we take her away?" asked Venner, avoiding Pearse's eye as he put +the question. + +"Can't you make more sail, Peters?" was Pearse's reply. + +Venner laughed softly, agreeably; and the next moment Dolores hailed +them. She swam swiftly, with effortless ease, slipping through the sea +like a sparkling nymph in her native element. But the schooner traveled +fast, and, though she lost no ground, she gained but slowly. She hailed +again. + +"Rupert, my Rupert!" and finished the cry with a rippling laugh. "Art +stealing my treasure and leaving me?" + +"By Heavens, Pearse, I had forgotten these chests," said Venner +uneasily. Pearse regarded him closely, fearing that Dolores's spell was +yet powerful. He gripped Venner tightly by the arm, leaned nearer, and +said: + +"Venner, so long as that blood-polluted treasure is on your deck, so +long will you be unable to settle your mind. Bid the hands pitch it into +the sea, for God's sake!" + +A lull in the wind slowed the schooner down, and Dolores gained a +fathom. Her fair face was set toward them in a bewitching smile, and she +waved a gleaming arm at them. Venner fought with himself in silence for +a brief while, then with a shudder stepped to the wheel. + +"Get the hands, Peters," he told the sailing-master, "and heave those +chests overboard. Quickly! You shall lose nothing by this, but don't +delay a moment!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +STUMPY FIRES THE MAGAZINE. + + +Milo and his slaves worked frenziedly at their task, his suddenly bitter +spirit flogging them to unremitting haste. In the giant's troubled face +the smoldering spark of resentment had grown to an incipient blaze that +required but a breath to burst into angry flame. + +One great chest was filled with the choicest of the gems in the powder +store; it was set aside in the entrance beside the tapestry, and another +box was opened before the powder-kegs. Little Pascherette had ceased +moaning, but from time to time a choking sob sounded from her alcove +that increased the hard brilliancy of the light in Milo's eyes. The +great chamber was silent as a mausoleum in the intervals between the +clashing and tinkling of gold and stones in the chest; from the outside, +by way of the rock tunnel, came only the sigh and murmur of the crooning +breeze, the softened plash of the tide on the shore, the scream of +wheeling seabirds. All sound of the schooner had departed; there was no +human note in the whole region. + +Then, as the second chest was almost full, and Milo pulled the third and +last along in readiness, from the secret gallery behind the Grove came +the shouts and oaths of men, weary, footsore men, but men with animal +appetites whetted by the day of bloody conflict. They could be heard at +the great door in the painting of the "Sleeping Venus"; not knowing its +secret their way was barred. But Stumpy's hoarse roar could be heard +calling them back to the ledge, and there was a note of menace in his +tired tones. And mingling with his voice was the voice of a woman of the +camp, raised in shrill complaint. Milo stepped to the picture and +listened. + +"I tell ye the fiend has tricked ye, Stumpy!" the woman cried. + +"Tricked me? Have a care how ye talk that way, woman!" Stumpy's voice +replied warningly. + +"Aye, tricked ye and me and all of us! Even now--come to the cliff, and +I'll show ye." + +The scrambling of heavy feet could be heard in the gallery as men rushed +out in answer. How many men Milo could not determine; but fewer than had +followed Stumpy into the forest in chase of their broken foes. The +slaves at the treasure-chests paused in their work, alarm on their +shining faces, looking ever toward Milo for instructions. + +Milo ran back through the great chamber and out by the tunnel to the +cliff, peering around for Stumpy and hoping to see the schooner putting +back. + +Without Dolores he was at a loss; yet he was not ready to leave his +charge to be gazed upon by untried eyes. His breast swelled nigh to +bursting at sight of the schooner. The Feu Follette was but half a mile +away in a straight line from the cliff; she had been tacking against a +light breeze and flood tide around the Point, and while she had sailed +several miles through the water, she had but just gained past the face +of the cliff. And far from returning, she sailed farther and farther +away as he watched, nursed with such skill of sheet and helm as proved +to Milo's seamanly eye that her people would never return of their free +will. And what of Dolores? His condor's vision picked her out as soon as +the schooner. Her gleaming arms and shoulders swept rhythmically over +and over, cleaving the sea easily and smoothly, her lustrous hair +streaming behind her, and the sun glinting brightly from the gold +circlet around her head. She was gaining foot by foot, and Milo keenly +scrutinized the schooner for signs of surrender. There were none. At the +schooner's rail three heads were visible; but Milo knew neither belonged +to Venner nor Pearse. That persuaded him that the schooner was unlikely +to come back. And the even, tireless manner in which Dolores swam +convinced him that she would follow to the end. Yet he would not utterly +believe she had deserted him. He glared around for the men whose voices +he heard now, raised in anger in chorus with the voices of the woman and +her companions. Stumpy stepped out from the grove path with but four men +behind him; and they were in sore plight. Stumpy himself dangled an idly +swinging sleeve that was stained dark-red to the shoulder. A red sear +across his nose and cheek rendered him a demoniacal figure through the +powder, smoke and sweat. And his mates were tattered and cut, their +shirts bore red splashes to a man; their grimed faces and fiery eyes +held the passions of blooded men who see their reward flying from them. + +"I tell ye she's gone for good!" cried the woman who had brought the +news to Stumpy. "See, she's almost there, and three chests of treasure +have gone in that vessel! Her swimming after it is but a part of her +cuteness. Now d'ye believe, fools!" + +The crippled, battle-scarred pirate glared to seaward with red-rimmed +eyes in which flames of revenge started into life. His twisted, warped +life had been spent in fighting and trickery; to-day his work had +culminated in a brave stand for what he thought to be straight and +right; reward he expected, but he had earned it with blood and sweat, +hoping at the last that some of his earlier transgressions might be +atoned for in his loyalty to his mistress. + +He hurled aside the persistent women, who sought some reassuring word +from him, and mouthing rather than speaking a call to his men to follow, +he plunged again into the grove path and stumbled toward the ledge +entrance. Here he clambered painfully to the gallery, cursing to himself +bitterly, never looking back to see if his men followed, intent only +upon one absorbing thing. Revenge was beyond him, since there were left +no subjects for his revenge. He had never seen the great stone at the +chamber portals left rolled aside; could not even now imagine such a +situation. No, if Dolores were gone in truth, and with her the strangers +and the treasure, then it was certain, he thought, that the great +chamber was sealed forever. And he would see into its mysteries, even +though they proved barren now. He knew the way; Dolores had shown him. + +Feverishly hunting for a flint, he tore some threads from his shirt and +frayed them into tow. Then with his cutlas he struck a spark and ignited +his threads, carefully nursing the tiny flame until he could find a dry +stick. This lasted him until a pine torch was found, and then he crawled +along the gallery in search of the powder train. That, he knew, for she +had told him, would burst the rock asunder anyhow; and that would be +enough, for he had guessed shrewdly that the gallery was connected with +the great chamber by some secret egress. + +And who knew? Might not Dolores have taken in her haste but part of her +vast store? Stumpy knew as well as Red Jabez the tremendous wealth that +had been deposited in that chamber of mysteries; for he had been with +the red chief from the beginning; he had seen with his own eyes the +riches of a hundred ships taken in there, and never a thing come out. + +"She can't have bagged the lot," he muttered, fanning his torch into a +red flare. "But she'll pay for deserting Stumpy, or Stumpy's a liar!" + +He found the powder train, and the moisture had dried from it, leaving +only a little line of dry, quick-igniting powder. He was not sure just +where the magazine was; not sure how long the train would burn before +the explosion. So down he clambered again, searching at the great altar +for the water-vessels he knew should be there. Then, with a jar of +water, he returned to his train, and swiftly swept up the dry powder and +moistened it a little, making a rough slow match of it. + +"Now we'll see the sights!" he growled, and went to the end of the +gallery and flung his torch into the train. + +He watched it for a moment, to be sure that it would burn, then stepped +down from the ledge and drew back a safe distance to watch the upheaval. +To what extent the mine was intended to destroy he had no idea. He +simply knew that Dolores had pointed it out to him as a means of defense +should the gallery be carried in the attack. He supposed, therefore, +that it would shatter the gallery. Doing that, it must surely dislodge +or loosen rock enough for him to break into the great chamber with aid. + +The thought recalled his men to his mind, and he saw for the first time +that they had not followed him. He started down the path toward the +camp, shouting to them by name, eager to give them an inkling of the +treat in store. But his hail was answered by another, and down the path +a woman appeared running, her hair flying, and tremendous excitement in +every line of her face. + +"Stumpy! Stumpy!" she sobbed and cried in hysterical intoxication. "Oh, +Stumpy, the great chamber is open, and it's full of gold and treasure!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +MILO CROSSES THE BAR. + + +Milo watched Stumpy disappear down the grove path, and heard him call to +his men to follow. Then he regarded the receding yacht intently for a +moment, and the last vestige of noble devotion went from his face and +gave place to a great and absorbing bitterness. In that instant, the +foundations, pillars, and capitals of his soul shook and tottered; his +universe changed from a thing of golden beauty and heavenly splendor to +a shameful mockery of truth and faith. + +In that moment his thoughts flew back to little Pascherette, and his +great heart yearned toward her. False she had proved, but to what? To +whom? He asked himself these things as he slowly walked back along the +tunnel, not yet knowing what he would do. He answered his own question. +Pascherette had proven false to falsity; she had schemed against the +schemer; and, in the other tray of the balance she had done these things +for love of him, out of a deep and all-powerful ambition to place him, +Milo the slave, in the high place of the wanton ingrate who had deserted +her people. And the thought hurt him now; he had not yet yielded her the +kiss she craved. Even now the little gold-tinted one might be cold in +death, denied that small consolation because of his obstinate heart. + +He ran along the tunnel and burst through the great chamber, cursing the +idle slaves into silence when they cried their helpless queries at him. +And straight to Pascherette he sped, to fling himself down by her side +and seize her tiny, moist hand in frantic appeal. + +"Pascherette!" he whispered with a dry sob. "Little golden one, speak to +thy Milo. Speak, and forgive!" + +The octoroon gave no sign of life, and the giant dropped her hand and +gently raised her pallid face. His lips sought hers in a passionate +kiss, long and yearning; and slowly her eyelids fluttered and opened. +The dark eyes were misty, yet that longed-for kiss had brought back her +fleeting spirit to recognize her man. She closed her tired eyes again, +with a little sign, and the small, pale lips formed the words: "I am +content, Milo, my god." + +The giant bowed his head over her silent face, and his black eyes +searched for a returning flicker of vitality. It was gone forever. +Pascherette was dead; and Milo laid her head down gently, and drew back +to stare at her with growing rebellion and horror. What gods could there +be to use him thus? He leaped to his feet with arms flung upward. + +"Hah, gods of earth and sea, witness Milo's penitence!" he said +hoarsely. "To Dolores I have given the worship that belonged to ye and +ye have taken terrible atonement. Pity me!" + +He paced the small alcove nervously, seeking light where no light was. +Then the harsh shouts of Stumpy's men resounded through the chamber, and +he stepped outside in alarm. For it was not yet possible for him to +discard the usage of years which forbade intrusion in that secret place. +He saw Stumpy's four men standing open-mouthed in the doorway beneath +the yellow lantern, gazing ludicrously at the magnificence of the +furnishings. The slaves at the powder store stood where he had left +them, idle and aimless, but with an open chest at their feet. This now +attracted the pirates' attention, and with a stamp and a shout they +roared through the great chamber, their faces awork with newly aroused +avarice. + +Just for one second Milo pondered staying them. But his soul had soured; +he uttered a grunt of scornful disgust, and waved a hand at them, +muttering: + +"Revel, ye dogs! Plunge thy hands deep. 'Tis all thine, and the fiend's +blessing go with it!" + +He returned to his dead Pascherette and knelt beside her, patting her +cold hands and speaking to her softly and tenderly. Out in the chamber +the pirates had hurled aside the slaves, and, flinging open the chests, +were glaring with wolfish eyes and dripping jaws at the bewildering mass +of treasure revealed. + +Their noise irritated Milo. He went out again to stop them. And he saw a +pirate snatch up a glittering tiara and place it on his head with a +roaring oath. He saw another snatch the bauble off; and in a breath the +pirates were at each other's throats; cutlases flashed and a savage +fight began at the moment the women stole in to see the mysterious +place, and one of their number ran to bring Stumpy. + +The giant glowered at the snarling men as at some repulsive beasts, +horrified that they should thus desecrate the quiet of his Pascherette's +death-bed. He was not the Milo of old now. His memory had flown back +through the years to the time when he was a youth of position and great +promise in his own land; when, instead of being the cast-off servant of +a beautiful ingrate, he numbered his own servants by hundreds. And a +great dignity stole into his ennobled face. He softly picked up the dead +girl, and advanced toward the rock tunnel. + +Stumpy met him at the door, and the crippled pirate's eyes burned with +the newborn lust of loot. Stumpy made as if to stay the giant with +questions; but he saw the snarling fight at the end of the chamber and +caught the glitter of jewels. With the stumbling speed of a charging, +wounded bull, he rushed in to join battle. + +Running women brushed against Milo in the passage; all the camp's living +people had caught the fever. The giant strode on, until he stood in the +rugged rock portals and gazed once more over the sea. The schooner had +moved but slightly since he last looked at her; he could see Dolores's +head still advancing, and very near to the vessel now. The breeze had +lulled, perhaps preceding a shift of wind; and the visible people on the +deck of the Feu Follette appeared to be running back and forth in +indecision. + +At Milo's right hand the great rock sat on its ledge, ready to fall at a +touch, and his brooding eyes flashed to it with terrible meaning. +Inside, the great chamber resounded with the clash of steel, the shouts +of furious human beasts, and the shrill cries of women urging them on; +for there must be victors, even to such a sordid fight, and to the +victors, spoils. Where victors and spoils are, there harpy women await +them. + +Milo gazed long and passionately into the face of his dead; then he laid +her softly down outside the rock and arose with a fierce light +irradiating his face. + +"Dogs, who would thus break the sleep of my beloved, I give ye good for +evil!" he muttered. "Treasure ye crave: treasure I give ye, and none may +take it from ye!" + +He turned, put his hand upon the great rock and started it from its bed. +And as he moved the mass, the mountain rocked and crashed with the +thunder of the bursting powder-magazine. + +Down came the great rock, pinning Milo beneath it, threatening in its +final fall to crush him and the body of his love. His great arms shot +out and up, every muscle on his colossal frame stood out like ropes, his +back cracked with the tremendous strain. He stiffened his knees, bit +into his lip until the blood gushed; and a groan burst from his breast +as he felt his stout knees stagger. + +His bulging eyes glared ahead over the sea; into the air flew a thousand +fragments of shattered rock; they fell and thrashed the sea into foam a +mile from shore. Rocks fell upon his already overwhelming burden; his +knees bent, and the blood trickled from his nostrils. And with his fast +ebbing breath he breathed his valedictory, fixing his stony eyes upon +Pascherette as upon his deity. + +"Gods of my fathers, receive my spirit into thy halls. Let thy swift +justice overtake the cause of this upheaval; and receive with my spirit +the spirit of the one who loved me." He fell to one knee, and a great +sob shook him. The rock was falling in a shower about him; it rang and +crashed on the gigantic stone that was crushing him. He bent his gaze in +anguish afresh on the dead girl, now almost buried under stone and +earth, and murmured: "Pascherette, I come! I see beyond the blue ocean +and the golden horizon the throne of my gods. Come, golden one, let us +go. There will our faithfulness meet just reward!" + +He pitched forward upon the dead girl, and the great rock crashed down, +building them a tomb grand as the eternal hills. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE TOLL OF THE GODS. + + +Venner's order to heave the treasure-chests overboard was not given +without a pang of regret. It was scarcely obeyed without threats; for +the sailing master had been bitten by the treasure fever before his +owner and guest came on board. Had they not appeared when they did, the +schooner had gone without them, and Peters had already seen a golden +vista ahead of him. He hesitated now, and Venner left the wheel vacant +to urge him. + +"Over with it, I say! At once! Here, Pearse, lend a hand here, man, +before that witch's great eyes mesmerize us again. See, she smiles yet, +and comes nearer." + +Reluctantly the seamen raised one iron-bound chest to the rail and +poised it there. From the water astern rang Dolores's throaty laugh, +even and full breathing, as if she had not swam a fraction of the +half-mile she had covered. + +"Foolish Rupert!" she cried, never relaxing her stroke. "Why waste the +fruits of thy pains? Hast looked inside then? Nay, take me on board, and +let us look together. Thou wilt not see Dolores drown, I swear. Then +look once more into my eyes, my Rupert!" + +She laughed again mockingly, alluringly, and Pearse turned away with a +shudder, not daring to cast a glance in the direction of Venner. + +"Throw the stuff over, I say!" cried Venner hoarsely, and gave the chest +a push that sent it into the rippling sea with a thunderous splash. And +again that mocking laugh rang out astern; it was nearer, and Dolores's +beautiful face was turned up to them with triumph in every feature. She +had seen the struggle going on in her two intended victims; if she could +but gain to within whispering distance of either of them, surely she +would never let them escape her. + +"Come, take me on board, my Rupert. I have a secret to tell thee, but +thee alone!" she cried, and spurted swiftly, gaining abreast of the +main-chains. + +But the eyes of Venner and Pearse were fixed in astonishment upon the +tall cliff they had left; their eyes stared amazedly, and they stood +like statues, hearing none of her seductive words. + +"What do ye see?" she demanded, frowning up at them. + +A score of sharp splashes in the water around the schooner startled her. +She suspected they were hurling missiles at her, and one struck her +arm. She turned swiftly and her face darkened with fury. Then more small +objects fell about her, and one struck her arm. She turned swiftly on +her side to seek the source, and in her ears boomed the tremendous crash +of Stumpy's explosion, rolling far over the sea, reverberating from the +shores and making the air quiver like a solid thing. + +A great mass of rock hurtled overhead, missed the schooner by scant +feet, and Venner shouted in horror: + +"Throw her a line, Pearse! Here, quickly, before she is crushed by such +a rock as that one!" + +The sea was shattered into foam for fathoms around, and every face on +the Feu Follette stared over the rail in helpless astonishment. But on +the face of Dolores glowed a smile of triumph. She feared nothing of +earth or heaven; among the flying rocks she swam on toward the schooner, +smiling up at them, waiting for the rope that meant victory to her. + +And in the brief space before the rope hurtled out, down from the +heavens plunged a high-flung piece of granite fair upon Dolores. She +seemed to sense its shadow, and in the moment it struck her she half +sank, breaking its force. But it followed her down. The mass struck +between her gleaming shoulders, and she flung up her arms in despair, +turning over and over with the impact, then floating unconscious close +by the side of the white schooner that had been her goal. + +"God! Get her aboard!" gasped Pearse. "She's done for. Yet we cannot +leave her there for the sharks, like a beast!" + +Venner and Peters were already trying with boat-hooks to catch Dolores's +tunic. Pearse threw a line over the girl and drew her nearer and the +hooks took hold. They drew her up the side with a care that amounted to +reverence, for in her unconsciousness she was more beautiful than ever, +her fine features molded in dead white, traced with fine blue veins; the +grace of her form was that of a lovely sculpture now, lacking vitality, +but possessing every line of perfection. The blow that had overtaken her +had failed in its terrible threat to crush her. + +"Lay her in the companionway on the lounge," said Venner. He ran to the +saloon and brought up wine. He bathed her temples and wrists with the +liquor, and forced some between her blue lips. And Pearse chafed her +hands and patted them, gazing down at her in silent awe. + +"Venner," he whispered, when her eyes refused to open, "we must let this +settle the score against her. It's a terrible end for such a creature." + +"For my part, Pearse, I would give all I have just to see those great +violet eyes laugh at me again; to hear that mocking laugh from her +maddening lips. God, will she never awake?" + +Astern of the schooner the sun was slowly descending to the western +sea-rim, and as the course was resumed after picking up Dolores, the +Point and the cliff gradually drew out across the path of the sun, until +the outlines of the rock and trees stood out black and sharp. On the +cliff-top a heavy pall of greasy smoke hung low about the shattered +pirates' camp; from fissures high up the frowning side spirals of smoke +testified to the wide-spread destruction that followed the blast. + +They looked at the terrific devastation, and again at its nearer victim. +And as they gazed down at her, Dolores's lips trembled in a faint smile, +her great eyes opened wide, looking directly and fearlessly back at +them. + +"I thank ye, my friends; I knew you would take me," she whispered, and +the two men turned away with a shudder. As she had lived, Dolores was +now meeting her inevitable end, bold and indomitable. + +"Where are you hurt?" inquired Venner lamely. "Let me do something to +ease you." + +"Ease?" she laughed as of old, but her teeth clenched upon her lower lip +immediately, with the pain it caused. "I shall ask ye to ease me +presently, good friends. Grim Death has me by the throat already. But +carry me outside. I am stifling in here. Let me see the ocean and the +sky at least in my passage. And I have something to tell ye also." + +On the gratings around the stern, abaft the wheel, they laid her on soft +cushions. She drank greedily of the wine and water they offered her; +she quivered with eagerness to unburden her mind before her thirst was +quenched forever. She motioned them, to bend over her, and began to +speak in, husky whispers. + +"That chest, thou cast it overboard. Dost know what was in it?" + +Both shook their heads. None had seen inside the chests after they came +from the great chamber. + +"I'll tell ye, then, for the peace of your souls and the tranquillity of +your voyage. Lest thy men be seized with a desire for treasure that +shall work ye mischief, have them open the other two chests. Quickly, +for I am faint." + +Venner went to the chests himself and flung back the lids, which were +bolted on the outside and not locked. He stared for a moment, +unbelievingly, then nodded to Pearse. Pearse stared, too, in amazement, +and one after the other the sailors were called to see. They saw two +great strong-boxes filled to the brim with iron chains, broken cutlases, +rusty bilboes, and rock; a fool's treasure in truth. + +"'Twas a trick to set my rascals at odds," Dolores told them when they +returned to her. "To thee, Pearse, I showed my treasure, and I fear that +blast has buried it beneath a mountain. Milo was to take it out. I +cannot believe it can have been taken away ere that powder blew it to +fragments. It was still in the powder store." + +"Yes, I know," said Pearse quietly. "It was that which precipitated the +fight between us three that killed poor Tomlin." + +"Well, if thou still art hungry for treasure, my friends, there is my +store buried where thou knowest, and I shrewdly fear but few of my +people are left. But I am slipping. Stand aside, that I may close my +eyes on the place I called home." + +Dolores ceased speaking and lay, scarcely stirred by her faint +respiration, gazing over the schooner's stern at the sinking sun. The +golden disk was turning to red and across its darkened face the cliff +and Point stood out in sharp silhouette, which grew larger as the great +glowing sun was distorted and enlarged by the refraction near the +horizon. The breeze had changed, and now blew with gentle strength out +of the west, a fair wind for their homeward course, and the strands of +Dolores's glorious hair blew about her face like tendrils about an +orchid of unearthly beauty. + +Presently she stirred again, and now she summoned all her remaining +vitality to raise herself on an elbow. Pearse and Venner leaned closer, +sensing the end in the tremendous brilliancy of her wide, dry eyes. + +She spoke softly, yet with a thrilling note of yearning that choked her +hearers with harsh sobs. + +"Father, I come," she whispered. "If I have failed in obeying thy +commands, I ask forgiveness, for I am but a woman. A woman with +instincts and yearnings, born of the mother I never knew. Thy very +treasures that were to appease me put the yearning more strongly in my +brain. Thy teachings showed me a world of beasts and savagery; thy +treasures gave me dreams of a world peopled by such as I would be. My +mother's blood forced me to seek this other, better world; thy blood +forced me to seek it wrongfully." + +She paused, and gathered her fleeting breath. + +Then, sitting suddenly upright, she flung both arms out to the setting +sun now lipping the sea, and cried: + +"Gods I know not. Yet must there be such, else had I never known the +devotion of a Milo! Wherever ye be, brave Milo, living or dead, commend +me to thy own gods and forgive me for my ingratitude." She seized Venner +and Pearse by the arms as she fell back, and whispered: "In pity, +friends, set my feet toward the west, and launch my poor body down the +sun path as it sinks into the blue Caribbean that was my only home." + +She relaxed with a little shivering sigh, the glorious eyes closed with +a tired tremor, and the spirit of Dolores the beautiful, the wicked, the +tempestuous, winged its way down the mysterious paths of the dark +unknown. + +"Come," said Venner, suddenly shaking off his abstraction, "time is all +too short if we are to render her this last small service." + +"How shall we do it?" asked Pearse doubtfully. + +"We shall send her down her chosen path in a boat. Peters will load the +dingey with ballast, while you and I will lay Dolores out as well as we +may. Bring me that grating, Pearse. We will speed her in the dress she +loved. Her soul would sicken at a suffocating winding sheet. Hurry, for +the sun is half gone!" + +Swiftly they worked, these men who had cause to remember the departed +siren without great love, and they placed her, secured to a grating, +across the thwarts of the dingey, to which the grating was in turn +secured. Then, all prepared, Peters sprang into the boat, bored a score +of auger-holes in the bottom, and as the great red sun set fierce and +blazing behind the black profile of the cliff, the filling boat was set +adrift, straight down the path of the luminary, bound ever westward, +until the sea gods claimed it and its passenger for their own. + +"Farewell, place of ill-luck!" cried Pearce, as the schooner bore away +before the rising evening breeze. "May I never set my eyes on such evil +shores again." + +"Then you will not come back to seek the treasure?" asked Venner, with a +shadowy flicker of a smile. + +"Not for a thousand times the treasure that lies there!" cried Pearse +vehemently. "And I have seen it! The horror of this will haunt me until +my dying day. I only hope God will look kindly upon that poor woman, +that's all." + +"I hope so, too," rejoined Venner thoughtfully. "With a white woman's +opportunities, what a woman she could have been." + +But the gods are inscrutable. Only the warm mantle of the setting sun +gave a hint that Dolores might be even now entering into a place of +eternal rest, where her sins of ignorance and untutored instincts would +not count too heavily against her. The sea is very benign to its elect; +a calm sea in the setting sun received Dolores in arms of infinite +benignity. + + +(The end.) + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original edition have been corrected. In Chapter V, "inscrutaable" was +changed to "inscrutable"; in Chapter X, "Let me show thee they master" +was changed to "Let me show thee thy master"; in Chapter XVII, "could +not enchance your worth" was changed to "could not enhance your worth"; +in Chapter XVIII, "shaking his first at Milo" was changed to "shaking +his fist at Milo"; and in Chapter XXI, "protruding a foot for Tomlin's +back" was changed to "protruding a foot from Tomlin's back".] + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following summary originally appeared at the +beginning of the serial's second installment.] + + +PRECEDING CHAPTERS BRIEFLY RETOLD + +Within his mysterious stronghold, "The Cave of Terrible Things," on the +Maroon coast of Jamaica, washed by the waters of the Caribbean Sea, Red +Jabez, Sultan of Pirates, had just died. + +Dolores, his daughter, "a splendidly lithe, glowing creature of beauty +and passion," "a royal woman conscious of mental and physical +perfection," succeeded her father as tyrant over the motley crew of +Spaniard and Briton, Creole and mulatto, Carib and octoroon, and +coal-black negroes. + +Milo, the giant Abyssinian, who knew no fear and no law save the will of +this capricious creature, served Dolores as body-guard and chief. + +Pascherette, "a gleaming, gold-tinted creature, a miniature model of +Aphrodite," beloved of Milo, was her maid and attendant. + +Moved to mutiny by Rufe, the Spaniard, the pirates had risen in revolt +to loot the rich treasure of the dead Sultan's cave; but supported by +Milo, Dolores had cowed them, no less by her dagger than her threats. + +But discontent rode the soul of the Sultana. She longed for other lands, +other people. With Milo's aid she determined to capture the first sail +that passed her shore, and escape. + +When Rupert Venner and his guests, Craik Tomlin and John Pearce, aboard +the Venner yacht, Feu Follette, passed that way, they were easily +induced to go ashore. + +In the midst of a reception accorded them by Dolores, the party beheld +Yellow Rufe and a band of mulattoes and blacks making for the schooner, +from whose rail shots crackled. + +Venner raised a cry of treachery and called, "Come, fellows!" But the +woman held him as much by her eyes as by her promise: "I shall preserve +thy ship, and give thee back an eye for an eye, if thy men are harmed." + +Then she sprang down the cliff like a deer. + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following summary originally appeared at the +beginning of the serial's third installment. The summary at the +beginning of the serial's fourth installment, if one was present, was +not available when preparing this electronic edition.] + + +PRECEDING CHAPTERS BRIEFLY RETOLD + +On the death of Red Jabez, Dolores, "a glowing creature of beauty and +passion," took over her father's rule of the pirates of the Maroon coast +of Jamaica. + +With the help of her faithful slave, Milo, the Abyssinian giant, she +crushed a rising insurrection among her riffraff subjects, whose +cupidity had been played upon by Rufe, the Spaniard. + +But Dolores was herself the victim of discontent. Loathing her outlaw +subjects and the island, she determined to seize the first boat that +passed her way, and escape with her jewels and her gold. + +When the pleasure yacht, Feu Follette, came that way, she sent Milo and +her maid, Pascherette, to decoy Rupert Venner and his guests, Craik +Tomlin and John Pearse, to the island. + +In the midst of her reception to her captive-guests, she beheld Rufe and +a band of insurgent blacks and mulattoes attacking the crew of the +schooner, while Sancho, whom she had despatched to care for the vessel +while in the harbor, was joining in the attack. + +Then she rushed over the cliff and into the water, and boarded the boat, +followed by her loyal Milo. + +After a long and bloody struggle, the woman's ruse of firing the ship +with a keg of powder won the day, and Rufe and Sancho fled into the +wilderness, while from the schooner's topmast flew the Sultana's own +flag. + +Demanding that the traitors, Rufe and Sancho, be rounded up, Dolores +threw her three guests into chains, while she accused Pascherette of +abetting the treason of Sancho. + +Then Dolores turned to Venner with the offer of her love if he would +sail away with her, having first despatched his friends. When the man, +whose soul was racked with passion for the beautiful black panther, +recoiled from her condition, she left him in his chains. + +Next she dealt with Sancho, whom Pascherette had lured back to the +woman's mercy; and Sancho emerged from Dolores's presence a driveling +imbecile. + +When Milo beheld at this moment the fleeing form of Yellow Rufe, made +distinguishable by vivid lightning, Dolores determined to complete her +punishments. + +The Spaniard was making good his escape when Milo took up the pursuit in +the little sailboat. Dolores and her crew would follow, by the light of +his flares, in the schooner. + +With the untamed soul of a woman who had never known defeat, Dolores +drove her crew and defied the wind and the waves, and the Feu Follette +was liberated from the mud and swung to the gale as the cry rang out: +"There's the flare--and she's burnin' steady!" + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Pirate Woman, by Aylward Edward Dingle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PIRATE WOMAN *** + +***** This file should be named 30057-8.txt or 30057-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/0/5/30057/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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XC</td> +<td style="text-align: right;">NUMBER 2</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1918</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<h1>The Pirate Woman</h1> + +<h2>by Captain Dingle</h2> + +<p class="center">Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc.</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p style="margin-top: 2.25em; margin-bottom: 2.25em;">[Transcriber's Note: This novel was originally serialized in four +installments in All-Story Weekly magazine from November 2, 1918, to +November 23, 1918. The original breaks in the serial have been retained, +but summaries of previous events preceding the second and third +installments have been moved to the end of this e-book. The Table of +Contents which follows this note was created for this electronic +edition.]</p> +</div> + +<h2>Table of Contents</h2> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="issuedate"><a href="#Part_I">November 2, 1918</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">I.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE CAVE OF TERRIBLE THINGS.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">193</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">II.</td> +<td class="chapname">DOLORES RECEIVES HER DIADEM.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">196</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">III.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE GROVE OF MYSTERY.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">200</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">IV.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE PIRATES' BARBECUE.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">203</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">V.</td> +<td class="chapname">MILO SIGHTS A SAIL.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">206</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">VI.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE PARTY FROM THE YACHT.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">209</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="issuedate"><a href="#Part_II">November 9, 1918</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">VII.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE ATTACK ON THE FEU FOLLETTE.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">466</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">VIII.</td> +<td class="chapname">DOLORES DELIVERS JUDGMENT.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">469</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">IX.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE SULTANA DECIDES SEVERAL THINGS.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">472</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">X.</td> +<td class="chapname">A REED SHAKEN BY THE WINDS OF PASSION.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">475</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XI.</td> +<td class="chapname">PASCHERETTE UNVEILS HER PURPOSE.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">477</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XII.</td> +<td class="chapname">SANCHO SETTLES HIS ACCOUNT.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">480</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XIII.</td> +<td class="chapname">DOLORES FLOATS THE FEU FOLLETTE.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">488</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="issuedate"><a href="#Part_III">November 16, 1918</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XIV.</td> +<td class="chapname">YELLOW RUFE'S FINISH.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">697</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XV.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE FIRES OF THE FLESH.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">701</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XVI.</td> +<td class="chapname">PEARSE ENTERS THE CAVE OF ALADDIN.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">704</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XVII.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE TREASURE TEST.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">707</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XVIII.</td> +<td class="chapname">PASCHERETTE DEALS AGAIN.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">711</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XIX.</td> +<td class="chapname">WHILE VICTORY HANGS IN THE BALANCE.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">715</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="issuedate"><a href="#Part_IV">November 23, 1918</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XX.</td> +<td class="chapname">DOLORES DEMANDS A DECISION.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">147</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XXI.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE SLUMBERING SAVAGE.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">150</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XXII.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE FLIGHT OF THE FEU FOLLETTE.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">153</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XXIII.</td> +<td class="chapname">STUMPY FIRES THE MAGAZINE.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">155</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XXIV.</td> +<td class="chapname">MILO CROSSES THE BAR.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">157</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XXV.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE TOLL OF THE GODS.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">159</a></td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + + + +<h1 style="margin-top: 1.5em;"><a name="Part_I" id="Part_I"></a>The Pirate Woman</h1> + +<h2>by Captain Dingle</h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc.</p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE CAVE OF TERRIBLE THINGS.</h3> + + +<p>A great unrest brooded over mountain and forest; the blue Caribbean lay +hushed and glaring, as if held in leash by a power greater than that +which ordered its daily ebb and flow.</p> + +<p>Men moved or stood beneath the trees on the cliffside in attitudes of +supreme awe or growing uneasiness, according to their kind: for among +them were numbered Spaniard and Briton, creole and mulatto, Carib and +octoroon, with coal-black negroes enough to outnumber all the rest—and +it was upon these last that profound awe sat oppressively.</p> + +<p>Apart, followed by a hundred furtive eyes, Dolores, daughter of Red +Jabez, ranged back and forth before the mighty rock portals of the Cave +of Terrible Things, like some magnificent tigress hedged with foes. +Beyond those portals Red Jabez, Sultan of pirates, arbiter of life and +death over the motley community, lay at grips with the grim specter to +whom he had consigned scores far more readily than he now yielded up +his own red-stained soul. Red Jabez was dying a death as hard as his +lurid life had been.</p> + +<p>Beyond those rock portals none save Jabez and Milo, the herculean +Abyssinian slave, had ever passed. Dolores, next in line, was in +ignorance as deep as her meanest slave, concerning what lay beyond the +great mass of rock which formed the door, and which Milo alone could +move. She knew, as did every one, that the great chamber of Red Jabez +held some vast mystery; she suspected, as did the rest, that it +concealed wealth beyond dreams; deep down in her soul she hoped that +inviolate chamber held for her the means of emancipation; but of this +hope, none knew save herself. For Queen of Night though the white men +called her, Sultana though she was named with fear and submission by the +blacks, though her power was second only to that of Red Jabez, and +barely less than his, a canker gnawed at the heart of Dolores, the +canker of a suspicion that her power was but a paltry power, her freedom +but a caged freedom.</p> + +<p>Somewhere beyond the great ocean that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> stretched away before her eyes +lay a world she knew nothing of; yet since her earliest childhood her +keen mind had told her that the silk with which she was clothed, the +jewels that encrusted her dagger-hilt, the ships whose pillage had +yielded up these things, must come from lands far distant, more +desirable than the maroon country of Jamaica. More, her ears attuned to +the whisper or roar of the sea, the sigh or shriek of the winds, carried +to her the mutterings of men long held in leash, who now saw in their +chieftain's death the realization of their own wild dreams of riches and +release. All these things told her that the great, strange world beyond +the sea-line was something for her to strive for; not for the rabble who +called her queen.</p> + +<p>She paced back and forth, a splendidly lithe, glowing creature of beauty +and passion, every movement a grace, each grace such as befitted a royal +woman conscious of mental and physical perfection. Her hair surrounded +her face and shoulders in a lustrous, rippling cloud, through which +peeped a bare arm and breast stolen from the goddess of beauty; her +tunic of quilted Chinese silk hung from one shoulder by a strap +fashioned from the ribbon of the Star of Persia, and fastened by the +star; her strong, slender waist was girdled with a heavy gold cord that +supported a long, thin dagger, no toy, in a jeweled sheath; the hem of +her single garment rang with gold sequins to the movement of her +smoothly muscular knees; her high-arched feet were protected from thorns +and shells by sandals of red leather.</p> + +<p>As the moments passed, and no sign came from within the cave, Dolores +restrained her impatience with increasing difficulty. The men scattered +around were not of such stuff; they felt the impending crisis settle +heavily upon them, and white and black alike drew together for the +comfort of close touch. From time to time a hardier spirit uttered his +thoughts aloud, yet always with a glance of uncertainty toward Dolores. +They had reason to glance that way; for every man had tasted of the +queen's justice, which rarely erred on the side of mildness; many of +them had experienced her terrible competence to carry out a sentence in +person. Of them all, not one but knew that in Dolores he owned as queen +a woman who need yield nothing of prowess to any man: her knife was as +swift, her round wrist as strong, her blazing violet-black eyes as sure +as any among them. Not a man could ever forget the offending slave whom +she had thrashed with her own hands, disdaining assistance, until the +wretch tore loose and fled screaming to the cliff to pitch headlong into +the shark-infested sea; nor could they forget her unhesitating dive and +terrific struggle to recover him and her completion of the interrupted +punishment when she had brought him back.</p> + +<p>Yet the stress proved too great, even in face of these memories, and a +tall, powerful Spaniard, heavily earringed, handsome, with a swart, +brutal beauty, delivered a scorching oath to the heavy air and exclaimed +fiercely:</p> + +<p>"A curse on this babe's play! Must men stand here like whipped curs +until a slave commands us enter? Come! Who'll follow me past that door? +I'll know what lies behind this mummery if I choke it from old Jabez's +withered neck as he dies."</p> + +<p>The man stepped forward two paces, glaring defiantly at Dolores, waiting +for men to follow. An uneasy shuffling of feet was his only answer for a +moment; then his eyes shifted with cooling ardor at sight of Dolores. +For a breath after he had ceased speaking, the girl stood like a +splendid statue, except for the glitter of her eyes and a slight +quivering of her limbs; it was as if she awaited some response; then her +face relaxed into a contemptuous smile, and her crimson lips parted to +reveal her even, gleaming teeth. She laughed, a rippling little laugh +like the tinkle of steel links, and with a single gliding movement that +permitted no avoidance she swept to within two feet of the now +frightened ruffian.</p> + +<p>"Yes? Yellow Rufe would choke words from a dying man!" she cried. +"Nothing that lives and can stand on two feet is in danger from such as +he. Peace, slavish dog!" she panted, flinging out a gleaming hand and +seizing him by one earring. "Thus I mark curs that seek their food among +the dead!" With the words Dolores's right hand flashed upward, +knife-armed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> and across Rufe's cheek glared a crimson cross; into his +eyes leaped the fear of death.</p> + +<p>"Now go!" she said imperiously, pushing him away. "Let no man forget +that while the life is in Red Jabez he holds thy lives in pawn. When his +spirit goes, ye shall reckon with me!"</p> + +<p>Rufe staggered away, half incredulous that his punishment had fallen +short of death. His companions led him apart with many a backward glance +of apprehension at the authoress of his discomfiture, and a deep, sullen +muttering rippled through the crowd. Dolores resumed her solitary pacing +without another thought for the hardy rascal she had so swiftly and +effectively softened. Her eyes were ever bent toward the great rock; her +thoughts were centered on a vague, mysterious instinct which whispered +to her that with her first admission into that frowning cavern the +mantle of fierce old Red Jabez would fall upon her, and with it would +come power that a Czar might envy! A Czar's power, indeed, but with all +of a Czar's cares and more; for Czar never ruled over subjects like +these.</p> + +<p>A sudden hush fell upon the place; the mutterings ceased as if tongues +were stricken stiff. Rufe, with his head now enwrapped in crossed +bandages, stared toward the great rock with a wavering expression in his +smoldering eyes, an expression that hovered between reluctant +submission, reawakened cupidity, and dawning hope. Dolores stood +motionless, imperious in every line and feature, her heavy eyelashes +veiling the eagerness in her eyes, her red lips curved in royal +indifference.</p> + +<p>The great rock was turning.</p> + +<p>Slowly, yet with the flawless regularity of a millwheel, the mass of +stone was rolled upward and to one side; it rested at last on a ledge, +balanced perfectly, ready to fall again at the touch of a finger; and in +the aperture appeared the human agent of its opening.</p> + +<p>Milo, the giant Abyssinian, guardian of the rock, custodian of the Cave +of Terrible Things, bone of contention for the jealous and terror of the +strongest, filled the entrance with his colossal frame and looked out +with a calm dignity that made the whites cringe with hatred. Slowly, +with stately grace, the giant advanced until he stood before Dolores, +and in his coal-black eyes shone the light of limitless devotion. He +knelt, kissed the sequins on her tunic's hem, then, with both hands +pressed to his forehead, he bowed his face to the earth at her feet.</p> + +<p>"Rise, Milo," said Dolores, gently, and her breath caught painfully as +she spoke. She knew what the slave came for; every man in that community +of pirates, wreckers, escaped slaves, and convicts knew as well as she. +All had awaited this moment, knowing when it came that the mystery of +the cave would be a mystery no longer to at least one of them: all knew +that the summons meant the passing of the old pirate who had brought +them together, ruled them with blood and iron, and forced from them a +homage none of them would render to his Maker.</p> + +<p>"My Sultana, it is time," said Milo, rising and waiting. He needed to +say no more.</p> + +<p>"Lead me to my father, then," replied the girl, and stepped after the +giant with sure step and resolute face, giving no heed to the renewed +shuffling and congregating of her people, nor to Rufe, who again stood +out before the rest and addressed them in fierce tones.</p> + +<p>Dolores entered the great hewn-rock doorway and in spite of her stout +heart and steel will she thrilled in every fiber. At the end of the +frowning passage, whose ruby lamps but accentuated the gloom and +imparted to it an infernal glow, lay the great chamber that only the +chief might enter. What would she find there? Her father, yes, and +dying! Otherwise this summons had never come. The death must be upon him +now; the fierce old sea-king had held his throne-room inviolate through +many bouts with the grim Reaper, knowing his own strength to conquer. +But now he had called, and Dolores sought the unknown with a curiosity +that beat down fear.</p> + +<p>Behind her a heavy thud echoed along the rocky walls, and the outer +light was cut off by the falling of the great stone. In a moment Milo +stood beside her and, taking her hand in his, led her along the utterly +invisible floor until she stood before a massive door.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> Her feet sank +into the pile of heavy carpets; her nostrils quivered to the delicate +odors of burning spices; at the top of the door a great jeweled lantern +cast a rich, yellow light down the panels, and the girl gasped +involuntarily at the sight revealed to her. Each panel was formed of +scales that overlapped like a serpent's; the scales were roughly +hammered gold and silver, richly chased, and studded thickly with +gems—without any conjecture she knew them to be precious vessels that +should have graced an altar, split, perhaps with a bloody cutlass, and +beaten out into irregular plates to gratify some grim humor of the +terrible old corsair in the long ago. Neither hinges, handle, lock, nor +latch appeared on the surface; apparently the door was solidly embedded +in the mighty rock itself. The giant laid a hand on the side of the +door-frame, and Dolores waited with impatience for admission. For all +her schooled self-control her eyes glinted with astonishment when Milo +stood aside and bowed low, saying:</p> + +<p>"Enter, my princess!"</p> + +<p>Without a sound the massive door had vanished, sliding up and out of +sight in the dark recess of the roof, leaving smooth, steel-lined slots +at sides and bottom that reflected the polish of scrupulous care. +Dolores stifled her surprise, and moved toward the heavy velvet hangings +which still barred her way. These, too, were swept aside with no visible +effort, and the girl stood on the threshold of the chamber of mystery.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">DOLORES RECEIVES HER DIADEM.</h3> + + +<p>In a great canopied bed, taken from some rich looted Indiaman, Red Jabez +lay motionless as an effigy in stone. His tall, powerful body was +sharply outlined in coverings of silk and rare lace; the arms and crest +of a ducal house were worked into the pillows that supported his massive +head. His drawn, haggard face was surrounded and all but covered with a +great mane of vivid red hair; his silken shirt, wide open at the neck, +revealed a massive chest, whose tide of respiration had all but ceased +to run. Only his eyes, fierce yet, held token of lingering life; it was +as if the vital spark was concentrated into one final blaze of +tremendous brilliancy.</p> + +<p>The fierce eyes moved swiftly at Dolores's entrance, and one might have +said a film of tenderness swept for an instant over the hard glint in +them. It was gone as swiftly as it came, and the stare settled +unwaveringly upon the stupefied girl. For stupefaction had gripped +Dolores in that first entry into the great chamber. Her wildest dreams, +and they had been at times fantastic, had never showed her anything +measurably approaching the scene that smote her eyes now. For the moment +death, Red Jabez, her destiny, everything melted into the visionary +beyond and left her capable of no volition.</p> + +<p>The great bed stood in the center of a vast cavern; sides, roof, floor, +every inch of the rock itself bore proof of the handiwork of hundreds of +cunning craftsmen; but the furnishings filled Dolores's eyes to the +exclusion of all else. Divans and chairs, cabinets and tables carried +the mind far away to the realm of emperors and kings; vases from China +and Greece stood on stands of boule-work; a tall ebony-and-ivory +clock-case, in which ticked sonorously a masterpiece of Peter Hele, +stood between two gorgeous pieces of Gobelin tapestry. And around her +and above, Dolores's amazed eyes lighted upon gems of the painter's art +such as few collections might boast. The entire ceiling was covered with +a colossal "Battle of the Amazons," by Rubens, each figure thrown out in +startling distinctness, full of voluptuous life and action; the walls +were mantled by vast golden frames holding the best of Titian, Correggio +and Giorgione, Raphael and Ribera. And jewels flashed everywhere; +cunningly placed lamps, themselves encrusted with the reddest of rubies, +the subtlest of green emeralds, flooded walls and furnishings with a +soft yet searching light which seemed to be carefully calculated to +accentuate those things whose beauty demanded light, yet to leave the +eye unwearied.</p> + +<p>"The hour has struck, my Sultana," said Milo anxiously, and Dolores +shook off the spell and approached the great bed. Red<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> Jabez closed his +eyes as she leaned over him, and his lips now alone gave evidence of +life. The girl, reared among the wildest of desolate isolation, knowing +no softening ties of family, her impulses and emotions those of a +beautiful animal, and increasingly so because of her station among the +rabble that called the dying man chief, stared down at her terrible +parent without a trace of visible regret: rather in her eyes shone the +triumph of a victor about to enter upon a conquered kingdom. But the red +pirate was speaking, and she bent her ear to catch his words. It +required no physician's knowledge to perceive in his damp face all the +signs of imminent dissolution.</p> + +<p>"Dolores, my traverse is run," whispered Jabez. The effort all but stole +his breath. He paused; then summoning all the tremendous will that had +dominated his frame when surging with strength, he told what he had to +say in short sentences, nursing the flickering spark to force his +speech. "Never leave here, girl. Let no man go, either. The world has +forgotten me and all of us; but memory is tenacious—it will revive at a +hint; every throat that pulses with hot life here—yes, my daughter, +even your fair throat—was measured years ago—a rope awaits every one. +But here—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, father?" Dolores shivered in the pause; the silence chilled her. +The giant Abyssinian stood at the head of the bed, and now moistened the +dying lips with wine. Red Jabez strained convulsively, snatching at his +throat, and resumed with weaker voice.</p> + +<p>"Here I have been king; here you are queen; all these things you see, +and many more, are yours; life and death are in your hands to give or +withhold. Keep the steel hand, though you wear the glove, Dolores. You +have learned power; with the greater power you take from this chamber, +and with Milo, let nothing, no man, stir your fears. Keep this chamber +as I have kept it; it is your strength; when danger threatens to beat +you down, here you will find—"</p> + +<p>The fluttering whisper ceased. The old pirate lay rigid. Dolores, having +heard so much, yet so little, hovered over the bed in an ecstasy of +unsatisfied hunger for more; Milo stood by, a magnificent statue in +living bronze, his eyes set in a steady blaze on the face of his master. +Once more the blue lips moved. Dolores darted down with eager ear, her +hands clasped as if in supplication.</p> + +<p>"Milo—tell," came the whisper, and with it went up the soul of Red +Jabez to face a tribunal more dread than any earthly judge his body had +eluded. And the tall clock ticked his knell.</p> + +<p>Dolores flung herself down on the bed, patting the dead face with +nervous fingers; but she was dry-eyed, no filial despair raised tumult +in her breast, her pleading was for the impossible—for the dead lips to +speak—and when she was refused her plea, she sprang from the couch in a +paroxysm of royal fury:</p> + +<p>"Now, by the powers of evil, he shall lie uncoffined until those +secretive lips read me the riddle they have half told!" she cried, +pacing between bed and wall with uplifted arms and hard, glittering +eyes. She suddenly paused in her wild walk, turned swiftly, and reached +the bedside with the same subtle, gliding sweep that had carried her +before Yellow Rufe; it was a characteristic movement with her—a +compound of the gliding dart of the tiger-shark and the silent-footed +pounce of its jungle brother. Milo roused from his dejection and sprang +from his knees with amazing promptitude, but he had yet to round the +bed-foot when the splendid fury stood panting over the corpse.</p> + +<p>"Speak!" she cried, shaking the coverlet savagely. Milo, with horror in +his shining face, gently removed her hand, then stood before her with +bowed head, his cavernous chest heaving wildly.</p> + +<p>"Fool! Leave me!" she snapped, and struck the slave with all her savage +force on the cheek. Milo's face turned gray for a flashing instant, then +the doglike devotion that filled his heart shone through his eyes, and +he knelt at the furious girl's feet, his head to the ground. In a moment +he stood up and, laying a hand reverently upon Dolores's shaking +shoulders, he gazed deep into her eyes. She shivered again at the +uncanny hint of volcanic might effused by the giant—volcanic, yet +quiescent for the moment. His lips opened to speak; and she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> sprang to +the reaction. Now a fresh fury seized her at the slave's temerity; she +flung off his hand, and snatched forth her dagger.</p> + +<p>"Strike, Sultana," said Milo simply. He drew aside the strap of his +leathern tunic, baring his heart. "Strike, but first suffer thy slave to +release thee from this tomb."</p> + +<p>"Release? Tomb? What talk is this?" gasped Dolores, her dagger held +poised aloft, her lips quivering.</p> + +<p>"A tomb it is if thy servant falls, Sultana. None save I can open the +great door. Close it? Yes, any might close it. Come, I will lead thee +out of this awful presence; then at the gate thou shalt send Milo to his +master who loved him."</p> + +<p>Slowly Dolores slipped her dagger into the sheath, and her face was +bowed in confusion. All her life, the giant slave had tended her, +guarded her steps and her sleep, taught her the exercises that had made +her feared by all the turbulent crew outside; and she was now permitted +the saving grace of remembrance. She gave him her hand, and allowed him +to place it upon his head, always his favorite means of expression when +she followed an outburst of rage with contrition; and in softer tone she +begged for an answer to the riddle that had been left with her.</p> + +<p>"Come, Sultana," Milo said, once more laying a hand on her shoulder, +this time without resentment from her. "Thy father, the Red Chief, left +much to be told; I will tell thee all, but not now. Patience, princess," +he pleaded, catching the warning glint in her eyes, "dost thou hear +nothing? Listen attentively—no, not in here, outside—bend thy ear to +this tapestry; 'tis before a cunning sounding stone through which voices +may well be heard on the cliffside. Listen."</p> + +<p>Dolores listened with bad grace, for she regarded this as a subterfuge +of the giant's, and resentment was very ready to rise in her again. But +in a moment her indifference vanished; she grew alert; her body tensed, +and her limbs quivered; the glitter of a queen in righteous anger +lighted her eyes, and she raised an unnecessary hand to impress silence +upon the slave.</p> + +<p>"Hast hear this before now?" she demanded in a vibrant whisper.</p> + +<p>"Since thou entered, Sultana. It could be nothing but rebellion; yet was +I loath to burden my chief with this trouble in his hour of passage. But +I know now that it has risen to heights which demand swift action; +therefore I have made thee aware of it."</p> + +<p>"'Tis that villain Rufe again!" muttered Dolores, still pressing her ear +against the tapestry. The murmur of a hundred voices came clearly to +her, and above all sounded the high-raised shout of one who harangued +the rest. At periods the murmuring became a howl, and the triumphant +note in it left scant room for doubt as to the nature of the address. +The girl, faced with the responsibility of decided action, no longer +able to depend on the wisdom and terrible power of Red Jabez, stepped +from the wall with panting heart and parted lips, but with no trace of +fear. Uncertainty moved her; uncertainty as to the resources of the +great chamber, whose mysteries had scarcely begun to unfold for her ere +the curtain was dropped again. Her stout spirit decided for her.</p> + +<p>"Come, lead me out, Milo," she ordered, drawing herself royally erect +and slipping her dagger around nearer her hand. "We must cool that +rabble before the fire spreads further. Take a weapon, open the door, +and follow me."</p> + +<p>"It is the decision of a fit daughter of my chief," replied Milo, his +great frame expanding to the bounding energy that surged through him. +Unknown to her, his eyes had never left Dolores while she was making her +decision; now joy and ardor suffused and transfigured him. Slave he was, +yet it was he who looked the royal part in that instant.</p> + +<p>"Wait but a breath," he said, and reached in two gigantic strides a +massive oaken chest heavily fastened with wrought iron. Lifting the lid +with reverence, he took out a plain gold circlet and returned to +Dolores.</p> + +<p>"Thy father bade me make this and keep it until thou wast my Sultana, +indeed," he said. He raised the heavy, dull-gold band, and placed it +upon Dolores's brow with the courtly homage of a born noble. It fitted +to perfection—as indeed it should, since the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> loving fingers that had +fashioned it had crept around the girl's sleeping head many times to +that end—and feminine vanity would not permit Dolores to ignore the +fit. She stepped over to a long gilt-framed mirror, and her beautiful +face grew dark and her violet eyes dusky at the glorious reflection that +gazed out at her.</p> + +<p>"It is well, Milo; I thank thee," she smiled. "Now to scatter the rats +that gnaw at my walls. Lead out quickly."</p> + +<p>Milo entered the passage, raising the plated door and letting it fall +after them. He disdained to carry a weapon; but Dolores was content, for +she had witnessed what those huge hands could do. As they approached the +great stone at the entrance, the sounds outside rang through the +corridor, and the sharp reverberations that accompanied them at +intervals told of an assault on the rock itself with pikes, crowbars, or +other smaller rocks. Milo stooped to the sill of the rock, and placed +his hands beneath it.</p> + +<p>"Stand away," he whispered, and strained his arms. "Let thy servant go +out and silence this clamor—"</p> + +<p>"Open quickly!" she interrupted him, imperiously. "It is not for the +slave to precede the sovereign. Peace, and open."</p> + +<p>Her hand was on her dagger, her head was raised proudly; every inch and +line of her figure irradiated splendid strength and surety; Milo heaved +at the rock, and smiled blissfully. This was indeed how he had dreamed +of his Sultana when she should come into her own.</p> + +<p>He heaved steadily, and the great rock rose from one side, rolling up +and up until it balanced on the ledge; but Milo knew there was some +agency at work that hindered the raising of it; never before had it been +a task to bring sweat to his brow, and now he dripped from every pore. +The rock refused to balance without his hand upon it, and he dared not +take his shoulder away to look over the top lest it fall and crush him. +He cast an appealing look toward Dolores, who was impatiently waiting +for him to stand clear, and she stepped past him to the outside. She was +greeted with a roar of derision that echoed far down to the sea.</p> + +<p>"Peace, dogs of the devil!" she cried with one hand upraised. A roaring +guffaw answered her. Then a burly ruffian, one-eyed and marked by a +great cutlas-scar that ran from his chin across his broken nose and +ended somewhere among the roots of his hair, stepped forward with a +smirk of confidence, and made a mock curtsy.</p> + +<p>"Queen o' the pirates, we salute ye!" he said. Then threw away all +pretense, and swore a ripping curse to the destination of his soul. +"Come, my girl," he shouted, "the game's played to a finish. Th' old +buck is dead, an' we want some o' them pretties he hid away inside. +You're a nice gal, I don't deny, and we ain't going to harm ye if ye +don't hinder us; but we ain't playin' kings an' queens no more. Come +now, let the big feller take us in, and say no more about it, for have +our fling, we will."</p> + +<p>The mob had edged nearer, until now they surged around the entrance so +close to Dolores that she felt the breath of the leaders. She noticed +with sharp wonderment that Yellow Rufe was not among the foremost; but +she was given no time to surmise, for the mob pressed on until she was +forced either to risk an advance or give ground. A little shock rippled +through her when she turned swiftly to see how Milo fared, and found him +gone. The mob saw it, too, and seethed about her with hungry faces.</p> + +<p>"Come on, lads!" they howled. "Milo's gone inside to open up the loot +for us." A grimy hand snatched at the girl's tunic, and in a flash the +entrance was choked with fiercely striving shapes.</p> + +<p>With a gasping cry of fury Dolores struck aside the bold hand, and with +a panther-spring she was upon him. One slender, brown hand, strong as a +steel claw, gripped his throat; the other hand gripped a glittering +dagger that swept like the arrow of fate to his heart and dropped him a +log at her feet. Just for a breath the crowd paused in awe; then +hoarsely growling they packed forward again, and Dolores found herself +fighting desperately against men maddened into steel-armed wolves, +thirsty for her blood in payment for that split. She more than held her +own by sheer skill and sup<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>pleness for a space; but assailed from all +sides save the back she speedily felt her limbs growing heavy and +awkward, and a cutlas sang above her bent head when her foot had failed, +leaving her without guard or avoidance.</p> + +<p>Then she knew that she had been permitted to win her spurs. For the +threatening cutlas was caught in mid air by a huge bare hand, wrenched +from its owner's grasp, and returned point first into the assailant's +breast. And Milo's deep voice rang in her ear:</p> + +<p>"Step into the passage, Sultana, and swiftly. Have a care for the body +on the floor, but tarry not. To pause is to die!"</p> + +<p>She felt herself drawn inside, the battle seemed to leave her isolated, +the passage was as still as a cloister after the turmoil outside, and +she stumbled along in the dim red glow, barely avoiding tripping over a +body on the floor which a glance showed her to be a corpse. This was the +man who had tried to crush back the rock door on Milo.</p> + +<p>Dolores spurned the body with her foot, and abruptly turned back, in a +rage to think that she had permitted the giant slave to order her into +skulking security. She halted as swiftly as she had turned; for in the +aperture at the end of the passage the huge form of Milo stood, both +hands raised, and in them a cask was poised. A queer, spluttering sound +at first puzzled Dolores; then she made out a short, hanging fuse +depending from the cask, and it spluttered as it dwindled, flinging +sparks around the giant's bowed head until the point of fire seemed +ready to disappear in the bung-hole.</p> + +<p>"Treasure for dogs!" roared Milo. "Divide it among thee!" The great rock +thudded down as the cask hurtled out into the mob; the next instant the +cavern shook and quivered to a terrific explosion; a moment after the +earth might have been dead for all sound in the passage; yet another +moment and the outer world rang with cries and shrieks, curses and +entreaties, and Milo bowed low to his mistress and said:</p> + +<p>"Now if my Sultana deems fit, it is time to show this scum of the earth +their sovereign."</p> + +<p>"Wait, Milo," replied Dolores, shuddering slightly at sight of him. The +giant was streaked and splashed with blood; for in those moments when he +stood defenseless before casting his infernal machine, a dozen cutlases +and knives had sought his life.</p> + +<p>"Pardon thy slave," he returned, sensing her meaning. "I will go thus. +'Twere not good that these dogs should know their wounds can hurt. Such +scratches are nothing. They are paid for in full."</p> + +<p>"It is well. Lead out again, good Milo, and fear not for me. With thou +beside me I am armed in proof."</p> + +<p>Again they emerged into the air, but now a deathly silence received +them. Silence broken only by the rustling of garments, as a withered old +crone shambled forward and cast herself at Dolores's feet.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE GROVE OF MYSTERY.</h3> + + +<p>Dolores stood still, sweeping the scene of destruction with a gaze of +flinty penetration. The groveling crone at her feet affected her like +something unclean, and she spurned the old woman with her foot, stepping +aside with a gesture of disgust. Then she raised her right hand, and +cried with bitter scorn:</p> + +<p>"Come, my brave jackals! Come to the feast prepared for thee." She +lowered her hand and with a contemptuous smile indicated the gruesome +results of the explosion of Milo's awful bomb.</p> + +<p>On the edge of the forest the hardier rascals had halted; at her word +they glared loweringly at her and the impassive giant at her back; from +the shadow of the trees yellow and brown and black faces peered in +quivering terror; but none responded to her command to approach her. The +old woman on the ground alone made audible reply, and her slavish +whining enraged Dolores. With a stamp of her sandaled foot she tore from +her waist the gold cord, slipped off the dagger sheath, and fell upon +the wretched old servitor with a shower of blows.</p> + +<p>"Silence, old cat!" she cried, and the blows fell heavily. "Up with +thee, and away. Go quickly, and make ready the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> altar in the Grove of +Mystery. Cease thy bleating, old witch, and summon thy shaky wits +against the ordeal I shall put thee to. Some one among ye stirred up the +rising which resulted as ye now see. That one I shall know before +sundown, and he shall bitterly repent him. Away!"</p> + +<p>Dolores was astonished at seeing no sign of Rufe, but outwardly she +showed none of her astonishment. A more vital consideration was present +in the disobedience of the motley crew who as yet made no effort to come +to her call. Drawing herself fully erect when the old woman departed, +she again stretched out her hand and cried:</p> + +<p>"Dogs of Satan! I await your homage. Red Jabez lies dead: yet his spirit +lives in me, your queen. By so many breaths that ye flout me, by just so +many torments shall I have ye torn. Come, dogs. Kneel!"</p> + +<p>A hoarse murmur went up from the forest edge, and first one by one, then +in knots of half a score each, the negroes and half-breeds slunk into +the open and approached her with eyes full of panic. The whites, not so +susceptible to abstract influence, still hesitated, drawing near to each +other in growling consultation. Dolores gave them no sign, though she +watched them keenly from under her lowered lashes. She gave her +attention to the line of abject creatures who filed slowly past her, +each one stopping to grovel in the dust at her feet and passing on. +These Milo halted near by and herded into a shivering, frightened mob. +And Dolores's cool disregard of the whites had its calculated effect. +One by one they stepped out into the open as had the colored men; the +more timorous, or superstitious, came first, some wearing shamed grins, +others palpably impressed by the example of the others and shuffling on +their way uncomfortably. Last of all came the bolder spirits, and these +wore faces intended to express contempt, or at least sarcastic +indifference; but the faces changed invariably on closer approach to the +queen. Memory proved a stubborn master; in every man's breast +remembrance clamored to them to have a care how they bore themselves +before this beautiful fury they called queen.</p> + +<p>Still Yellow Rufe came not.</p> + +<p>When all had knelt, and all had been herded by the giant Milo in two +separate parties, the number was tallied, and of the whites, besides +Rufe, seven were missing. One lay inside the passage; of the rest there +were remains lying about the rocky wall to the cavern that might be +three men or six—human discernment could never decide which.</p> + +<p>Dolores faced her mongrel subjects again and her dark eyes blazed with +fire, her beautiful face was dark with surging blood, every line of her +lithe figure quivered as she spoke:</p> + +<p>"I seek the dog who stirred ye up to mutiny!" she cried. "Yellow Rufe, +if it be he, is not among ye, nor is he one of these carrion scattered +on the ground. If it be some other villain, him I will know before the +sun has stretched my shadow to the cliff. Deliver him up to me, and he +alone shall repay. Disobey, and every biting dog among ye shall swiftly +learn the price of disobedience. I wait."</p> + +<p>The sun was fast setting, and already the shadows had grown long. Five +minutes at most would see the shadow of Dolores's head at the base of +the great rock, and the blacks started whimpering with apprehension. +Among the whites a tremendous quiet reigned; but sullen brows here, +snarling teeth there, gave hint of their interest in the sun's progress. +Still no man spoke. Rather they looked at each other questioningly as +the minutes flew, as if the culprit were indeed not among them.</p> + +<p>But Dolores was wise beyond her years, wise with a wisdom bred of her +volcanic existence in such a station, and she refused to be hoodwinked +by the apparent absence of the man she sought. Her shadow touched the +rock, and without another second of hesitation she turned toward the +forest fringe, walking with majestic carriage and looking neither to +right nor left. She simply uttered one short sentence: "To the Grove!"</p> + +<p>Every man with dark blood in his veins followed her like a sheep, for +terrible things had been witnessed in the Grove of Mysteries: things far +beyond the understanding of such men. The sullen whites hung back<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +again, for their colder blood was not impregnated with the fears and +superstitions that exerted such tremendous sway over their colored +fellows. Still Dolores gave them never a look; she walked on, and the +forest closed behind her, as if she believed her footsteps followed by +every foot in the unruly crew.</p> + +<p>It was Milo who constituted her dependable rearguard. Milo was there, +and Milo would see to it that no skulker declined his queen's command. +There lay the reason why Dolores so placidly turned her back to men +whose dearest ambition would have been realized by the plunge of steel +between her shoulders at that moment. Milo walked around to the rear of +the hesitant mob, and without a word gripped the hindmost in his two +great hands and hurled him bodily over the heads of his mates in the +desired direction.</p> + +<p>"Swine!" swore a harelipped Mexican, whipping out his cutlas. "I'll see +your black heart for that!" and furiously made play to avenge insult to +his sorely handled fellow.</p> + +<p>The black giant turned as calmly as if his mistress had called him, and +seized the fellow's cutlas hand in one huge fist, crushing bone and +steel into gory pulp without visible effort. His lips never opened, his +tremendous chest was ruffled not one whit; Milo's eyes alone gave +warning of what he might do if occasion arose; and fooled by his obvious +carelessness, the white men closed around him, knives and cutlases +drawn, frantic for his life.</p> + +<p>They should have known better. Their lessons had been many and vivid; +but not a man of them all was of the caliber to learn from a slave. Milo +kept hold of his man's hand, and at the scrape of steel leaving +scabbard, he brought up his free hand and grasped the fellow's left +wrist. Then, springing aside with the resistless impulse of a charging +buffalo, he gained a clear space, and began to swing his victim by the +wrists.</p> + +<p>One complete circle was made with the human club, then a catlike ruffian +watched his chance and darted in with murderous knife at Milo's breast +while the dreadful club was at his back. Cool as a mountain spring, the +giant immediately let go his man, letting him fly far behind him like a +stone from a catapult. In a twinkling of an eye, the great hands that +released the one captive closed afresh on the new assailant in front, +and now the giant gave no further grace. His fingers tightened on the +man's throat and the desperate face went black. Then, keeping the fellow +ever before him, he suddenly flung him into the air by the waist, +shifting holds with tigerish swiftness, and caught him by the ankles as +he came down. He whirled the unfortunate wretch once, and three men went +down under the terrible blow; the rest scattered with furious howls, +bespattered with the blood of their comrade; but one more sight of the +unruffled giant cowed them; none attempted further knife or sword-play. +Then Milo smiled scornfully, and uttered: "Go!" and they went to the +forest like jackals before the lion. The giant saw them on their way, +and tossing his fearful weapon over the cliff, strode after them, an +awful embodiment of relentless, all but limitless strength.</p> + +<p>The forest lay hushed and dim beyond the fringe; whispering leaves and +crackling twigs sounded sharp as a shower of stones in the stillness. +Great trees reared their majestic heads to mingle their foliage and shut +out the light; every creeping, flying, walking creature seemed awed into +a vague murmuring that was deeper than silence. The Grove of Mysteries +was a semicircular space of cool, mossy sward, bowered in great trees +and tangled vine screens; its background was the bare rock of the +cliffside itself—actually, though unknown to the rabble, the outer +rocky wall of the great chamber—and against this stood the altar.</p> + +<p>The old woman had made use of her skinny limbs to good effect, impelled +by a fear that had become terror. The altar was resplendent in silk and +velvet, fashioned for an altar very different from this; but in place of +the vessels usually associated with so sacred a piece of furniture, the +Altar of the Grove was embellished with a mosaic of skulls and bones +surrounding a complete skeleton which held its head in one grisly hand.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>In the hollow eye-sockets glowed a weird fire that darted forth at +irregular intervals like glances of demoniacal hate; at the altar foot a +great censer erupted a dense cloud of pungent smoke that rendered the +altar and those about it still more vague and ghostly. And the glade was +full of cowering, slavering blacks and half-breeds, whose superstitious +terrors reached high tide with each succeeding swirl of smoke or +outflash of eye-socket fires.</p> + +<p>Dolores went directly to the old woman, who stood in cringing +subservience with a plain white garment in her hands. This she placed on +the girl's shoulders, fastening it at the bosom with a small skull of +jade stone whose grinning teeth were pearls, and whose eye-sockets were +empty with an awful blackness. The gold circlet was discarded, and in +its place Dolores placed on her head a turban formed from a stuffed +coiled snake, whose neck and head darted hither and thither on cunning +springs with her every motion and gesture.</p> + +<p>To this awesome place came the herd that Milo drove before him; and not +a man among the hardened crew was hardy enough to carry his bravado into +the Grove. Blacks and whites alike, no matter what their inmost thoughts +might be, yielded to the spell of the place the moment their feet trod +the sward and the congregation settled into the places allotted to them.</p> + +<p>Dolores glided out in front of the altar, and eyes glittered, dusky +throats went constricted and dry with terror when she stirred up the +brazier and was hidden for a moment in the rising volume of blue smoke +in which flashes of devilish light played incessantly. Milo stepped up +behind and above the altar, and as the smoke reeked about him vanished +seemingly into the face of the cliff. There, in an unsuspected outlet to +the great chamber, was the key to much of the magic with which Dolores +kept her turbulent crew on the borderline of fear. She flashed a glance +holding much of anxiety after her giant servitor, and busied herself +about the altar to gain time.</p> + +<p>She had received from his hands as he stepped up the effigy of a man in +black wax, and now she advanced with hand upraised for silence. It was +unnecessary: the silence of the dead prevailed in the Grove. With the +image held aloft Dolores was a magnet that drew all eyes inevitably. Six +inches tall, the image was a cleverly modeled composite of every type in +the motley band; and every man realized this. Placing the effigy on the +altar, Dolores seized from the brazier a glowing coal with her bare +hands and placed it behind the figure. Then she flung both hands high +and her vibrant voice pealed through the Grove.</p> + +<p>"Regard all men the voice of the gods! By this sacred fire shall this +image be melted; and when it is gone, out of its many likenesses shall +remain the shape of him who stirred ye to mutiny against me. That shape +I shall show ye by the power of my will. Lest ye disbelieve that I have +this power, behold! Look for proof in the smoke behind me!"</p> + +<p>As she spoke she stirred the incense to a dense cloud of smoke, and her +blazing eyes, turned from her people, peered through the reek for a +reassuring sign from the rock, for what she now demanded of Milo called +for superhuman swiftness and surety. As the seconds sped, she kept the +smoke swirling thickly, and her voice rang out in a weird incantation +that kept the spectators trembling with the growing suspense.</p> + +<p>Then a triumphant note entered her speech; the smoke rose thicker for an +instant, then dissolved; and as it vanished, high on the rocky cliff, +framed, as it seemed, in the solid rock itself, stood the grim, cold +figure of the dead Red Jabez.</p> + +<p>In this, her grave extremity, Milo the strong, Milo the slave, more than +all, Milo the faithful, had not failed her.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE PIRATES' BARBECUE.</h3> + + +<p>A moment of ghastly hush prevailed, then the Grove shook from sward to +tree-tops—pandemonium broke loose and all were in turmoil.</p> + +<p>No need now to wait for the verdict of the wax image; no further +shifting of brazen glances, or winking of knowing eyes. Shrill voices of +terrified blacks, hoarse bel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>lowings of the hardiest rascals who had +ever kissed a dripping cutlas, the throaty roar of men who had played +willing lieutenants to the ringleader: all pealed up to high heaven for +the culprit to come forth and taste of the queen's justice rather than +wait for her vengeance.</p> + +<p>"Rufe! Yellow Rufe!" they howled. They howled it until the forest echoed +with the word.</p> + +<p>"Peace, Devilspawn!" cried Dolores, covering the crowd with an +all-embracing smile of utter scorn. "Think ye I need to hear the name? +Go, all of ye! Fill your swinish skins with liquor, and trouble me no +more this day. When I will that Yellow Rufe appear, here he shall be +drawn, whether he will or not. And in your carousal let this thought be +with ye: Ye are dogs and slaves of dogs; by my will ye live, at my word +ye die. The Red Chief is dead; I am your law, your queen, owner of your +bodies and souls! Let any of ye seek to imitate Yellow Rufe, and Milo +shall pick your limbs apart as if ye were flies. Go now; there is rum +broached, and wine; make a barbecue, and fill yourselves to bursting +like the vultures ye are!"</p> + +<p>"Hello, lads, that's your sort!" roared a purple-faced ruffian with a +hang-lip. "A right proper gal is that. Give her a huzza and crack yer +pipes, lads!"</p> + +<p>"Bravo, Hanglip!" bellowed another of the same kidney. Spotted Dog had +lost part of an ear, and the same knife had seamed his flabby jowl into +the likeness of a bloodhound's cheek; his deeply-pitted visage completed +the ensemble, and no other name would have fitted him as well. "Bravo, +old cutthroat! Let her play queens an' fairies, if she wants to. Here's +for th' jolly grog, lads. Hey, Stumpy, start a cheer for th' pretty +wench!"</p> + +<p>So had the spell of the Grove left them immediately they smelled the +fleshpots. But Dolores still held the altar; and Stumpy, having a keener +memory perhaps than most of his fellows, took the warning that flashed +from her angry eyes. He shivered slightly as his gaze met hers, then, +hopping forward on his one good leg and club-foot, he swung a knotty +fist against Spotted Dog's creased jowl and growled:</p> + +<p>"A turn wi' that poison tongue, Spotted Dog. All hands, too, hear me +talkin'. Here's a royal feast spread for us, an' th' spreader's queen o' +th' pirates! Don't ever ferget that, lads. I ain't hankerin' fer what +Rufe'll get. Away wi' you, now, an' I'll slit th' winepipe o' th' dog as +says disrespect to th' queen."</p> + +<p>And so the rascals trooped down to their hut-village. Noisily, +profanely, full of horseplay and ear-burning jests; but never a voice +spoke any word that failed in its homage when Dolores was the theme.</p> + +<p>Snugly settled around the great rock door, the pirates' village looked +out from a broad level platform over the darkening evening sea. In the +center, its rear abutting on the rock itself, stood the great council +hall and the dwelling of Dolores. In front of this black slaves busily +heaped a great bonfire; torches were thrust into iron rings on doorpost +and tree-trunk; noisy ruffians tramped into a cool cave in the rock and +trundled forth casks and horn cups; while Sancho, the Spaniard, bent +over a whetstone, giving his knife a final edge against the arrival of +the meat.</p> + +<p>A venomous devil was this Sancho, and his contorted face, with the +missing eye covered by a black patch, worked demoniacally in the +gathering darkness with each leaping flame of the ignited torches. The +hand that clutched the knife was a thing of horror; two fingers and half +the thumb remained from some drunken brawl to serve the Spaniard in +future play for work or debauch; and the man, crouching low over his +stone, made a picture of incarnate hate that had no humor in it.</p> + +<p>"Where's th' flesh?" screamed Sancho, looking up, his mutilated thumb +running creepily along the knife-edge.</p> + +<p>"Whet your tusks, lads, here's the blessed manna!" squealed Caliban, a +hunchbacked terror, who kept his maimed carcass secure by virtue of his +viperish temper, coupled with an uncanny skill of the cutlas. "Milo's +our man! Huzza for Milo!"</p> + +<p>Out from the trees stalked the giant Abyssinian, and the shadows and +torchlight distorted him to grotesque proportions. He walked as if his +weight was nothing; yet on his great shoulders he bore a half-grown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> ox, +its feet hobbled, its tongue hanging from its panting mouth. Straight to +the fire he stepped and cast his burden down, turning again without a +word and going back to the rock portals.</p> + +<p>"Meat for men!" screamed Sancho, crouching again, knife in hand.</p> + +<p>"For men!" echoed Caliban ferociously, and whipped his cutlas out. +"Stand clear!" he howled, and Sancho dodged aside. The little terror's +blade sang through the air with a wicked whistle; it curved high over +Sancho, then flashed down and plunged through the throat of the ox, +pinning the beast to the earth. And when he recovered his breath the +Spaniard swooped upon the prize, and his knife completed what the dwarf +had well begun.</p> + +<p>Then began an orgy that must render description bald and colorless. +Casks were broached by knocking out the heads; long horns of cattle were +filled to slopping over with rare wine or powerful rum; and then up +leaped Hanglip on to an unbroached cask, cup in hand, and bellowed a +toast that set the trees, the sea, the skies clamoring with rasping +applause.</p> + +<p>"The next vessel as heaves in sight, lads! May her sails be silk, her +masts be gold, and her great cabin full o' rum, with a pretty wench +sittin' atop o' every keg!"</p> + +<p>From the fire came the odor of roasting meat, and the black night came +down outside, making of the small circle where the pirates sprawled a +blotch of infernal light, peopled with infernal shapes. But a sprinkling +of faces a shade less evil leavened the mass; for to the feast came +trooping the women of the camp: of a kidney with the men—yet women, +with women's beguilements and softnesses.</p> + +<p>Dolores sat alone in the great chamber, careless of the noise outside, +her beautiful face dark with somber passion. Beside her chair Milo had +placed her treasure chests; hers now, through the death of the terrible +old corsair who had amassed them. Idly she had heaped the table with a +glittering collection of gems that an empress might well have found +interest in; but Dolores frowned as at so much dross, for her thoughts +were far away. The filmiest of lace and silken shawls, jeweled +slippers, gossamer-gold head dresses, pearls and rubies from India and +Persia—all lay in confusion at her hand, and aroused no spark of joy in +her breast. From time to time her brooding eyes flashed and fastened +upon a priceless Rembrandt "Laughing Cavalier" on the wall opposite; +they flashed again when her gaze shifted to a colossal Rubens "Rape of +the Sabines"; her face lighted for an instant when her fingers in +groping closed upon a cobwebby golden net, scintillating with cunningly +wrought jeweled insects caught in the meshes, which had once graced the +all-powerful head of Pompadour.</p> + +<p>"Where such things are, are better!" she whispered vehemently, clenching +her strong, slender hands fiercely. "Where such are fashioned and worn +there are people worthy my power. My people! Pah!" she burst out +passionately. "My people? Dogs! Cattle! Brutes without souls! There—" +she flung a hand impetuously toward the "Laughing Cavalier"—"there is +the pirate who should call me queen! There"—with a gesture toward +Rubens's great canvas—"are men that I would command. Here, I must stay, +why? Because a dead man willed it so. May I wither eternally if I make +not my own laws. Milo!"</p> + +<p>She clapped her hands, and in a moment the giant was before her, +reverent awe in every line of his huge body.</p> + +<p>"Sultana?"</p> + +<p>"Are my beasts well fed?"</p> + +<p>"They eat like crocodiles, guzzle like swine, Sultana."</p> + +<p>"See that the liquor flows freely, Milo. And a word in thy ear. We shall +go from here as quickly as the fates will send a ship. Let no sail pass +henceforth."</p> + +<p>"Lady, that may not be—"</p> + +<p>"Silence! Give me no may not! When I, Dolores, will to go, who shall +stay me?"</p> + +<p>"Death lies beyond the horizon for thee as for all of us, Sultana. +Pirate the Red Chief was last of the band; every man who calls thee +queen is under sentence of death; the pillage of a hundred ships lies +here. Here is safety. The Red Chief's law—"</p> + +<p>"Peace! I am the law! Seek me that ship—and quickly. Shall I live among +such carrion, when the world is peopled with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> such as those?" she cried +with a sweeping gesture toward a life-size "Three Graces," by Correggio, +epitomizing feminine grace indeed.</p> + +<p>"Thou art fairer, Sultana," replied the giant simply; and the girl +flushed warmly for all her moody dissatisfaction. She smiled kindly upon +the slave, and said more softly: "Thy devotion pleases me, Milo. Yet is +my will unchanged. Seek me that ship. I will go from here. Stay, if thou +wilt, or art afraid."</p> + +<p>"Lady," returned the giant, "when the Red Chief, thy father, took me +from the slave ship he gave me liberty—liberty to serve him. He has +gone; my care is now the queen, his daughter. Going or staying, Milo +remains thy bodyguard. Pardon if I offended thee; thy father desired +what I have told thee. But the ship. This evening, at sundown, a sail +leaped in sight beyond the Tongue."</p> + +<p>"This evening! And ye said no word of it?" cried Dolores, blazing with +fresh anger. She leaned forward in her chair as if crouching for a +spring.</p> + +<p>"It passed as swiftly as it appeared, Sultana. No other eye save mine +saw it; the men know nothing—"</p> + +<p>"It is well, Milo. I had forgotten thy eyes were twice as keen as any +other man's. Keep that condor's vision of thine bent to seaward, and +tell no man of what comes into view. Bring me the news; I shall know how +to keep my rascals in hand. Now go and send to me a woman to serve me: a +young woman, nimble and deft; give the old woman to the cooks for +scullery drudge."</p> + +<p>"A woman here, Sultana?"</p> + +<p>"Here! What bee buzzes in thy great head now?" The giant again looked +grave; the girl's impatience surged anew.</p> + +<p>"Sultana, don't forget that, save thee and me, servant of the great +chamber, none may enter here and go alive?"</p> + +<p>"Now by the fiend, enough!" blazed the girl. "Again, I am the law! Wilt +have it imprinted on thy great body with my whip?"</p> + +<p>Milo made a low obeisance, departed without further speech, and in a few +moments ushered in from the bacchanalian revels a maid for his +mistress.</p> + +<p>"Pascherette will serve thee well, Sultana," he said, leading the girl +forward. He saw approval in Dolores's face and departed, his luminous +black eyes unwontedly soft and limpid.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">MILO SIGHTS A SAIL.</h3> + + +<p>Day broke through a silver haze, and as the blue sea unrolled to view, +far down to the southeast, flashed a pearly sliver of sail lazily +drawing in to the coast. It was the merest streak of white against the +sky, and none but Milo's sharp eyes could have seen it. Even at that +distance, and indistinct though it was in the mist, the giant detected +the three masts crossed with yards that proclaimed the vessel a +full-rigged ship. He gazed long and earnestly, to assure himself of the +ship's progress, then hurried along the mountain toward the village.</p> + +<p>He strode with the free stride of a perfect creature, swinging from the +hip and covering the ground at a common man's running pace. His vast +chest heaved and fell easily and rhythmically, the golden-hued skin +rippling and flashing in the rising sunlight; every line of limbs and +torso was the outward and visible sign of abounding health; the straight +black hair falling to his shoulders framed a keen, powerful face of +Semitic mold, in which the high brow and calm, fearless eyes belonged +rather to one of the blood-royal than to a slave. And rightly, too, for +Milo, the giant, was of princely line in his own land, and his present +servitude was an accident that had yet failed to rob him of his +birthright of dignity.</p> + +<p>He came abreast of and above the haven where lay the stout sloop and +boats of the community, and the sounds of noisy industry about the craft +brought a frown and a sneer to his face. It reminded him too vividly of +his actual station, and violently dragged him back from the realm of +visions he had allowed himself to indulge in. The pirates were busily +overhauling their gear, filling water casks, calking dried-out seams, +and sluicing opening decks with copious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> streams of water, just as they +were used to do in the palmy days when Red Jabez kept them gorged with +pillage.</p> + +<p>Milo hurried faster, for he feared they too had sighted his ship, and +sprang down to the shore to accost surly Caliban.</p> + +<p>"Here, Milo old buck, stick yer beak into this, lad!" screamed Caliban, +thrusting forward a brimming horn of wine. The giant declined +impatiently, waving a hand toward the activity afoot.</p> + +<p>"What, won't drink luck, hey?" cried the dwarf, emptying the horn +himself. "Ain't got the news yet, hey?"</p> + +<p>"News? What news can such as thee have that I am not told?" demanded +Milo contemptuously. Caliban scowled viciously at his tone, but the +giant's hands were strong, and the little ruffian loved his warped life. +He flung down his horn and retorted: "We're to windward o' ye this time, +Milo me lad. Th' queen bade us be ready for a lamb headed this way, an', +sure enough, there comes a craft now, a'most in sight from here. Small +fish, true, but sweet after so long a spell o' famine."</p> + +<p>Milo knew that the ship he had seen could not possibly have been +detected from the village. It must be yet another craft, and, without a +word, he bounded back up the cliff and scanned the waters closer +inshore. There, sure enough, lay a beautiful white schooner, her paint +dazzling to the eye, her decks flashing with metal, her canvas faultless +in fit and set and whiteness. She was still five miles distant and +slowly edging along the coast, as if indifferent to her tardy progress. +The giant noted her exact position, then presented himself to Dolores.</p> + +<p>The girl was luxuriously submitting to the skilful attentions of +Pascherette; her wealth of lustrous hair enveloped her like a veil, +rendering almost superfluous the filmy silken robe she had donned. But +at sight of Milo all her feline contentment fled, and she thrust the +maid from her and stood up to receive his report.</p> + +<p>"A ship?" she flashed.</p> + +<p>"Two, Sultana. The men make ready now."</p> + +<p>"The men? Dolt! Did I not tell thee to keep such news for me?"</p> + +<p>"They saw the small vessel while I was beyond the Tongue. They have not +seen the ship I saw, nor have I told them. It is a great ship, lady; +theirs is but a small, poor thing."</p> + +<p>"I will see it." Dolores suddenly remembered the maid, whose presence +she had ignored. Pascherette stood apart, a small, fairylike French +octoroon, dainty as a golden thistledown; her full red lips were parted +in eager inquisitiveness, and her slim, small body leaned forward, as if +to catch every word; but at sight of her Dolores burst into knowing +merriment, for the girl's eyes told her story. They were fastened in +intense, burning adoration, not on the mistress but on Milo, the giant +slave.</p> + +<p>"La-la, chit!" Dolores cried; "keep thy black eyes from my property." +But more weighty matters than a maid's fluttering bosom demanded her +attention, and she commanded sharply: "Milo, summon the men to the +council hall at once. Let none be absent. Go swiftly!" Milo went, and +Dolores flashed around on Pascherette again: "And thou, hussy, take this +clinging frippery from me and give me my tunic. And, mark me, girl, thy +eyes and ears belong to me. Thy tongue, too. Let that tongue utter one +word of what those eyes see, those ears hear, and it shall be plucked +from thy pretty mouth with hot pincers. Remember!"</p> + +<p>Dolores put on her tunic and swept out to steal a long look at the white +schooner before entering the hall.</p> + +<p>Into the council hall the pirates came trooping, tarry, wet, soiled with +the estuary mud as they were, and stood in a milling mob awaiting speech +from Dolores, who entered from the rear and scanned their faces closely. +Shuffling feet and whistling breath would not be stilled, even in her +presence, for their appetites were already whetted for a victim, and the +fumes of the previous night's debauch lingered. They glared at the girl +and cursed impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Hear!" commanded Dolores with an imperious gesture, and every sound was +muffled, not stilled. "Hear, my brave jackals! For long ye have hungered +for employment fit for the royal corsairs ye are. Now the meal is to +hand." The hall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> reverberated with the clamor that went up. Cutlases +scraped from their scabbards and swished aloft; bold Spotted Dog +snatched out his great horse-pistol and blazed into the floor, filling +the place with acrid smoke and noise. Dolores's eyes flashed angrily; +she governed her fury, and went on when the uproar subsided: "Your boats +are ready?"</p> + +<p>"Ready and rotting wi' idleness!" roared Hanglip.</p> + +<p>"And ye purpose wasting powder and shot on some paltry craft of the +islands! Wait, my brave lads, I have better game at hand!"</p> + +<p>Now the crowd was hushed in earnest, for none of them saw more than a +frolic coming from such a small craft as the schooner. The girl went on +to tell them of the big ship that Milo had seen, and she painted it a +rich West Indiaman, loaded to the hatches with rum and powder, gold and +jewels, delicate meats and—with emphasis which she carefully cloaked +yet made vivid—dainty ladies, no doubt.</p> + +<p>"Take ye the sloop, then," she commanded, "and bring me no tale of +failure. Ten miles southwest from the bluff she lies becalmed. Let no +man return without tribute for me. Go now!"</p> + +<p>With a whoop the evil ruffians tumbled out, hurling themselves pell-mell +down to the shore, and splashing out to the boats. Their sloop, a long, +beamy Cayman-built craft, of eighty tons and twelve murderous guns that +were cast for a king's ship, could be handled by four men or a hundred. +She carried fifty men now, and she sped out of the estuary before the +faint breeze with a velocity that spelled certain doom for any +square-rigged ship she ever lifted over the horizon.</p> + +<p>Dolores watched them go with inscrutable face; then commanded Milo to +attend her in the great chamber. Pascherette, not yet over her fright, +hovered tremblingly near, and her mistress dismissed her with a +pacifying pat on the head, flinging, at the same time, a string of +pearls around her neck that brought mingled gratitude, greed, and +conceit into her sparkling eyes.</p> + +<p>"How stands the schooner now?" Dolores asked when the girl had gone.</p> + +<p>"She drifts slowly, Sultana. There is little wind. Yet she ever comes +nearer."</p> + +<p>"Milo, that is my ship!" breathed Dolores fervidly. "I have jewels and +silken trash, the richest in my store, which my father told me were +taken from such a vessel. A yacht, he called that craft. 'Tis sailed for +pleasure; trade never soils the holds of such craft; men who sail such a +vessel as that which now hovers near us are of the kind from which comes +such as that!" Once more she indicated the "Laughing Cavalier," and now +her form and face were filled with surging ambition strengthened with +ardent hope.</p> + +<p>"How goes our sloop?" she asked abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Swiftly, but with the dying breath of the wind. By noon she will be +swinging idly, Sultana."</p> + +<p>"Who of the boldest rascals remain with us?"</p> + +<p>"The noisiest dogs have gone. Sancho remains, for Stumpy cracked his +head last night in a brawl. The others here are but cattle!" The giant +uttered the words with bitter scorn.</p> + +<p>"Then, at noon, Milo, we move to secure my ship!" Dolores cried with +gleaming eyes. "Set slaves to move out the false Point and anchor it a +cable-length off the true. I will have a plan then to lure the schooner +on. We must not let her escape, Milo!"</p> + +<p>"Pardon, lady, I know a way!"</p> + +<p>"And that?"</p> + +<p>"I will swim to the schooner and command them to thy presence."</p> + +<p>Dolores smiled whimsically, for she was too wise to be ignorant of the +fact that such men as were in that schooner must first be caught before +they might be commanded. Yet the giant's plan suggested another to her.</p> + +<p>"Hear my plan," she said. "That chit—Pascherette—she's a dainty minx! +Does she swim?"</p> + +<p>"Like a conger, Sultana!" Milo's face lighted warmly, and Dolores +shrewdly guessed then that the petite octoroon's regard for the giant +was not altogether unrequited.</p> + +<p>"Then carry her abreast of the vessel,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> quickly, and bid her swim out to +it. Let her use some of the cunning that is in her pretty little head, +and make them wonder what else our island has to offer in dainties. +Then, ere evening, I shall have work for thee that shall complete what +Pascherette begins. Command the minx to bring forth all her fascinations +and allurements. Nay, friend, have no fear for thy sweetheart. I warrant +thee she can care for herself, if she will. Go! It is my command!"</p> + +<p>Milo departed, and Dolores went out to the Grove, climbed nimbly to the +cliff-top, and sat down to watch. She had a clear view of the schooner +now winging lazily along three miles away and a mile off shore; the +shore, from the point where her rascals were even now towing out a great +mass of interlaced trees and foliage planted upon stout logs to form a +false point, right along to abreast of the schooner, lay immediately +beneath her eye; the blue sea glittered and flashed under the hot sun, +unruffled by wind, and only bursting into a long line of creamy foam, +where it licked the golden sands. The tall palms nodded languorously, +their deep green heads faintly chafing like sleeping crickets; the +tinkle of the sands came up to her ears like tiny bells.</p> + +<p>Dolores followed with her eyes two swiftly moving figures on the shore +path, hidden from the ocean by a mass of verdure, and she smiled +cryptically. The giant Milo strode on his way like the embodiment of +force; at his side tripped Pascherette, her glossy black crown barely +reaching above his waist, her tiny hand hidden completely in his great +fist. And she kept her bright eyes raised to his great height all the +while, satisfied that her little feet should trip, perhaps, if only her +eyes tripped not from his face.</p> + +<p>Presently they stopped, and Dolores stood up alertly. There was but a +moment's delay, while Pascherette bound her hair more securely; then, +with a flirting hand-wave, the little octoroon darted from Milo, +wriggled through the bushes, and ran lightly down to the sea. In another +moment her small, black head was moving rapidly toward the schooner, her +golden skin flashing warmly in the sun as her arms swept over and over +in an adept stroke that carried her forward with the speed of a fish.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE PARTY FROM THE YACHT.</h3> + + +<p>The schooner yacht Feu Follette swam sluggishly along shore, her lofty +canvas flapping in the faint air. On her spotless quarter-deck, Rupert +Venner, wealthy idler and owner of the vessel, lounged in a deck-chair a +picture of the utter finality of boredom. His guests, Craik Tomlin and +John Pearse, made perfunctory pretense of admiring the lovely coast +scenery along the port hand; but their air was that of men surfeited +with sights, tired of the languorous calm, <i>blasé</i> of life.</p> + +<p>The schooner's appointments typified money in abundance. From forecastle +capstan to binnacle she glowed and glittered with massive brass and +ornate gilding; along the waist six burnished-bronze cannon stood on +heavily carved carriages, lashings and breechings as white as a shark's +tooth; over the quarter-deck double awnings gave ample clearance to the +swing of the main boom—the outer of dazzling white canvas, the inner of +richest, striped silk-and-cotton mixture. The open doors of the +deckhouse companion revealed an interior of ivory paneling touched with +gold, and hung with heavy velvet punkahs. The walls were embellished +with exactly the right number of art gems to establish the artistic +perception of the owner and to whet the expectation for more yet unseen. +But, with all this, the Feu Follette housed a discontented master and +discontented guests.</p> + +<p>"Oh, for a breeze!" grumbled Pearse, breaking in on the frowning +silence. "How much longer are we to drift around these stagnant seas, +Venner?"</p> + +<p>"The very next slant of wind shall wing us homeward," replied Venner +dreamily. "I, too, am sick of the cruise and its deadly monotony."</p> + +<p>Again silence, marred only by creak of gear and flap of idle sails. The +schooner barely moved now, though the western sky held promise of a +breeze later on. Then came a cry from one of the negro crew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> forward, +and its tenor stirred the party into mild interest.</p> + +<p>"De debbil, ef 'tain't one o' dem marmaids! Oh, Cæsar!"</p> + +<p>A ripple of panting laughter alongside brought Venner and his guests to +the rail in haste, and gone to the windless heavens was their <i>ennui</i>. A +gleaming, gold-tinted creature, a miniature model of Aphrodite surely, +arose from the blue sea and climbed nimbly into the main channels and +thence to the deck, where little pools of water dripped from the radiant +figure. She shook her small head saucily, and heavy masses of raven-wing +hair tumbled about her, provokingly cloaking the charms so boldly +outlined by her single saturated tunic of fine silk.</p> + +<p>"Who in paradise may you be?" ejaculated Venner, while his friends +stared with unconscious rudeness.</p> + +<p>"I? I am Pascherette!" laughed the small vision, and her black eyes +sparkled impudently.</p> + +<p>"Pascherette!" echoed Tomlin, bewildered. "Does Jamaica hold such +beauties?" He awkwardly brought forward a deck-chair, while Pearse stood +by in speechless amazement. Venner, as better became the host, ordered a +steward to bring a wrap for the astounding visitor, but the girl laughed +provokingly and declined both.</p> + +<p>"It is not for such as I, fine gentlemen," she said, and her sharp eyes +were roving busily about the schooner, appraising values like a +veritable pirate. "Keep thy courtesies for better than I."</p> + +<p>"Better than you, girl?" Venner's tone was incredulous. He was taking +mental stock of the priceless pearls about Pascherette's dainty throat. +"To be found here?"</p> + +<p>"If not here, where shall ye find such a one as my mistress?" +Pascherette retorted saucily.</p> + +<p>"Your mistress?"</p> + +<p>"Without doubt. I am but a slave, my lady is the queen, Dolores."</p> + +<p>"A queen—a white woman?" stammered Venner.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Venner, let us look into this!" exclaimed Pearse with unconcealed +curiosity.</p> + +<p>"Just what we have prayed for!" Tomlin supplemented eagerly. "Anchor, +Venner, like a good fellow. A jaunt ashore will brace us all up."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" objected the owner, albeit with a good trace of +inquisitiveness himself. "The breeze will come by evening; and who knows +what this coast harbors? A bad name sticks to this shore."</p> + +<p>Pascherette had wandered forward, and between sly glances aft and keen +scrutiny shoreward, she flung seductive smiles broadcast at the grinning +crew, prattling prettily to officer and man alike, as if she were indeed +a stranger to the ways of shipboard. While she made her rounds the party +aft entered into a warm dispute; their curiosity was whetted, but not +sufficiently in Venner's case, to whom the safety of the yacht was +paramount just then. They wrangled for half an hour, and the schooner +drifted on until she was within a mile or so of the outflung false +Point. Then they were again startled out of their self-possession—this +time by a cry from the girl who leaned over the bulwarks a picture of +ardent admiration for something in the water.</p> + +<p>Double awnings and snowy hammock-cloths restricted the view shoreward +from the quarter-deck chairs, and surprise as deep as that which greeted +the girl surged through the disputing three at a great splashing over +the side, accompanied by the boom of a voice that must come from a +powerful, free-breathing chest.</p> + +<p>"Room for Milo, servant of Dolores!" the hail rang out, and by the same +means as Pascherette had used, up climbed Milo, to stand motionless +before the white men, an astounding and awe-inspiring shape.</p> + +<p>"Another slave of the mysterious queen?" demanded Venner, when recovered +from his astonishment. "It gets interesting, gentlemen. And what is your +errand, Goliath?" he inquired of Milo.</p> + +<p>"I know no Goliath. I am Milo. I come to summon ye to the presence of my +queen," returned the giant with as much unconcern as if he were inviting +the pirates to a barbecue.</p> + +<p>A titter of amusement passed over the three yachtsmen. It was tinged +with resentment, though, and only curiosity, aroused by shock upon +shock, prevented<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> an angry rejoinder to Milo's speech that could only +have ended one way: in physical damage to three idle gentlemen of wealth +and pleasure.</p> + +<p>"A summons, hey?" scoffed Tomlin. "Your queen values her rank, I think." +A dangerous gleam crept into Milo's eyes, and Pearse detected it in +time. "Venner," he said quietly, "you cannot let this adventure pass. +Here's every element of sport held up to us. Let us obey this command, +and get at least a thrill out of this humdrum cruise."</p> + +<p>Venner was thinking of many things, and his mind needed little making +up. He had never lost sight of those pearls of Pascherette's; his eye +could not be deceived; they were priceless. And Pearse had not failed to +notice the green jade skull-charm that depended from Milo's columnar +neck, a jade skull with pearls for teeth like the altar brooch of +Dolores. And Tomlin, for all his expressed scorn, was tingling with +ardent desire for such piquant beauty and vivacity as Pascherette's. If +such a creature were the slave, then what could the mistress be? He +assumed a more complaisant attitude, and added his vote: "A good way of +passing away this odious calm spell, Venner. Let us go."</p> + +<p>"Where is this great queen, my Colossus?" Venner asked.</p> + +<p>"I will lead thee to her presence," replied Milo. "Thy boat will take us +there in a few moments. Further on, beyond that point, the ship may lie +safely in the haven."</p> + +<p>Venner called his sailing master, and together they examined the chart. +It showed a sand-bar stretching off the point, a deep-water channel, +narrow but accessible, close to.</p> + +<p>"You can work into that anchorage?" asked Venner.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, if the air don't die away altogether. It seems good ground by +the chart."</p> + +<p>"Then carry the schooner in and bring up. Call away my cutter, and"—in +an undertone—"keep a good watch, Peters, this is an evil coast."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The shrill pipes reverberated under the awnings, and sailors, neat and +trim in white uniforms that contrasted beautifully with their dark +skins, ran to man the graceful white cutter. Pascherette sat in the +stern-sheets, cuddled up like a pretty kitten on a crimson silk cushion, +and Milo stood erect, as firm as if on solid ground, between passengers +and rowers as the boat sped shoreward. As the two craft separated the +schooner stood out in veritable beauty, an exquisite thing of gold and +ivory, pearl and rose. Venner's eyes lighted with pride at sight of her. +Even a long, eventless cruise had not killed the artist in him. He +touched Milo softly on the thigh and said with a smile:</p> + +<p>"Has your queen anything like that, my friend?"</p> + +<p>Milo cast a disdainful glance at the yacht, abruptly turned away again, +and replied shortly: "That is nothing."</p> + +<p>"Nothing!" said Venner. "Then where have you seen daintier work of men's +hands and brains?"</p> + +<p>"Thou shall see. Thy ship is a petty thing."</p> + +<p>"Now, by Heaven, Venner, he has you there!" laughed Tomlin, never +ceasing for a moment from ogling Pascherette, who purred with +contentment and smiled slyly at the frown that came to Milo's face.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, a poor thing!" laughed Pascherette, hugging her knees and +rippling over with amusement. "My mistress is a great queen. +These"—touching her pearls—"thy rigging could be formed of such, if my +queen willed."</p> + +<p>"And in the house of such a great queen, my girl, are doubtless other +things of beauty and worth?" put in Venner with growing sarcasm.</p> + +<p>"As witness this pretty wench!" smiled Tomlin, striving to fix the +girl's capricious attention, which persisted in flying ever to Milo.</p> + +<p>"Patience," returned Milo. "Do ye know of anything of untold worth—my +queen has that which will buy it? Have ye seen a thing of peerless +beauty—in my queen's house are many of its peers! Patience!"</p> + +<p>No word more would the giant utter. Like a bronze statue he stood erect, +guid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>ing the cutter to a small landing with a silent gesture. And as the +boat swept alongside and the yachtsmen began to experience the thrill of +near expectancy, Pearse caught sight of a knot of men loitering on the +nearby slopes, and their appearance startled him.</p> + +<p>"Good Lord, look at those piratical ruffians!" he cried.</p> + +<p>His companions started, and doubt came into their faces. Then +Pascherette arose from her seat and pressed near to Tomlin, with an +insinuating, caressing movement; and that ardent gentleman exclaimed +impatiently: "Oh, never mind their looks! Come on Venner! This is what +I've dreamed of all my life! Come on!"</p> + +<p>Milo touched Pearse's arm, said briefly, "Come!" and that reluctant +visitor stepped ashore; while Venner, after a little twinge of +misgiving, succumbed to his curiosity regarding the hidden glories of +this strange realm, and followed the great black readily enough.</p> + +<p>Up the cliff they followed Milo, Pascherette running ahead and looking +backward ever and again with a seductive gesture of invitation; and in +good time they stood before the council hall, the loitering pirates +staring at them wonderingly, and from them to the graceful white +schooner just then entering the narrow channel.</p> + +<p>"Enter!" said Milo, and stood aside at the open door.</p> + +<p>The interior was dark and awfully still, and the three white men paused +on the threshold doubtfully, regarding each other with half-ashamed +faces.</p> + +<p>"Enter!" reiterated Milo, and curiosity got the better of them, for a +swirl of fragrance eddied out to them, and one by one, until the hall +was dotted with them, ruby and amber lights twinkled before them, +seeming to beckon them on to something mysterious in the shadows beyond +the soft lights.</p> + +<p>"Neck or nothing!" muttered Venner, leading the way. His friends +followed in silence. Then the doors closed behind them; but fear, doubt, +unbelief, all went to the winds at the spectacle that slowly unfolded +itself before their gaze.</p> + +<p>"Cleopatra reincarnated, by God!" gasped Venner. His friends could find +no words to express their sensations in that moment.</p> + +<p>Dolores glided out from the heavy hangings behind her chair of state, +and stood, a vision of majestic loveliness, on the dais. Clad in her +short tunic, her hair bound to her brow by the gold circlet that Milo +had made, she had calculated effects with the art of a Circe. Her +rounded arms and bare shoulders, faultless throat and swelling bosom, +radiant enough in their own fair perfection, she had embellished with +such jewels as subtly served to accentuate even that perfection. Upon +one polished forearm a bracelet was pressed, a gaud formed from one +immense emerald cut in a fashion that forced one to doubt the existence +of such a cutter in mortal form. About her neck a rope of exquisitely +matched black pearls supported a single uncut emerald which might have +been born in the same matrix with that on her arm. Her red leather +sandals were fastened, and her ankles crisscrossed, with such bands of +glittering fire as a goddess might have stolen from the belt of Orion.</p> + +<p>These things were revealed gradually by cunningly manipulated light +effects until Dolores blazed out entire before her stupefied guests. +They, seeking for relief from the spell, sought in her face some answer +to the riddle; but her expression was that of a being apart: +tantalizingly, inscrutably indifferent to their presence. Then Milo +advanced, prostrated himself before her, and reported his errand done. +"Rise, Milo, and I thank thee," she said, and her soft, yet vibrant, +voice sent a thrill through her waiting guests. Dolores waved a hand +toward the door. "Send Sancho in to me at once, Milo, and do ye watch +for the return of my wolves."</p> + +<p>The giant went out; yet the calm face of Dolores gave no relief to the +three yachtsmen; uneasiness began to sit heavily upon them, and it was +not lessened by the entry of Sancho, for such an awful impersonation of +evil in one man they had never seen before.</p> + +<p>"Sancho," Dolores commanded him, "it is my will that the vessel now +entering my haven be cared for as mine. See to it!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>"The lads are hungry, lady; it is long since they tasted such—" Sancho +snarled his protest with wickedly curling lips that revealed ragged +yellow fangs. Dolores stared him down with blazing eyes, held his gaze +for a breath and uttered: "Go! See to it! Thy life is the bond!" and +Sancho slunk out like a whipped cur.</p> + +<p>There was an uncanny hint of dynamic force in the girl's swift +assumption of authority, and Tomlin found his throat very dry despite +the fact that he was drinking greedily of her beauty. Venner stole a +look at Pearse, and saw in that gentleman a reflection of his own rising +uneasiness. And then, at that instant of shivery doubt, Dolores smiled +at them; and in that same instant three men, with immortal souls, forgot +everything of the world and affairs in the mad intoxication of her +charm.</p> + +<p>"Welcome, sirs," she smiled, and stepped down to offer each a hand in +turn—not in handshake, but with an air that said plainly homage was due +to her; and whether he would or not, each of her guests raised the hand +to his lips with reverence.</p> + +<p>"What is your pleasure, lady?" asked Venner quietly. He was resolved to +show his friends the way into this magnificent creature's intimate +confidence; and the resolution promised interesting developments, for +each of his friends nursed a similar one. There was, even now, less of +comradeship in the looks with which the friends regarded each other. If +Dolores detected this, she made no sign. She gave a hand to Venner, led +him to the door, and smiled invitation to the others. They followed +hungrily.</p> + +<p>"I will give thee food and wine," she said; "then I have much to say to +thee. I have commanded that thy ship and thy men be cared for; to-night +ye are my guests. Come! But first give me thy swords. Thou'rt with +friends." They complied dumbly, dazed by her radiant charm.</p> + +<p>They stepped outside into the glaring sunlight; a light breeze was now +singing in the tall palms and making silvery music of the wavelets along +the shore; far away to the southwest a sliver of sail was in sight, and +to a practised eye could be made out as the pirate sloop returning. +Dolores glanced swiftly around, seeking some evidence that her commands +to Sancho were being obeyed; but she saw no man—no figure save the +ancient crone she had discarded and sent to the drudgery of the kitchen. +With a keen sidelong glance she saw that the schooner was heavily +grounded on the Point; a second glance told her that her guests were +thinking little of the schooner, for their eyes never left her face. But +notice was forced upon them, and the reason for the camp's desertion +impressed upon her, by the weird, drawn-out scream of jubilation that +issued from the old woman's withered throat an instant before her old +eyes gave her sight of her mistress and froze the cry at her lips.</p> + +<p>"Ha, ha, ha!" she shrieked, waving skinny arms. "That's the way Red +Jabez taught his lambs! Flesh your blade, my bully Rufe, and bring me +some of the meat!"</p> + +<p>Abruptly Dolores's guests swung around to follow the direction of the +old woman's arm, and the girl darted a look of fury at the scene. Out +from the point poured Yellow Rufe and a horde of strange mulattos and +blacks, and shots crackled from the schooner's rails. On the little bay +two boats filled with Sancho and his men pulled frantically toward the +fight, and the haven rang with howls of gleeful anticipation. Venner +uttered a smoking oath, and clutched Tomlin and Pearse by the arms.</p> + +<p>"Come fellows!" he cried. "This is treachery!"</p> + +<p>"Treachery? Ye wrong me, sirs!" Dolores's soft voice halted them. They +stared at her, and she gave them back look for look until she saw the +blood surge back to their faces and their eyes lose their hardness. Then +she laughed, low and sweet, and waved them back.</p> + +<p>"Wait. I shall preserve thy ship, and give thee back an eye for an eye +if thy men are harmed. Trust me, will ye not?" She paused a moment to +thrill them with her eyes; they stayed. They she sped down the cliff +like a deer.</p> + + +<p class="continue">TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="Part_II" id="Part_II"></a>The Pirate Woman</h1> + +<h2>by Captain Dingle</h2> + +<p class="center"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[Pg 466]</a></span>Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc.</p> + +<p class="continue2">This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2.</p> + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE ATTACK ON THE FEU FOLLETTE.</h3> + + +<p>By means of the floating blind the Point had been carried out across the +narrow channel until its edge rested on the bar; and the schooner lay +with a heavy list broadside on to the hard sand. Yellow Rufe and his +followers, runaways from the pirates' camp, maroons banished from their +homes for crimes against their fellows, rebellious slaves, and what not, +splashed through the shallow water and stormed the Feu Follette by way +of the jib-boom and head-rigging, while Sancho urged his boats on toward +the vessel's quarters.</p> + +<p>Dolores, uncertain yet as to Sancho's motives, but in no uncertainty as +to Rufe's, paused but to look around for Milo as she leaped down the +cliff. The giant was even then engaged in thwarting an inclination on +the part of the yachtsmen to follow Dolores, for, her spell gone for the +moment, Venner felt all an owner's solicitude for his property. But Milo +had been well schooled;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[Pg 467]</a></span> he knew how to play upon little weaknesses; +Pascherette had told him, if he had not seen for himself, how +amorousness and cupidity formed the key-note of character in the +visitors; and now he used the knowledge to the fullest extent. The +little octoroon appeared as Dolores watched; she had hastily attired +herself in dry clothes, a single garment more filmy and daring than that +she had worn to swim aboard the schooner, and from her mistress's store +had borrowed jewels that transformed her into a beautiful little golden +butterfly.</p> + +<p>Dolores saw all this in a flash; she saw Pascherette take capable charge +of the three men, led them away from the cliff, and then Milo advanced +to the steep path. Turning swiftly to resume her career, Dolores uttered +a shrill, piercing cry that the giant understood perfectly, and she +plunged into the sea as he bounded down the slope to her support.</p> + +<p>The schooner's crew were already hard pressed; but they fought like men, +led courageously by Peters, the sailing master. As Dolores cleft the +sparkling water, speeding out to them like a gorgeous sprite of the +waves, men tugged at gun-tackles to swing a piece around to rake their +own decks, for Yellow Rufe and his ruffians had swept the forecastle +clear of defenders. And Dolores reached the vessel, climbed over the +low-listing rail nimbly as a jungle cat, at the instant when Sancho's +boats hooked on to the main-chains and took the crew in the rear.</p> + +<p>The pirate queen stood for a single long breath to grasp the scene in +its entirety. Panting slightly from her exertions, her blazing eyes and +heaving breast rendered her a figure of bewildering and awful +loveliness; and the Feu Follette's men paused in the fight out of sheer +amazement.</p> + +<p>Sancho's gaze fell on her the moment his evil head topped the rail, and +into his eyes crept an expression of detected insubordination. He sought +Yellow Rufe, but Dolores had seen all she needed to apprise her that +this was a concerted attempt to flout her authority. Then Rufe's hoarse +roar went up, and the tide of struggling men surged anew, and Sancho, +plucking up heart, rejoined with a scream.</p> + +<p>"Into the sea with the dogs!" he cried. "'Tis such a craft as Jabez +would love to see ye carry."</p> + +<p>The fight rolled aft, and Dolores was left standing alone by the midship +shot-rack. She singled out a few of her men by name, and commanded them +to rally to her side; then, seizing a cutlas from the deck, she glided +tigerishly to the main companionway, down which the pirates were now +driving the beaten crew, and the men she had picked out were shorn of +all indecision as Milo leaped on board with a bull-throated shout and +gained her side.</p> + +<p>"Sancho! Rufe! Have done with this play!" she cried, placing herself in +front of the blood-hungry horde. "Dogs, fall back! Have ye no memory +that ye forget how Dolores strikes?"</p> + +<p>Milo had picked up a handspike, and with it across his breast he bore +back the scowling rascals, smiling the while himself with quiet +contempt. But one, hardier than the rest, ran to the skylight, dashed in +the glass with his boot, and cried with outflung arm:</p> + +<p>"A plague upon her and her strokes. See yonder, lads—her cunning +trick—our sloop comes back empty-handed, as she well knew it would—and +here lies to your hands work that the Red Chief had reveled in. Down +with her and the big bull! Below is loot fit for bold fellows."</p> + +<p>Without moving from where he stood, Milo pivoted around, the heavy +handspike—six feet of true ash—rigid as a bar of iron, took the +overbold pirate at the base of the skull and spilled his brains into the +breach he had made. Growling with fury, a man from Sancho's crew sprang +to avenge the stroke with steel, and his blade creased down Milo's +sturdy ribs before the giant had recovered from his own swing. And with +the hissing slit of ripping skin Milo's debt was paid for him. Dolores, +agile as a panther, reached the pirate with her cutlas pointed, and the +steel hilt rang against his breast-bone.</p> + +<p>But in the momentary pause in her vigilance, a score of Rufe's ruffians +burst past her and poured below into the saloon, where renewed sounds of +combat told of the ferreting out of the beaten crew.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[Pg 468]</a></span>"Milo, follow me!" cried Dolores, springing down the stairs herself, +careless whether her wavering half-dozen followed or stayed. Her whole +soul was sickened with the fear that this vessel, the long-wished-for +means of her release from what had become a hateful bondage, was in +danger of destruction at the red hands of Rufe's undisciplined dogs. And +swiftly approaching on the freshening evening breeze her sloop grew +momentarily clearer to the eye; it was easy to fancy she could hear the +howls of disappointed rage pealing up from her deck; it needed no second +sight to determine the side those humiliated pirates would take, when +they hove alongside another prey which promised at least a taste of +coveted loot.</p> + +<p>In the brief time since the pirates' entry the schooner's saloon had +become a place of desolation. All the magnificence of unrestricted cost +was there; and all the beauty of artistic selection; and over all was +the mark of the beast—blood and torn hangings, corpses and splintered +panels, chaos and sulfur smoke as the pillage started. Dolores sought +out through the smoke a breathing man in the uniform of the yacht, and +swiftly placed her lips to his ear, her mind made up to a terrible +expedient to save this vessel for herself.</p> + +<p>"Tell me quickly—where is the magazine?"</p> + +<p>The man opened his agonized eyes, saw that splendid blazing face close +to his own, and shook his head loyally. He would give his master's +enemies no assistance.</p> + +<p>"Speak, fool!" she hissed, shaking him. They were alone by the great +table-leg on the red-stained carpet. "I would defeat these sharks! Where +is the powder?"</p> + +<p>The man looked into her eyes again, and she smiled at him. It was +enough. He weakly pointed to a stout door on the starboard side, forward +of the sailing master's stateroom door, beyond which the sound of axes +already resounded. The owner's and guests' quarters were filled to +overflowing with ravenous wolves tearing and ripping in a frenzy of +pillage. At the after-end of the saloon a pirate stood over a great +cask, issuing jugs of liquor to such of his fellows as found time amid +the riot to drink. Milo gripped his handspike, waiting for a command +that should send him like awful Fate into the thick of the murderous +mob.</p> + +<p>"Milo! Bring me a powder-keg from that magazine!" Dolores said, still +crouching low and hidden beneath the smoke-pall. The giant entered the +room, shattering the lock with a lunge of his shoulder, and returned +bearing an unopened keg of cannon powder.</p> + +<p>"Place it upon the table." Then the girl rose to her feet with eyes +glittering coldly and lips pressed to a tight line. "Find me a lighted +brand—swiftly!" she said, and when the giant snatched up a splinter of +dry wood, lighting it at the steward's brazier in the little pantry off +the saloon, she swept majestically aft to suddenly confront the roaring +ruffian at the wine cask.</p> + +<p>"Milo, hurl this liquor cask away!"</p> + +<p>Milo picked up the heavy barrel as a man might pick up a cushion, heaved +it above his head, and flung it like a cannon-shot at the door, behind +which rang the greatest noise, while the pirate, whose care the wine had +been, gaped like a stranded fish.</p> + +<p>"Now this dog!"</p> + +<p>The man followed his cask before his mouth closed from his astonishment; +but as he flew his leathern lungs performed their office and warned the +pillagers of peril. Out from cabins and storerooms poured the rascals, +gorged with fine wines and delicate foods seized in their pillaging; +steamy with blood not yet dried on their bestial faces. And when the +great saloon was full, Dolores raised her torch above her head and +blazed out at them:</p> + +<p>"In five short breaths this vessel carries all thy black souls to hell! +Skulking rats, swim while the breath is in you!"</p> + +<p>The torch came down, Milo smashed in the head of the keg, revealing the +terrible contents, and as if in grim jest he snatched up a sprinkling of +the powder and flicked some grains into the flare of the torch. If there +had been any doubt as to the deadly earnestness of Dolores, there could +be none now, for sparks crackled and spit in fearful nearness to that +open keg. Men stampeded for the stairs, hurling each other down in their +frenzy; but Yellow Rufe and Sancho<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[Pg 469]</a></span> lingered. Theirs had been the +gravest fault; if they fled, it must be only to do penance some other +day; if they forced Dolores's hand, at least she and that scornful giant +must die the death also. They stood their ground, staring defiantly into +her expressionless face.</p> + +<p>Dolores spoke no word more. Milo stood like a bronze figure of Doom at +her side, his noble face expressionless as hers. Between them stood that +keg of terrible possibilities. The girl lowered the torch until the +flame all but licked the wood of the keg; a dropping piece of charred +wood fell audibly against the side. Sancho's breath caught painfully; +Yellow Rufe's bloodshot eyes wavered. Still they held on.</p> + +<p>"Milo, I give thee freedom!" said Dolores in a low, distinct voice that +carried to their ears like the sound of a silver bell. "Farewell, +faithful friend!"</p> + +<p>The torch swept around, fanning to a blaze in the eddying air, then +darted toward the keg. And with a yell that echoed on deck and far out +over the sea, Yellow Rufe and Sancho turned and fled, fighting with each +other, as had their less bold fellows, for the precious air of safety.</p> + +<p>Dolores laughed contemptuously, flung the torch aside and bade Milo +trample it out, then she, too, ascended to the deck to view her victory. +The sea was dotted with swimming men, the beach was full of running men, +terrified men made the cliff resound with their cries. Then, sure that +the schooner was free of foes, Dolores looked toward the sloop, now +within hail of the schooner and coming fast with sail and sweeps, while +her crew stared over the low bulwarks in puzzlement as to the reason for +the hasty exodus from the strange craft.</p> + +<p>"Here, Milo, is fresh fare of trouble. Hast brought my own flag?"</p> + +<p>"Here, Sultana," replied Milo, taking a carefully folded silken banner +from a pocket in his leathern tunic.</p> + +<p>"Hoist it, then, at the main! Perhaps Hanglip and Caliban, Stumpy and +the rest of my brave jackals, will forego their expected meal at sight +of it. And send forth a shout for slaves; this vessel must be cleansed +and her people's wounds attended to."</p> + +<p>Up at the schooner's lofty main-truck the Sultana's private flag +fluttered out; the mark and sign of Dolores's ownership. And while three +anxious yachtsmen on the cliff-top waited for her return, a hundred and +twenty hungry and thirsty baffled ruffians on the sloop cursed her +vehemently in their hoarse, dry throats.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">DOLORES DELIVERS JUDGMENT.</h3> + + +<p>On the level sward before the village the three yachtsmen paced back and +forth in an ecstasy of apprehension. Pascherette had left them, after +playing them like fish with her own charms and a hinted promise of +Dolores's favors as bait; and the moment they were alone Venner shook +off the spell in a resurging determination to attend to the safety of +his vessel in person.</p> + +<p>"Follow me, Pearse; come Tomlin!" he said. "We are three mad fools to +stand here while these pirates loot and wreck the Feu Follette!"</p> + +<p>Tomlin shuddered as he started to follow. Pearse kept silence, but did +not hesitate. But they had not stepped ten paces before they realized +fully the completeness of their helplessness, for Venner, first to +attempt the path down, was brought to a halt by a musket leveled at his +breast, the musketeer showing only his head and shoulders above the +cliff edge. And as Tomlin and Pearse came up, they, too, were abruptly +halted in like manner; and a grinning Carib motioned each back with an +unspoken command which was none the less inexorable.</p> + +<p>They returned to their first positions, and resumed their nervous walk, +condemning themselves as utter idiots for venturing unarmed into such a +nest of vipers at the urge of curiosity, novelty, feminine attraction, +greed—whatever their motives had been. And here Dolores came upon them, +while all about them swarmed the disgruntled pirates from the sloop, and +those of the mutineers whose abject fears warned them to take whatever +punishment their queen chose to mete out rather than to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[Pg 470]</a></span> escape only to +be brought back to endure penalties immeasurably more terrible.</p> + +<p>Yellow Rufe and Sancho were not minded to stay, however; they had +vanished; and Dolores's keen eyes noted this the moment she surveyed the +scene. She walked swiftly to the door of the council hall, turned to +face the mob, and lifted an arm for attention. Then fell a hush full of +anxiety or terror, according to the degree of culpability in the +consciousness of her audience.</p> + +<p>"Summon every creature in the village," she cried, "and let no man or +woman dare to leave this place until ye hear my thoughts concerning this +day's work!"</p> + +<p>Men scattered eagerly through the huts, calling by name all who were not +present in the crowd, and presently more of the community came out, +their faces mostly reflecting the terror that was in their souls; for +none might ever foretell the moods of their queen. Inscrutable as night, +her eyes were like pools of violet shadow wherein lurked promise or +threat of unimaginable things; every line of her face and form was a +line of a riddle that could prove in the solution either magnificent +generosity, fearless justice, or implacable vengeance: like the +lightning, Dolores struck where she willed, and in what fashion she +chose; it was useless to attempt avoidance.</p> + +<p>Venner and his friends looked on curiously, a feeling akin to awe +pervading them at the increasing evidence before their eyes of the power +wielded by this splendid fury, they had yet to know. When all were +present, except those whose activities on the schooner had already +procured them a passport to another world, Dolores swept the crowd with +a penetrating glance and called for Milo, who appeared from the rear of +the council hall laden with chains and bilboes which he cast down at her +feet. Then the angry impatience of the disappointed sloop's crew proved +too intense, and Caliban bounded to the front, squealing shrilly:</p> + +<p>"The fiend may take you with your irons! Shall we, men who followed Red +Jabez through a sea of blood, cower to a woman of such soft mettle? +Dolores, queen or woman or wench, it is for you, not us, to explain. +Lads—" he shrieked, flashing about and haranguing his companions—"back +me in this. We will know why the sloop lacked powder; why to-day's work +has brought no reward!"</p> + +<p>The deformed little demon stepped back to the crowd, and paced to and +fro with feverish gestures, scowling blackly at every turn that brought +him face to face with Dolores. The packed mob milled and murmured, some +afraid, many of Caliban's mind yet not daring to openly support him. +Venner and his friends sensed the thrill of it, for their brief +experience of the pirate queen left them in slight doubt as to the +outcome of Caliban's speech. Dolores herself stood motionless for a full +minute after the hunchback ceased his defiance, and under her lowered, +heavily lashed eyelids the dark eyes seemed to slumber; only in her lips +was any trace of the alertness that governed her brain, and those +scarlet petals, which seemed to have been plucked from a love flower in +the garden of passion, slowly, almost imperceptibly parted, until the +dazzling teeth gleamed through in a smile that none might yet determine +whether soft or terrible. And as the seconds heaped suspense upon +suspense, the overbold Caliban was seized with a choking fear that he +was to pay the price. Then Dolores spoke, slowly, quietly, almost +soothingly; and those of her hardened ruffians who thought they knew her +best hung on her words in shivery uncertainty.</p> + +<p>"For those bold words, Caliban, my father had stripped thy poisonous +skin from thy putrid flesh. Yesterday thy queen might not have proved +more merciful. Yet do I know how thy disappointment chafes thy brave +soul, and because of that thy rash speech goes unpunished." The hush +intensified, for the leniency of Dolores was little less to be feared +than her fury. A smile of ineffable radiance broke over her beautiful +face, and she extended her right hand and said, still in the same slow, +even voice: "Come, Caliban. Thou art worthy of my mercy. Kneel, that I +may know thy heart is right."</p> + +<p>Now the suspense reached its climax. Somewhere behind those softly +spoken words surely lurked some awful, cunningly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[Pg 471]</a></span> cloaked threat. +Caliban went white, ghastly; his brave tongue stuck to his palate, and +the thin lips slavered with growing panic.</p> + +<p>"Come, Caliban!"</p> + +<p>The girl's command was uttered no louder, her expression was unchanged; +in her glorious eyes gleamed no trace of anything other than benign +forgiveness; she remained motionless as before, with her rounded arm and +shapely hand extended in a manner that revealed their every perfection.</p> + +<p>"Come, Caliban!"</p> + +<p>Again the words fell from her smiling lips, and now the quivering +hunchback obeyed, drawn irresistibly by her magnetism, sick with dread +of the stroke he in common with all his mates expected to fall.</p> + +<p>"Kneel! See, I give thee my hand to kiss," Dolores said, and smiled upon +the cowering wretch with a tender brilliance that sent a tremendous +flutter through the hearts of the three yachtsmen.</p> + +<p>Caliban knelt and took the proffered hand, then at her word he stood +before her, scarcely certain yet that his head was solidly established +on his shoulders. She motioned him to stand on one side of her, then, +aglow with warm color, she addressed the puzzled throng:</p> + +<p>"My bold sea tigers, the ship that escaped thy sloop is but one ship. +The seas are full of such. Yet, until to-day, how many have ye been +forced to let go because of thy poor equipment in craft? Thy sloop, how +small, how old—yet what rich prey escaped thy guns since the Red +Chief's swift brig laid her bones here? None! Yet ye complain because I +prevented thee destroying the beautiful schooner the gods have this day +sent to us!"</p> + +<p>Now the purport of her speech struck home; the seemingly soft-brained +weakness that had forbidden the rape and pillage of the schooner stood +in part explained. And as the light filtered through thick skulls and +shone upon all but atrophied brains, a deep muttering swelled into the +embryo of a throaty cheer that needed but one look of encouragement from +Dolores to spring into noisy life. As for Venner, his expression was +reflected in Tomlin, and both in Pearse; and awakening or resurrected, +fear was the keynote of all.</p> + +<p>"The vampire means to suck us dry after all!" whispered Venner hoarsely. +His friends could only squeeze his arm in mute sympathy. They harbored +no doubts at all.</p> + +<p>Dolores went on:</p> + +<p>"With such a vessel as this"—pointing to the schooner—"that Indiaman +to-day had never shown heels. And more, how think ye my store is +replenished? Dost think I tap the rock for wine? Does Milo crush the +granite and bring forth meat for thy hungry bellies? Are my treasures +kept at high tide by snatching the colors from the sunset? Fools!" she +cried, and for a moment passion conquered her calm. "In that schooner +are wines that will make thy hot blood living flame; meats that will put +teeth into the throats of the toothless; treasures fit for thy queen's +treasury. And more to thy hand, my brave jackals, those pretty pieces of +ordnance, which the sun even now paints with liquid gold, will outrange +the guns of a king's ship." Pausing, she bent upon the murmuring crew a +look of blazing majesty; then concluded with a vibrant demand: "Now dost +know why thy queen withheld thy senseless hands from witless +destruction?"</p> + +<p>Her question was scarcely heard before the answer came. From a hundred +rusty throats pealed a huzzah that rolled out over the sea and sent the +sea-birds squawking with fright to more peaceful surroundings.</p> + +<p>"Dolores! Dolores! That's a queen for the tribe of Jolly Roger!" howled +Hanglip, and tumult rang again.</p> + +<p>The girl raised her hand, and silence fell once more.</p> + +<p>"Hear my judgment upon such of ye as are not of thy mind," she cried, +and now the smile had gone; her eyes flashed and the words fell red-hot +from her scornful lips.</p> + +<p>"I demand no tales from thy mouths. Hiding among these woods Yellow Rufe +and Sancho, he of the one eye and the mutilated hand, think to ward off +my vengeance. By meridian to-morrow I command those traitors to be +brought to me. Fail in this, and ye shall see that Dolores can be +terrible, too."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[Pg 472]</a></span>The crowd took this as a dismissal, and broke into parties to scour the +woods. Only slaves and women remained, and Pascherette ran to her +mistress's side and whispered, with a sidelong look of coquettish +allurement at Venner and his friends.</p> + +<p>"Something about to happen!" Venner whispered, hoping that it might +prove something in recompense for his day of stress. Dolores cast a look +of cool indifference toward them and told Milo:</p> + +<p>"Put these strangers in separate chambers, Milo. Iron them securely and +look to it well. Thou art answerable for them."</p> + +<p>No more. She took Pascherette and departed.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE SULTANA DECIDES SEVERAL THINGS.</h3> + + +<p>There was a moment of cruel amazement for Venner and the others when +Dolores had gone; then Milo, approaching with his irons and chains, +awoke the captives to resistance.</p> + +<p>"No chains for me, by God!" shouted Venner, crouching to ward off the +giant's approach. "Tomlin, Pearse, break for the schooner! I'll hold +this savage. We shall perhaps fail; but by the powers of justice we'll +go down fighting on our own ship!"</p> + +<p>He sprang at Milo as he spoke, and his friends hesitated. Milo, without +haste, without change of countenance, dropped his irons and reached +Venner with great deliberate strides. And in that momentary hesitation +Tomlin and Pearse were lost with their host; for the giant stretched out +one tremendous arm, seized Venner by the slack breast of his shirt, and +lifted him from the ground, flailing with both hands like some puny +child in the grip of his nurse.</p> + +<p>Milo spoke no word. He gave no more attention to Venner's futile blows +than to the whispering of the sands of the shore. But bearing ever +toward the other two men, now seemingly paralyzed out of all volition by +the awful exhibition of strength, he reached out with his free hand and +added Tomlin to his capture as he had taken Venner.</p> + +<p>Pearse might even now have made his bid for liberty; but he was no +coward to desert his companions. He uttered a choking cry of mingled +fear and defiance, and rushed in between his friends to swing a heavy +blow with his fist fair upon the giant's unprotected temple. Now Milo +gave sign of interest. He laughed: a deep, rumbling, pleasant laugh of +appreciation for the courage that prompted the blow; but he never +blinked at the impact, nor did he attempt to avoid another blow that +came swiftly. Simply putting forth a greater effort of muscle he swung +his two captives apart, held them at arm's length while the sinews of +his mighty chest and beamlike arms writhed and rippled like snakes, and +rushed upon Pearse with the terrible resistlessness of an avalanche. A +shower of blows pounded his face and breast as he closed, then he +laughed again; this time triumphantly; for Pearse was enfolded between +Venner and Tomlin in a hug that spelled suffocation did he persist in +his struggles.</p> + +<p>The swift conquest had taken but minutes; none but a few women of the +camp had seen it; and they, well used to such scenes, simply chattered +and smiled pityingly, not with pity for the men, but for the futility of +their resistance. Milo, scarcely breathing above normal, called loudly: +"Pascherette!" and gave his prisoners another quieting squeeze.</p> + +<p>Pascherette was with her mistress. She did not answer, and Milo called +again: "Pascherette!"</p> + +<p>The other women drew near, and on many a wickedly fair face shone a +light of hope that its wearer might serve in Pascherette's place, no +matter what the errand; for it was not the <i>petite</i> golden octoroon +alone who had sighed for love of the giant.</p> + +<p>"Pascherette is with the Sultana, Milo. Let me answer for her," spoke +out a dark beauty whose sparkling eyes held the craft and wisdom of a +harpy.</p> + +<p>"I—" and "I—" came other voices, and the women gathered around. "What +do you need, good Milo?"</p> + +<p>"Open three chambers behind the council hall. In each must be a +fettering ring. Make speed. Go!"</p> + +<p>The women ran, and Milo made his capture more complete. Flinging the +three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[Pg 473]</a></span> men down, breathless and numbed from his grasp, he swiftly +clapped leg-irons on them one after the other, then stood up, holding +the long chains together in one huge fist until the women cried out that +the chambers were ready.</p> + +<p>The bruised and subdued yachtsmen were placed in their separate cells, +fettered to great iron rings, and left to cogitate over their probable +fate. They were not even permitted the solace of intercourse; but as +each grew more accustomed to the gloom inside, he discerned that it was +no part of the plan to permit him to hunger or thirst, for a subtle +gleam of ruby light shot into each small room from an unseen source, +intensifying gradually and touched with its infernal radiance a small +tabouret on which stood a silver flagon and a dish of the same metal +containing meat.</p> + +<p>Milo went to the great chamber in the Cave of Terrible Things when the +doors had closed on his prisoners, and presented himself to Dolores. He +found Pascherette prostrate on the floor before the queen, whimpering +and sobbing with terror. Over her Dolores stood like Wrath in person, +her beautiful face distorted with passion, fire blazing in her eyes, her +breast heaving tumultuously. In her hand she held a cat-o'-nine-tails—a +dainty, vicious, splendid instrument of terror—formed of plaited human +hair of as many shades as thongs, studded with nuggets of gold instead +of lead—and none the less terrible for that—set in a cunningly carved +handle of ivory. And as Milo entered, she held the whip aloft in a +quivering hand, and cried to Pascherette:</p> + +<p>"Speak, or I flay thee, traitor! What wert telling the villain, Sancho?"</p> + +<p>Pascherette whined and cringed; she could not, or would not speak. The +whip quivered, was about to fall on those dainty bare shoulders, when +Milo, uttering a choking cry, flung himself forward and took the blow on +his face. Dolores started back, a thing of fury, as Milo cast himself at +her feet, his head on the ground, and said with submission:</p> + +<p>"Spare the child, Sultana. Let my back bear her penance. She is faithful +to thee."</p> + +<p>Dolores halted an instant between redoubled rage and mercy; then she +flung down the whip with a hard laugh, seated herself in the great +chair, and bade Milo and the girl rise and come to her.</p> + +<p>"Milo, thou'rt a fool!" she said. "Were thy brain as great as thy great +heart the world might well be thine. I tell thee, child or no child, +that chit is woman enough to have bound thee her slave. She is woman +enough, too, to hold secret converse with my foes. Do thou speak to her +now and learn for me what traffic she had with Sancho the morning after +I took her as my handmaid. I give thee scant time; if I learn it not +swiftly neither thou nor she shall leave this chamber alive!"</p> + +<p>With her giant beside her, Pascherette's fears subsided in part. She +peered up at him shyly and stepped closer to him, as if to seek actual +shelter from the storm that threatened her; but her frightened, +dependent demeanor was scarcely in accord with the new light that +glinted in her sharp eyes when she dropped them from his face again. +There was cunning and craft in them; the brazen assurance of a thief +whose conviction is prevented by a lucky mishap.</p> + +<p>She spoke rapidly, for his ears only, and her face drooped in an access +of confusion that, beautifully simulated, satisfied Milo and sent a warm +thrill into his honest breast.</p> + +<p>"Pascherette says she only gave Sancho his answer," Milo told Dolores. +"He had demanded her for his mate."</p> + +<p>"A pretty tale!" cried Dolores impatiently. "If that be all, why so +fearful of telling me, girl? Why did Sancho, who well knows the price, +join Rufe against me?"</p> + +<p>"I was afraid," murmured Pascherette with a pretty shiver. She summoned +a rosy blush to her piquant face and added in a still lower whisper: +"Thy anger terrified me, Sultana. My tongue was tied. And Sancho did +what he did in rage, in jealousy against Milo."</p> + +<p>The giant drew himself more erect, and his face became transfigured. If +in his great heart there remained any room after his devotion to his +mistress, cunning little Pascherette occupied it all when she uttered +the half-admission that Milo was her man.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[Pg 474]</a></span> Dolores regarded the pair +silently; her expression changed slowly from irritation to query; from +unbelief to amusement, and after a moment's reflection she smiled +without softness and said:</p> + +<p>"Milo, I would do much for thee. For double dealing I have no mercy. If +thy love-bird would have me believe, if she is ought to thee, bid her +seek Sancho and bring him to me. Let her bring him at her own hands +before my hunters run him to earth, and I forgive thee both. She has +fooled thee; she can fool Sancho."</p> + +<p>Pascherette lighted up with something higher than hope: it was +certainty; and while it made Milo happy it did not escape Dolores, whose +dark-violet eyes once again became fathomless pools in which none might +read her thoughts. She waved them from her presence, and they went out +together, leaving her sitting motionless until the hangings fell behind +them. Then she sprang up, ran to a great mirror, and stood for many +moments regarding her lovely reflection.</p> + +<p>"Yes, thou art beautiful!" she apostrophised. "Beautiful as an artist's +dream. And for what? To queen it over these beasts! To be called +Sultana, and to be in truth a caged eagle. Of them all, who save loyal +Milo may I trust? Of them all, where is one whose blood mixed with mine +could produce aught but devils! Yet I must slink away in the night like +a whipped cur, or leave behind these treasures which alone can secure me +station in the outside world." She began to pace the great apartment, +oblivious of her surroundings, conscious only of a surging rebellion +against even the small necessity of biding her time. The day's +happenings on the schooner had shown her clearly the explosive condition +of her crew; she had no mistaken ideas that for her to load up the +schooner and sail away was simple. Further, she detected in recent +events a growing unrest among the band, the cause of which she had but +begun to fathom. Even now, through the tapestry sounding-stone, her +keenly attuned ears caught a note in the cries of returning woods +parties that told her how precarious was her sway over some of the more +turbulent spirits.</p> + +<p>"Before me they cringe like the dogs they are," she muttered, halting +again at the mirror. "Behind my back they snap like wolves. They shall +have their lesson quickly—such a one as the boldest of them shall +shriek mercy." She gazed intently into the mirror, as if she would read +therein an answer to her unspoken longing; then her eyes grew dark and +hard; her round, strong chin set stubbornly, and she whispered +intensely: "Pah! Cattle! They shall not alter my will to seek my +rightful place in the world of the white man! What avails it that in my +veins runs my mother's noble blood, the red chief's fiery courage, if +this nest of soulless brutes is to witness my life and my end? Among +those three white men is one who shall release me. They—ah, they are of +a whiter, cleaner mold! Theirs is the blood that matches mine! Let them +show me which is the stronger. He shall mate with me, and I will make +him a king indeed, even in his own land."</p> + +<p>Dolores stepped back panting. Then she controlled herself and began to +put on garment after garment, jewel after jewel, all of superlative +magnificence. Every moment she glided to the great mirror; as often she +tore off a garment or a jewel, flung it down impatiently, and seized +others from her boundless store. At last she stood clad like a fabled +daughter of old Bagdad; a robe of shimmering silk reached her ankles, +outlining every grace of her splendid figure; upon her head she had set +a tiara, priceless with gems whose fire dazzled even their wearer; on +arms and fingers, ankles and toes, lustrous rings and bracelets made +flashing lightning with her every movement; at her girdled waist was a +dagger whose sheath could have ransomed a prince.</p> + +<p>She stood like a statue, except for the rise and fall of her breast; her +eyes glittered at her gorgeous reflection in the mirror. Then suddenly +her expression changed, her lips parted in scorn, and with a savage, +tigerish gesture, she tore off her splendors. She stood once more in her +simple tunic of knee-length, sleeveless, beauty-revealing; and picking +up her dagger with the gold cord she knotted it about her waist and +again regarded herself closely.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[Pg 475]</a></span>And where before she had looked upon a gorgeous woman, royally clad, +weighted with gems formed by man's art, now she gazed into the limpid, +fathomless eyes of a living goddess—royally clad in her own peerless +loveliness, crowned with a wealth of lustrous hair in which the gleams +of gold outshone the tiara she had discarded. And her face lighted; a +delicate flush overspread her cheeks; the full, luscious red lips parted +in a veritable Cupid's bow; and she laughed a rippling, heart-warming +laugh that brought the small, even teeth glistening into view.</p> + +<p>Dolores was satisfied at last. Without further hesitation she hurried +along to the rear of the chamber and emerged into the Grove of Mysteries +by way of a door known only to herself and Milo. From there she made her +way silently and darkly toward the council hall.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">A REED SHAKEN BY THE WINDS OF PASSION.</h3> + + +<p>Rupert Venner sat on the floor of his prison, tugging at his chains with +an absent, aimless, all but perpetual motion; for he had long since +convinced himself that his fetters could not be broken or loosed. The +ruby light that had shown him the food and wine placed for him had faded +away to the faintest red glow which scarcely sufficed to reach the +tabouret. That mattered little; Venner had eaten when he was hungry, +drunk when dry, and knew the position of the flagon and dish to the +ultimate inch. He was not caring about the light. His mind was filled to +the exclusion of all else with his plight and the predicament of his +schooner.</p> + +<p>"Confound me for a fool!" he mused aloud, gritting his teeth savagely. +"Led by the nose by a saucy little chit who knows how to display her +charms as well as her pearls!"</p> + +<p>He pondered over his situation with growing irritation; for he knew only +too well that his release could never be obtained by bribery; his keen +sense of values told him that neither in the yacht or at home could he +match the treasures he had already seen on the persons of Dolores, and +Pascherette, and the other women of the camp. Yet he tried to console +himself that after all these things might be displayed for his +impression; might in fact be the entire store of the pirate queen, +displayed for one gaudy, overpowering effect.</p> + +<p>"That's it!" he cried, striking fist to palm. "Just a theatrical trick. +That little jade, Pascherette, will sell her dark little soul for +diamonds or pearls, I'll wager, and she shall sell me liberty. Then I'll +see the queen creature, gaining entry by the same medium, and we shall +see if cultivated wits are not a match for this wild beauty."</p> + +<p>With something very like a smile of resignation Venner stretched himself +on the floor and composed himself to rest. He was quite certain that +Pascherette could be reached through his jailer, whoever that might +be—Milo or somebody else—and the entire plan seemed to him beautifully +simple and infallible. He dozed, awoke, dozed again, and the ruby light +seemed to intensify each time his eyes opened. Gradually the shaft of +light grew so strong that, focused on his closed eyes, it forced him to +full wakefulness; and now he stared hard at it, blinking, hypnotized by +the trembling radiance that seemed to shoot out from the main shaft +until a great moving circle of light appeared before him. And out from +the midst of the light stepped Dolores, bewitching, irresistible, +smiling down upon him with a tenderness that filled him with awe.</p> + +<p>Amazed, dazzled, the man sat up, quivering with a sensation that rippled +at his hair-roots and sent the blood singing to finger and toe-tips. And +Dolores, with one forefinger at her scarlet lips to enjoin silence, +glided toward him with her inimitable grace, and knelt before him +shaking her head and starting him on the way to intoxication with the +touch of her wonderful hair.</p> + +<p>"My friend, I grieve that thou art here," she said, and her glowing eyes +thrilled him afresh. "Wilt thou believe that it is necessary for a +while?"</p> + +<p>"Necessary?" repeated Venner, dazedly. He strove hard to burst into +angry protest, but his tongue refused to utter the harsh words in the +face of such a creature of beauty. "I don't understand why it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[Pg 476]</a></span> +necessary at all, lady. It is no choice of mine, or my friends, that our +schooner is aground and we are your prisoners!"</p> + +<p>"Ah, my friend, thou shalt understand," she answered, and laid a hand on +his shoulder, making his senses swim with the fragrance of her breath. +"But this is for thy ears alone. Thou wilt respect my confidence?" +Venner nodded, wondering if, after all, the adventure might not turn out +well. With Dolores so close to him that he could hear her tunic rustling +to her deep, even breathing, that her loosened hair continually brushed +his face, he would have nodded assent had she offered him a piece of +charcoal for his immortal soul. "Then listen, man of my own people. A +longing gnaws at my heart—this heart that beats under thy hand"—she +took his hand with a swift movement and pressed it to her breast—"a +longing to go far from this place and these brutish people, to thy land +and the land to which I belong.</p> + +<p>"And now must I say why thy ship is here? It is because I have chosen +thee, my friend, to free me from this detestable bondage." She paused +for a breath, leaning closer to him, then asked with a sudden grip of +his hand at her breast: "Wilt take me out into thy world?"</p> + +<p>Venner shifted uneasily beneath her blazing eyes. His soul was in +torment with the touch of her; yet somewhere back of his trained brain +lingered a spark of wit not yet extinguished along with his other wits +by her spell. He lowered his gaze and said:</p> + +<p>"Was there need to murder my crew, wreck my vessel, and fling me and my +friends into these cells? Could not you, who are queen here, board my +schooner yourself and ask a passage?"</p> + +<p>"The murder of thy crew was not of my seeking. And thinkest thou I would +go from here leaving behind my treasures? Or dost fancy my rascals would +permit me to carry them away? No, friend, it is not so simple. The man +who aids me to attain my desire must be strong and wise and true. He +shall mate with me, and my treasures shall be his. That is why I have +chosen thee."</p> + +<p>"That requires thought, lady," returned Venner, half-heartedly. "I would +assist you in getting free from this, since you wish it; but as for +mating or marriage, why, there is a woman at home waiting for me."</p> + +<p>"Woman!" Dolores cried with scorn. "Woman! I am Dolores!" She swayed +toward him, her arms went about his neck, and slowly, slowly her +glorious eyes fastened on his, her moist, warm lips sought his in a kiss +that dragged at his soul's foundations.</p> + +<p>"Canst refuse me?" she laughed softly, drawing back her head and peering +at him from under lowered lids. "See, I trust thee utterly!" Snatching +her dagger from the sheath she placed it in his right hand; then, with a +key from her girdle, she unfastened his chains and swayed back, still +kneeling. She clutched the single shoulder-strap of her tunic, tore it +from her bosom, and flung both arms wide apart. "See!" she whispered, +and Rupert Venner flung away the dagger, stumbled to his feet, and swept +her into his crushing embrace while she abandoned herself to him with a +long, quivering sigh.</p> + +<p>"By the gods!" he swore hoarsely, "show me what I have to do. Wonderful, +wonderful Dolores!"</p> + +<p>"Patience," she smiled, resting her head on his breast. "First tell me +thy name. What shall thy Dolores call thee?"</p> + +<p>"I am Rupert. Call me slave!"</p> + +<p>"Rupert. It is a name to love. Slave? Nay, it is I who shall be slave to +thee. But patience again, Rupert. When we two go from here, there can be +no other to share our secret; none save the slaves that I shall place in +thy ship to replace thy dead crew. Thy friends may not go. They must not +live to see thee go!"</p> + +<p>Venner shivered, and drew back, holding her at arms' length and staring +at her in horror.</p> + +<p>"What are you saying, Dolores?" he gasped. "My friends are to die?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and by thy hand, my Rupert. For how else may I know thou are +worthy to be mate to a queen?"</p> + +<p>"Now, by Heaven! Witch, siren, whatever you are, my madness has passed!" +he cried. "Not for the key to a paradise peopled with such as you would +I do this!" He stepped aside, picked up her dagger, and glared at her +with steely eyes.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[Pg 477]</a></span>Dolores laughed at him: a low, throaty little laugh that went clear to +his brain and set it on fire again. Yet, nerving himself against her, he +stood erect, dagger in hand, and met the blaze of her dusky eyes +bravely. He shivered violently when her rich voice thrilled his tingling +ears.</p> + +<p>"Hah, my Rupert, thou'rt not yet tamed. Let me show thee thy master!"</p> + +<p>With the words she reached him with her subtle, tigerish glide, swiftly, +startlingly, and with the dart of a cobra her hand gripped his which +held the dagger. Her warm body again pressed closely to him, her red +lips, parted still, almost touched his cheek; her hair smothered him +with its fragrance; and while his senses swam her supple muscles tensed +to living steel wire, her grip tightened and twisted at his wrist, and +the dagger was wrenched from his fingers. Then leaping back, laughing +mockingly now, Dolores slipped the dagger into the sheath, snatched up +the chains from the floor, and flew upon him with a deadly pounce that +bore him back to the wall.</p> + +<p>Aroused from his numbness, Rupert Venner fought back furiously, +humiliated, and ashamed. Whether he would or not, he forgot all his +chivalry, and strove to meet this appalling woman with strength against +strength; but in Dolores he met a thing of wire and whipcord where +moments before had been a creature of warm softnesses; a being of feline +agility, and devilish skill that reflected the devilish skill of her +teacher, Milo. The chain-links tinkled and clashed against their swaying +bodies, but she never let them fall; they hung from her girdle; her +hands were free; and she had both his wrists in a grip that outrivaled +the irons. Laughing, ever laughing, her hot breath playing over his +face, she placed one foot behind one of his, surged toward him heavily, +and, when his arms would have involuntarily gone out to preserve his +footing, she subtly twisted them back and up from the elbows, until she +rested against his chest with her bare arms tightly about his body.</p> + +<p>Now her head, with the gold circlet about the brows, pressed hard +against his chin. Her hair was in his mouth, tendrils of it stung his +eyes, but the gold band numbed his flesh and bruised the bone. Upward, +ever upward, she forced his chin until his neck was cracking with the +strain and he choked for breath. Then she suddenly relaxed. Her arms +left him, her wickedly lovely face once more smiled into his starting +eyes, and she took the chain from her girdle with leisurely swiftness, +falling to her knees at his feet.</p> + +<p>"There, my friend, thou art back in thy place!" she said, snapping on +his ankle irons. "Spend the night in thought, good Rupert. To-morrow I +shall come to thee again for thy decision. Now, pleasant dreams, +my—lover!" she whispered, suddenly slipping her arms about his neck +again and pulling his head hard against her panting breast. She softly +kissed his hair, then pressed back his head and kissed his lips long and +passionately.</p> + +<p>"Good night, beloved!" she said, and passed out of the room, leaving +behind the echoes of a rippling little laugh that set Venner's blood to +leaping.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">PASCHERETTE UNVEILS HER PURPOSE.</h3> + + +<p>Milo and Pascherette stood outside the rock portals of the great chamber +after their dismissal by Dolores, and the giant's face wore a look of +perplexity which was not reflected in the little octoroon. If her task +was difficult, Pascherette seemed not in the least disturbed; rather in +her sharp eyes lurked something of bravado at having escaped her +mistress's anger so easily. And this expression perplexed Milo.</p> + +<p>"Art sure of thyself, Pascherette?" asked the giant, ill at ease for his +little companion.</p> + +<p>"Why not?" she laughed, peering up at his troubled face impudently. +"Thinkest thou Pascherette is a fool?"</p> + +<p>"No, thou art not a fool," replied Milo slowly. He laid a heavy hand on +her shoulder, turned her around to face the faint light remaining, and +gazed hard into her bright eyes. "Thou art not a fool, little one. But +Sancho—is it so simple to find him?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[Pg 478]</a></span>"Big, childish Milo!" she cried with a laugh that had no joy in it. +"Dost think I feared that verdict of Dolores? No. I fear her whip only. +My flesh creeps even now at thought of my poor shoulders hadst thou not +appeared in time. Sancho? Pah! I can find him easily enough."</p> + +<p>"Then, child, was there nothing in thy traffic with him save what I +heard from thy lips?"</p> + +<p>Pascherette looked down, tapping the sand with her tiny foot, and her +breast fluttered in agitation. Then she slipped her hand into his, +looked up shyly yet ardently into his eyes, and replied swift and low:</p> + +<p>"Milo, my love for thee must be my defense. I did have traffic with +Sancho, to the end that we—thee and me—might use him to our advantage. +Wait!" she cried, when he would have spoken, "hear me. Canst not see +Dolores's cunning intention? She goes from here, carrying her treasure; +what will she do with thee, once safely away? Will she carry thee always +with her, to be marked because of thy great stature? No, Milo, thy life +will pay for her desertion of her people, and she will laugh at thy +passing. And why should it be? Here, thou and I can rule these cattle as +she never could. With Sancho's deserters, and Rufe's followers, I can +give thee a band that will force the treasure from her greedy grasp, and +make of her what she has made of thee and me—a slave!"</p> + +<p>"Girl!" Milo's deep voice vibrated with passionate horror. "Cease thy +treason, or I crush thy wicked heart in these two hands. Dolores is +mistress of my soul—my body is but the slave of that."</p> + +<p>"Pish!" retorted Pascherette, contemptuously. "She has thee dazzled, +Milo. Say, dost thou not love me?" she demanded, standing tiptoe and +thrusting her piquant little face under his gaze. "Look in my eyes, and +then tell me another woman owns thy soul!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I love thee," replied Milo, with simple earnestness. "I love thee; +yet will I kill thee ere Dolores suffers ill through thy scheming. Have +done with this talk. I hate thee for it!"</p> + +<p>"Love—and hate!" she laughed metallically. "Loving me, still thou hast +room to love another better. Hate and love! Thou great fool, it cannot +be!"</p> + +<p>"Pascherette, I love thee. Thou'rt entangled in my heart-strings. When I +hate thee, it is because of that love, which will not brook treason in +thee. Again, I love thee, golden girl; but, forget it not, I worship +Dolores as I worship my gods!"</p> + +<p>"Then wilt thou not seek her power for thyself?" whispered the girl +subduedly, awed for the moment by his tremendous and solemn earnestness.</p> + +<p>"Little one, bring Sancho as she bade thee. He has merited punishment. +Yet tell him the Sultana will be just. His punishment will but fit the +fault. Afterward we two will talk together, and I shall teach thee +loyalty. Go now, bring thy man to the council hall. I shall await thee. +Stay, I shall come with thee, for the woods are dark, and a storm +threatens."</p> + +<p>"I go alone, Milo. He will fly from thee. Have no fear for me; the woods +are safe, and the storm is in thy great head only."</p> + +<p>The girl turned, kissed her hand airily, and ran into the gloom of the +forest. And as she went she laughed again harshly and muttered: "The +great clod! His worship overtops his love. But I shall make love overtop +worship yet, my giant! Such a man—a slave? Not for a thousand +Doloreses! Wait, Milo; wait, my mistress!"</p> + +<p>The evening breeze had strengthened as darkness fell, and its breath was +hot and sultry. As Pascherette plunged deeper into the woods, the heavy +boom of the seas along shore died away and gave place to the softer, +more vibrant hum and murmur of the great trees. The track, little more +than a line of flattened underbrush, vanished before she had gone fifty +yards; but the little octoroon was no stranger to nocturnal rambles, her +keen eyes, and, keener still, her sense of direction, led her unerringly +through the shades toward the rearward spur of the granite cliff. +Creepers and hanging mosses brushed her face and limbs; alone she might +have ignored them; but there was a quality in the sighing and rustling +about her that seemed to give voices to the ghostly fingers that +touched<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[Pg 479]</a></span> her, and to support her courage as well as to warn Sancho of +her coming, she thrilled forth a merry little snatch of song:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ho! for the Jolly Roger lads;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ho! for the decks red-streaming.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A pirate's lass is a well-lov'd lass,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And there's gold through the red a gleaming!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ho! for a cask in the fire's red glow;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ho! for the heaps of plunder.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There are showers of pearls for the pirates' girls—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The rain from the corsair's thunder!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>At the end of her song Pascherette halted, listened, then called softly:</p> + +<p>"Sancho! Thy Pascherette calls!"</p> + +<p>Silence prevailed for several moments, and she called again, fearing +that her voice had gone astray amid the increasing confusion of the +trees. Then came a lull in the wind, the lull that always punctuated the +gathering of such tropical storms as now threatened; and in the hush she +heard voices—uncertain, disputing. Then Sancho growled, close to her +ear:</p> + +<p>"Art alone, jade?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Sancho!" she cried, darting into the gloom to the sound of his +voice and flinging her arms about him. "I have feared for thee, my +Sancho. Now I fear no more, for all is well."</p> + +<p>"Well?" the pirate growled suspiciously. "Hast left thy hot-blood +mistress, then?"</p> + +<p>"No, Sancho. It is better for thee even than that. I have made thy peace +with Dolores. She has forgiven thee, and wishes to tell thee so."</p> + +<p>A fervid curse burst from some one yet invisible, and Sancho leaned back +to catch some whispered words. Then he, too, ripped out an oath, and +gripped Pascherette tightly by the arm.</p> + +<p>"This is a trick, little devil! Don't you value that pretty little head +more than to trifle with me?"</p> + +<p>"I trifle with thee? Thou art mad, Sancho!" she cried. "Did I lie when I +said I loved thee, then?"</p> + +<p>"The fiend knows! I know 'tis plaguey risky for thee if thou didst!"</p> + +<p>"Unbeliever!" whispered Pascherette with thrilling emphasis. "Shall I +tell thee again, in language even thy stubborn soul must believe?"</p> + +<p>The girl suddenly glided inside his arms, flung up her hands, each +clutching a mass of her glossy, scented hair, and enmeshed his +disfigured face. Then, straining upward from her small height, her rosy, +false lips sought his and fastened there while he staggered as if drunk.</p> + +<p>"There, heart o' mine!" she panted. "Dost believe now? Or must I tell +thee again that with such love as mine proud Dolores cannot hurt thee. +Come! Such a chance will never come thy way again. Man! 'Tis her +confidence Dolores offers thee. Shall it go begging because of thy +madness?"</p> + +<p>"Pascherette!" returned Sancho hoarsely. "I will go with thee. But, +girl, thy heart's blood pours at first sign of treachery! Mark that +well. And tell me now, does Yellow Rufe share in this mercy?"</p> + +<p>"No, Sancho. It cannot be. Dolores has sworn to hunt him down; the woods +are full of men even now, seeking him and thee. Only by going with me +wilt thou escape them and have advantage from my pleading with the +queen." She drew his head down to her ear, and whispered rapidly. Doubt, +then admiration, crept into Sancho's voice as he said: "Dost think it +can be done? Can he gain the sloop unseen?"</p> + +<p>"I will make it easy, Sancho. Bid Rufe have no fear. The storm will be +upon us within an hour. It is dark; there is wind aplenty. With six men +he may win clear; and listen: If he is stout of heart, what is to stop +him taking tribute from the stranger's white vessel?"</p> + +<p>"Lack o' powder, girl," returned Sancho angrily. "Thy mistress keeps us +short of powder, as well thou dost know, lest we become too strong for +her. Who of us has ever seen the store? Not I, by Satan! Canst thou get +powder and shot for Rufe?"</p> + +<p>"Simpleton! Can he not get with steel all he wants from the schooner?"</p> + +<p>"By the heart of Portuguez, he can!" cried another voice, and Yellow +Rufe strode through the bushes.</p> + +<p>"Rufe!" exclaimed the girl, feigning astonishment. Her ears were too +keen not to have caught Rufe's voice in the whispering that had gone +on.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[Pg 480]</a></span>"Yes, Rufe, and obliged to thee, Pascherette. Dost say thou wilt help me +win away?"</p> + +<p>"Gladly, Rufe, for I like well men of your mettle. Follow close behind +Sancho and me. Count ten score after we go in to Dolores with Milo, then +for an hour thou'lt have the sea to thyself. Luck go with thee, Rufe; +thou'lt think of little Pascherette sometimes, I'll warrant."</p> + +<p>A rumble of thunder rolled up from the sea, and lightning played in the +tree-tops. Pascherette turned back toward the camp, and giving no heed +to Sancho save to listen for his footsteps, she ran through the darkness +sure-footed, sure-eyed as a cat. Rain began to fall, and the heavy +foliage thrummed with the growing downpour which yet did not penetrate +to the earth. As they neared the shore, the forest resounded with the +solemn boom and crash of long-sweeping seas outside the bar; the wind +screamed among the huts; all the women and those men who had returned +from their portion of the search were snugly under cover. The place +seemed deserted.</p> + +<p>"Farewell, Rufe," Pascherette whispered at last, when the great black +mass of the council hall loomed against the sky in a lightning flash. +"Count ten score. Thy safety is in my hands."</p> + +<p>Then she took Sancho by the hand, and led him through the plashing rain +to the rear of the hall and called softly: "Milo!"</p> + +<p>"Here. Hast found him?"</p> + +<p>"Take us to the Sultana quickly, Milo. I have told Sancho to trust in +the justice of Dolores."</p> + +<p>"He may well do that," returned Milo. "The great Sultana is ever just."</p> + +<p>"Yes, have no fear, good Sancho. I am Justice itself!" rejoined the +mellow voice of Dolores in person, who had a few moments before left +Rupert Venner. "Milo, I am minded to give Sancho proof of my mercy, +since he already believes in my justice. Open the great chamber. Sancho, +canst guess the honor I propose to do thee?"</p> + +<p>"No, lady," replied Sancho, an awful dryness gripping his throat.</p> + +<p>"Hast ever hungered for sight of the great chamber?" She paused smiling +at the uneasy pirate, who could not answer. "Of course thou hast," she +replied for him. "Which of my rogues has not? I am minded to show thee +this mark of my love, since thy conscience permitted thee to return +here. Hast any fear of the saying the Red Chief uttered? That none might +enter the great chamber and live?"</p> + +<p>Sancho suddenly sprang to life. His face was distorted; when the +lightning flashed it revealed him a ghastly picture of apprehension.</p> + +<p>"I will not go there! I have no wish to see what my eyes are forbidden +to see. I never sought to enter, Sultana. It was the others!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Sancho, the others. That is why I select thee for the honor, +because thou wert patient. Come. I promise thee thy life is safe."</p> + +<p>Dolores passed on toward the great stone, where Milo stood guard over +the opened portals. Sancho, trembling violently, was drawn irresistibly +after her, partly fascinated by her calm strength, partly influenced by +the soft fingers and whispered prattle of Pascherette, who strove to set +him aflame with mention of some of the wonders he was to see.</p> + +<p>He paused at the rock door, glancing around with a vague premonition of +evil; but now it was Dolores's hand that took his; Dolores's rich voice +that lured him on; and he stepped after her, smothering a sob of +resurging terror as the great stone fell into its place behind.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">SANCHO SETTLES HIS ACCOUNT.</h3> + + +<p>In the rock passage the hush was complete. For the space of ten long +breaths Sancho stood quivering under the weird spell of the infernal red +radiance from the hidden lights, while almost invisible ahead of him +Dolores bent to listen to a last moment's communication from +Pascherette. With Milo behind him, and the great unknown ahead, the +pirate's usual fierce courage oozed out through his boots. Yet he was +hypnotized by the vague glitter that shone at the end of the tunnel—the +glitter,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[Pg 481]</a></span> though he knew it not yet, of the great sliding door to the +inner mystery.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the mighty rock reverberated and shook to a Titanic volley of +thunder, and Sancho shrieked with nervous terror. His shriek was echoed +by a rippling laugh from Dolores, and she came back swiftly toward him, +pushing Pascherette before her. She handed the little octoroon on to +Milo, and said, with a kindly pat on the girl's head: "Open, Milo, and +let thy sweetheart complete her good works. Now I shall have none but +faithful friends about me. Pascherette, thou'rt more than forgiven: +thou'rt my good friend. I shall reward thee fittingly when"—she smiled +dazzlingly at Sancho—"I have rewarded Sancho."</p> + +<p>The rock door rolled aside, and Pascherette passed out into the storm. +Sancho's nerves gave way utterly now, and he rushed toward the opening, +screaming: "Let me out! I want air! I want none of the great chamber! +Let me pass!"</p> + +<p>Milo again let fall the rock, pressed a huge hand on Sancho's breast, +and pushed him back, saying: "Peace, fool! Go with thy mistress. Thine +eye will never again witness the like. Go, I tell thee. Dost fear the +Sultana's justice?"</p> + +<p>"Come, Sancho. Thou'lt be a marked man among thy fellows when I have +shown thee what they yearn to see."</p> + +<p>Dolores again took his hand, bent her glorious eyes full upon him, and +Sancho followed her like a sheep, straight to the great door under the +jeweled yellow lantern, where he stood, stupefied with awe at the +barbaric splendors revealed.</p> + +<p>His lips went dry, and he licked them feverishly; his single eye blazed +with avarice; the two fingers and mutilated thumb of his right hand +worked convulsively, as if he would tear the gems and plate from the +door. And Dolores watched him from under lowered lids, her rich red lips +curled scornfully, one hand half raised to warn Milo to open the great +door slowly.</p> + +<p>"Well, Sancho, art better prepared for the greater treasures yet to be +seen?" smiled Dolores. The pirate's blazing eye seemed to dart flames as +the door slowly rose to Milo's touch.</p> + +<p>"Sultana!" he gasped, and his speech would do no more for him.</p> + +<p>"Enter, friend. This is thy great hour!"</p> + +<p>The queen pushed him gently inside, following herself, and Milo let fall +the door again, standing mute and motionless on the inside while his +mistress led the pirate to the center of the great chamber and waited +until his dazzled eye adjusted itself to the subtle lighting effects.</p> + +<p>Pascherette's last whispered communication to Dolores had told her of +Yellow Rufe's intentions; and while Sancho stood in amaze, she bent her +ear to catch the expected sound of voices through the sounding-stone +behind the tapestry. For there the little octoroon was to play a part +for Sancho's especial benefit. The thunder had become all but incessant; +with every crash the great chamber rumbled and echoed eerily; yet +between the crashes, brief as the periods were, human voices could be +heard.</p> + +<p>"Art ready to see my treasures, Sancho?"</p> + +<p>Dolores waved a gleaming arm around the place, indicating with one wide +gesture the glories of the walls and roof. But the pirate's senses +responded more readily to the tangible riches represented by gold and +gems, tall flagons, and jewel-incrusted lamps, littered diamonds and +rubies that strewed the big table.</p> + +<p>"Hah!" cried Dolores, with a low, throaty laugh. "Ah! my friend, I know +thy mind. Milo!"</p> + +<p>Milo advanced with a deep obeisance.</p> + +<p>"Milo, open the great chests for Sancho. Let him plunge his arms to the +elbows in red gold. Then I shall show him that which lies nearest to his +deserts."</p> + +<p>The pirate watched with lips no longer dry, but dripping with the saliva +of greed, while Milo flung open chest after chest, full to overflowing +with minted gold of many nations; looted jewels of royal and noble +houses, sacred vessels and glittering orders, weapons whose hilts and +scabbards, if ever made for use, could only have been used to bewilder +the eye and senses.</p> + +<p>Again the thunder pealed; and in the tremendous hush succeeding, the +voices outside penetrated the sounding-stone in more than a whisper. +Sancho jerked up his head and fear once more shone in his single eye.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[Pg 482]</a></span>"Come, good Sancho," purred Dolores, running her soft hand down his bare +forearm. "Art frightened by petty noises, then? Plunge thy hands deep, +man! All thou canst grasp is thine for so long as thy eye can enjoy or +thy hands fondle."</p> + +<p>Now Sancho's sordid soul surrendered. His greed conquered fear, and he +delved deep into a coffer, chattering the while with frenzy. And now +when the thunder rolled, his ears heard it not. He drew forth his hands, +and a glittering mass of wealth fell about his feet. He glared up at +Dolores, laughing ghoulishly.</p> + +<p>"That is well, Sancho," Dolores said, and took his hand. "Now I will +show thee the rest; and I know thou'lt never tell of it. I trust thee. +Come. Put thy ear to this tapestry, and tell me what thou canst hear."</p> + +<p>Sancho laid his ear to the cloth, and his eye gleamed brightly. Milo +stepped silently behind him.</p> + +<p>"I hear Hanglip!" he gasped. "Is he, too, here?"</p> + +<p>"He is outside the cliff. But whom else canst hear?"</p> + +<p>"I hear Caliban—Spotted Dog—Stumpy—I hear a score as if they stood by +my side! And Pascherette! By the fiend! She has played Rufe a trick! And +me—" He sprang from the wall like a tiger, snatching at his weaponless +belt with slavering fury, to be gathered at once into the remorseless +hug of Milo. And he glared full into the mocking face of Dolores—soft +and generous no more, but the embodiment of awful vengeance.</p> + +<p>For many seconds she stood regarding him contemptuously, until he +subsided helplessly in Milo's grasp; then, motioning the giant to +follow, she passed along and stopped before a life-size painting of "The +Sleeping Venus" in a massive, gilded frame. With one hand raised high at +the side, she turned a pulley-catch, and the great picture slowly fell +forward from the top until it rested slopingly on the floor, forming an +inclined entrance to a gloomy passage, dimly touched by a dark-red glow.</p> + +<p>This was the secret outlet to the great chamber by which Milo had access +to the altar in the grove at such times as his aid was needed to +support Dolores in some exhibition of black magic. She stepped swiftly +along the passage, giving no further heed to the panic-stricken pirate +until Milo had carried and dragged him to where she awaited him. This +was still another dark excavation, running deeper yet into the bowels of +the cliff; and the devilish red glare was here intensified until +surrounding objects were vividly revealed.</p> + +<p>"Now hear the doom of a traitor!" cried Dolores, with haughty mien. +"What! Not a traitor?" she mocked at the pirate's frantic howl of +denial. "Then Dolores has erred, perhaps. There is a test, good Sancho. +Let me see if I am wrong!"</p> + +<p>She signed to Milo, and the giant swung Sancho around until he faced the +deepest recess of the cave. There, swathed in mummy clothes, preserved +by the chemical miracle of the stratum of red earth that formed the core +of the rock, the body of Red Jabez stood erect against the wall, bathed +in the red glow, diamonds glittering where the dead eyes had been. And +on the rock ledge at his feet stood a tall flagon of gold, in which +Dolores had brewed an awful potion for this event. Beside this ledge +stood a low brazier full of glowing charcoal; on a tabouret near by lay +several terrible implements the use of which needed no explanation.</p> + +<p>"Look upon the face of the Red Chief, and drink this draft—'tis his +blood!" she cried, seizing the flagon and thrusting it into Sancho's +hands. "Then, if thy heart held no treachery toward me, thy life and +limbs are safe. But have a care! A lie in thy heart will surely undo +thee. Drink!"</p> + +<p>A splitting thunder-crash filled the place with uproar; a gust of the +tempest from the outer entrance sent the wind swirling in. It was as if +the breath of the storm snatched Sancho's senses back from the +terror-land they had fled to; he ceased his howling, glared defiantly up +at the dead chief, and cried in desperation: "Give me the drink! I fear +neither gods nor devils; why should I fear you, dead man?"</p> + +<p>"Wait!" Dolores laid a hand on his arm, and stayed the flagon at his +lips. "Wait, till I tell thee more. Then, if thou art guiltless, and go +from here with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[Pg 483]</a></span> treasure I gave thee, thou'lt know thy friends and +thy foes.</p> + +<p>"Didst think Yellow Rufe was free? Thou fool! Thy wits are powerless +before a woman's. Did my pretty Pascherette tell him he might go free, +taking my sloop, escaping my vengeance, as thou didst think to? Didst +hear those voices? Then I tell thee, Sancho, that ten-score count, that +Rufe doubtless made in fear and trembling, but sufficed to raise his +hopes. For ere he had gained the sloop and started her anchor, +Pascherette had done her work. The stranger's schooner is full of my +men, waiting for Rufe to come for his booty. Let him take alarm, then +how far may he win? Thou'lt never know, false Sancho, for I have no +doubt of thy treachery. Now drink, if thou darest!"</p> + +<p>"Then, by the fiend, I dare!" shouted the pirate. Something in the tang +of the gale sweeping in from the unseen entrance reassured him of the +existence of the outer world; persuaded him that by taking a desperate +chance he might yet throw dust in the eyes of this terrible woman and go +hence with the secret of the great chamber. "I dare, Dolores! Blood, d' +ye say? What fitter drink for a pirate?"</p> + +<p>He lifted the flagon, took a deep draft in great gulps, so that his +determination might carry him; then his eye sparkled, he took the flagon +from his lips, and grinned at Milo. "By the great Red Chief!" he cried. +"This is justice indeed! I drink to ye, Sultana, and to Milo, ye big +jester!" and finished the drink with a greedy swallow.</p> + +<p>Then the flagon clattered to the ground, Sancho's face went livid, and +his mouth opened wide and loosely, as his body and limbs were seized +with subtle pains. His brain, too, felt an awful numbness creeping upon +it; for the draft had done its work. The rarest of wine from her store, +Dolores had mingled with it a devilish powder that first sapped the +strength, then attacked the brain, and eventually snapped the cord of +intelligence, leaving the victim a driveling imbecile. But that point +had not yet been reached. It would come perhaps in one hour, two, three, +perhaps six—but inevitably it must come. For the present the pirate +was simply in the grip of the unknown, yet having full power to realize, +but not resist, the tangible terrors at hand.</p> + +<p>"Milo, hasten the rest. I shall await thee at the gate. Put forth this +traitor by the Grove outlet, and see to it that he takes with him +neither power to see beauty, to utter treason, or to ever feel again the +scalding touch of coveted gold. Make speed, I command thee, for I hear +my stout trusty ones clamoring for the chase!"</p> + +<p>Dolores disappeared through the secret outlet, sprang down behind the +altar, and ran through the Grove. Beside the cliff were huddled Hanglip +and Stumpy, Caliban, and Spotted Dog, drenched with the teeming rain, +restless with impatience, peering ever to seaward in the lightning +flashes that continually illumined the scene.</p> + +<p>Among them Dolores appeared, suddenly, mysteriously, as coming from the +skies, and after a choke of amazement Stumpy flung a hand seaward, and +shouted above the turmoil of wind and rain:</p> + +<p>"Queen o' Night, thou'lt need thy magic now! See, there flies the +villain!"</p> + +<p>Dolores looked, and smiled disdainfully. The torrential rain beat upon +her bare head and shoulders, causing her to glisten and shine like a +golden goddess; but she heeded it not at all; her eyes sought out what +Stumpy had indicated. And there, in the next lightning-flash, flying +seaward, was the sloop. Rufe had taken alarm, and had foregone his plan +of looting the schooner.</p> + +<p>"Let him go; he'll fly not far," she said calmly. "Come with me to the +great rock, my bold fellows; daylight shall show thee Rufe where I would +have him—paying the price, as Sancho has paid!"</p> + +<p>She glided around the rock, followed by her silent faithfuls, while from +the Grove rang a shriek of mortal agony that sent fierce hearts aquiver +with terror.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">DOLORES FLOATS THE FEU FOLLETTE.</h3> + + +<p>"Hell's breath!" screamed Caliban, as the cry rang out. "Have ye devils +in the Grove, mistress?" Hanglip and Spotted Dog, too, cringed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[Pg 484]</a></span> back in +fright. Stumpy concealed his uneasiness, yet his eyes searched Dolores's +face questingly. None truly believed in the queen's magic powers; yet +none was bold enough to openly avow his unbelief; and the added grimness +of the storm, assisted by the unearthliness of that howl of anguish, +brought the four godless pirates to the verge of superstitious terror.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I keep my devils there," replied Dolores; "and that is the traitor +Sancho answering to them for his perfidy. So watch, and obey me, lest +thy cries, too, go up from my altar!"</p> + +<p>She stood apart at the great stone, listening, and presently Milo rolled +up the rock barrier, and appeared in the gloom, calm and cool as if he +had no association with devils, imaginary or otherwise. A livid +lightning-flash played on his features, and the pirates drew back, +muttering at his black eyes which glowed with red points like rubies in +the heart of twin coals.</p> + +<p>"Milo, there flies Rufe," said Dolores, flinging an arm seaward. Beyond +the false point, in the midst of black seas dappled with rushing +white-horses, under a lowering black sky that seemed to lean down to the +verge of the ocean itself, Rufe's sloop was pictured in the next flash +of electric radiance a thing of desolation and panic. Fully a mile away, +the craft vanished in the pervading blackness between every flash. "I +need thy condor's vision now as never before. Take the swift, small +sailboat, and flares; follow the sloop as long as thy eyes can pick her +out; we shall follow thy flares in the schooner until we overtake thee. +Haste now; Rufe has grace enough!"</p> + +<p>Milo stayed only to get his flare-powder and tinder-box, then +disappeared down the cliff.</p> + +<p>Dolores despatched her four attendants to the schooner, prepared to +follow, then, with an afterthought, halted two of them.</p> + +<p>"Here, Hanglip, Spotted Dog, wait!" She swiftly entered the council +hall, went to the three small chambers, and released her captives from +the ring-bolts. Driving them before her, bewildered by the sudden +emergence from tranquillity to the turmoil of the storm, she gave the +two pirates each a chain, held the other herself, and led the way down +to the stranded schooner. Her motive was not only uncertainty about the +people left at the camp, who might prove susceptible to bribery if not +pity; she also felt a sort of whimsical desire to impress these +strangers with the utter inevitability of her power.</p> + +<p>The Feu Follette lay on the edge of the bar, as she had lain since +stranding, except that with tide after tide her keel had worn itself a +place in the sand, and she was less closely held than before. Of her +rightful crew but five survived the fight; one was the sailing-master, +Peters, and all were imprisoned under jailers in the forecastle. On the +schooner's sloping decks, when Dolores and her party climbed aboard, +were a score of nondescript pirates, besides the crew's custodians, at a +loss to account for the escape of the sloop, and worked up to a pitch of +nervousness where they were only fit for sudden, strenuous action with a +merciless taskmaster. And such they speedily had.</p> + +<p>Dolores ordered her three captives to be taken to the great cabin, and +their chains were fastened to the ornately paneled mainmast which ran +down through both decks and formed the support of a gorgeously furnished +sideboard. Then the companionway was locked on them, and the girl sprang +to tremendous life.</p> + +<p>"Aloft with thee, Stumpy!" she cried, selecting him because after Milo +his eyes were keenest of them all. "Keep thy eyes open for Milo's +flares, and mark well the direction. Hanglip, thou surly dog! Take ten +men and lay me out a good anchor astern, with a stout hawser. Be brisk! +Come aboard in ten minutes, or thy back shall smart."</p> + +<p>Sancho's boat had remained at the port quarter, and into this Hanglip +drove his crew while Spotted Dog with the rest of the men got ready an +anchor to lower to them.</p> + +<p>"Caliban, cast off the gaskets from fore and main!" cried Dolores next. +"Where are thy rascals? Plague take thee, hunchback! Couldst not say +there were not men enough? Below with ye, and bring up the schooner's +people. Have sail on this vessel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[Pg 485]</a></span> before that anchor takes hold, or I'll +flay thy hump!"</p> + +<p>Cursing venomously, the deformed little demon sprang into the forecastle +and drove up Peters and his four men with kicks and blows. They, too, +were bewildered by the tremendous uproar of sea and wind, and went like +sheep to the fore and main masts at Caliban's bidding.</p> + +<p>"Ready for the anchor—lower away!" roared Hanglip in the boat, where +already was piled coil on coil a great hemp hawser.</p> + +<p>"Handsomely, ye dogs, handsomely!" shrieked Spotted Dog in turn. The +anchor sank into the boat to the screeching of tackles and the groaning +of boat-timbers, and was carried out astern.</p> + +<p>"Carry the end aft!" Dolores commanded; the hawser was taken along and +the end passed around the quarter-deck capstan. "Up with those sails!" +cried the girl now, and Caliban's gang sweated at the halyards, while +slackened sheets permitted the booms to swing and present the luffs to +the screaming gale, bearing no resistance. While the boat pulled away +into the darkness astern, carrying the anchor to the full scope of the +cable, Dolores kept her eyes ever aloft, and over the sea, and upon +every detail of the work. Her eyes fell upon Peters, standing in sullen +mood at the belaying-pin which held a turn of the main-throat halyards. +And as the croaking cry of Caliban ordered "Belay!" she called Peters to +her.</p> + +<p>"Thou'rt sailing-master, hey?"</p> + +<p>"I was."</p> + +<p>"Art still, if thy heart is as stubborn as thy face!" cried Dolores, +laughing at his scowl. "Canst sail thy ship now?"</p> + +<p>"I can sail any ship that floats, but neither I nor your sharks can sail +this schooner now," he replied surlily. "Your false marks did their work +well."</p> + +<p>"Then thou'd rather pull a rope than hold a wheel, hey? 'Tis but a +wooden sailor, after all. I hoped such a ship would boast a seaman as +master. I'll show thee seamanship, sheep-heart!"</p> + +<p>Out of the darkness astern came a roar:</p> + +<p>"Anchor's down! Heave away!"</p> + +<p>And from the darkness aloft Stumpy bawled:</p> + +<p>"There she flares! Mother o' me!" The prayer, curse, whatever the last +words might be, were called forth by a paralyzing flash of lightning +that shone over the raging sea like a gigantic calcium-light. The +schooner's deck resounded with superstitious howls, which rose to awed +cries from the weakest as from trucks and gaff-ends glowed and flickered +the blue brush of St. Elmo's fire.</p> + +<p>"Heave away, heave away!" Dolores's voice rang out on the hubbub, +forcing obedience even in face of terror. The capstan went round to the +urge of a dozen pair of fear-stimulated arms; and fathom by fathom the +great cable came in dripping and glistening; fathom after fathom was +heaped on the deck, and still the schooner remained fast. And ever from +aloft came Stumpy's hail, reporting Milo's flare fast fading in the +distance.</p> + +<p>"You can't do it! I knew it!" shouted Peters defiantly.</p> + +<p>"Peace, sheep!" answered Dolores, slapping him upon the mouth. She stood +at the wheel, and no part of the vessel's situation escaped her. She had +yet a trump to play: a hazardous one, truly, but the big one. The big +fore and main sails swung and crashed idly at their sheets, filling the +air with the thunder of their flinging blocks. At each boom a seaman +stood, and each held the double block of a boom-tackle, waiting the word +that now came.</p> + +<p>"Clap on those boom-tackles!" Dolores commanded, and four men flew to +each as it was hooked to the rigging. "Haul away! Boom the sails square +out!" The great sails filled with a crash as the gale took them on the +fore side, flinging them violently aback.</p> + +<p>"You'll pluck the spars out of her!" screamed Peters, in a frenzy now as +his cherished masts whipped and cracked to the tremendous backward +strain. Dolores ignored the crazed man, but a scornful smile wreathed +about her lips, and her dark eyes gleamed. "Out with them!" she cried. +"More hands there! And heave, ho, heave away on the capstan! Burst thy +arms, bullies! Here comes Hanglip and his bold lads to help ye! Round +with her! Out with them! Heave, good bullies!"</p> + +<p>The girl stood by the wheel, a splendid figure of matchless energy and +courage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[Pg 486]</a></span> Aloft the topmasts bent like whips; Stumpy's voice came down +in ever-increasing fear as his perch grew shakier; the great expanse of +canvas, which should have been treble-reefed even in a floating ship +going forward, tore at boom-tackles and earrings, tacks, and mast-hoops, +shaking the vessel to the keel and filling her with cataclysmic thunder.</p> + +<p>"By the bones of Red Jabez, she comes!" roared Spotted Dog, peering over +the side. "Heave, lads, and never doubt the girl again! Fiends o' +Topheth! See her slide!"</p> + +<p>The schooner shuddered from forefoot to sternpost; the big hawser +slipped in through the lead with gathering speed; the groaning masts +imparted an impulse to her that drove her astern like an arrow, and now, +triumphantly, Dolores cried:</p> + +<p>"An ax! Quickly—cut the hawser! Caliban, get a jib loosed! Hanglip, +open the companionway, and bring up my prisoners. I would have them +enjoy the sail."</p> + +<p>A curling sea poured over the taffrail, sweeping Dolores from her feet; +she met it with a ringing laugh, gripping the wheel as her safeguard, +and the moment the ax severed the hawser she gave the vessel a sheer +with the helm, and again her orders rang out:</p> + +<p>"Let go both boom-tackles! Hoist away the jib! Haul the jib-sheet to +starboard, and stand by fore and main sheets!"</p> + +<p>Out of the darkness ahead came the fluttering of canvas, and soon +Caliban's hoarse croak rang aft: "Hoist away th' jib!" The great booms +swung amidships again when the tackles were cast off, and now the +headsail flew up the stay, the restrained sheet to starboard causing the +canvas to fill aback as had the greater sails before. The pressure was +ahead and to one side; the schooner's head began to fall off, then +faster as she gained momentum, and the fore and main sails again began +to thunder at their blocks.</p> + +<p>"Let draw the jib! Bring in the fore sheet; bear a hand aft here, main +sheet, lads, smartly!" cried Dolores, twirling the wheel to meet the +vessel's swift leeward leap. And as the liberated Feu Follette heeled +dizzily to the gale, under full spread of sail, and her owner and his +guests appeared into the storm, Stumpy's cry rang out:</p> + +<p>"There's the flare—and she's burnin' steady!"</p> + + +<p class="continue">TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month.</p> + + + + + +<h2><a name="Part_III" id="Part_III"></a>The Pirate Woman</h2> + +<h2>by Captain Dingle</h2> + +<p class="center"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_697" id="Page_697">[Pg 697]</a></span>Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc.</p> + +<p class="continue2">This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2.</p> + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">YELLOW RUFE'S FINISH.</h3> + + +<p>"How bears the flare?" Dolores demanded, steadying the helm.</p> + +<p>"Three points on lee-bow!" came from aloft.</p> + +<p>"Sing out when we point for it!" Dolores gave the wheel a few spokes, +and at her command the main-sheet was rendered until the schooner fell +off from the wind, and Stumpy hailed: "Steady! She heads fair for it!"</p> + +<p>"Does it still burn?"</p> + +<p>"Aye, blazing bright! And low down, too, for the seas hide it every +moment!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_698" id="Page_698">[Pg 698]</a></span>"Keep thy eyes skinned, and seek for the sloop, too."</p> + +<p>The schooner came to a more even keel as she squared away from the gale, +and the splendid speed of the craft sent a thrill through Dolores, as +through the less impressionable pirate of the gang. Fast as Rufe's sloop +was, this dainty plaything of wealth and leisure sped over the snarling +seas at a gait that promised to overhaul the smaller vessel two fathoms +to one.</p> + +<p>Even Rupert Venner and his friends, shivering with the wet and sudden +change from the cabin to the deck though they were, found much to soothe +them in the glorious sweep and swing of the Feu Follette; much to admire +and envy in the perfect poise and <i>sang froid</i> of the magnificent +creature at the wheel.</p> + +<p>Dolores stood on feet as steady as the great, deep eyes that were fixed +on the compass-card before her. Her heavy, lustrous hair streamed about +her from under the golden circlet; in each lightning flash she stood +out, a thing of wild, awful beauty; the rain glistened on her bare +shoulders and arms, rendering her golden skin a gleaming, fairylike +armor. And the blustering wind caught her wet tunic and wrapped it about +her closely and tightly, revealing every grace and glory of her perfect +body.</p> + +<p>"Saints! Was there ever such a creature?" said Tomlin hoarsely.</p> + +<p>Pearse's face was set and grim; he made no rejoinder. Venner, too, kept +silent; but his eyes held venom as he glared at the speaker. Dolores +suddenly raised her eyes from the binnacle, looked toward them as they +crouched shivering in the lee of the deck-house-companion, and she, warm +and glowing in a flimsy, wet garment, laughed mockingly, and called to +them.</p> + +<p>"I am forgetting what is due to my guests. Do ye feel cold? Will ye go +below?"</p> + +<p>And they, shivering and uneasy as they were, were content to shiver if +only they might not lose sight of her. Their reply was unintelligible; +neither would look at the others; yet their mumbled response was +understood, and the girl laughed again, loud, ringing, and full of +allure.</p> + +<p>"Such courage comes only of true sea stock, my friends! I shall not +forget this fortitude when I have done with the schooner."</p> + +<p>"Flare close aboard!" roared Stumpy; then: "Seize my soul if I see the +boat, though, mistress. Satan! Now the flare's gone out!"</p> + +<p>"Whereaway?" cried Dolores shrilly. Big Milo was out there in the +blackness.</p> + +<p>"Right under the bows!" bellowed the lookout. "Luff, or bear away; ye'll +run him down!"</p> + +<p>And from the raging seas off the lee-bow came the deep, calm voice of +Milo, unperturbed as if on dry land, though no boat was to be seen in +the murk. "Hold the course, Sultana, I am here!"</p> + +<p>And on the heels of the words came a flash from the skies, blazing full +upon the dripping figure of the giant as he reached a great arm up, +gripped the lee-rail, and swung himself on board with the unconscious +ease of a perfect athlete.</p> + +<p>"Thy boat, Milo?" inquired Dolores.</p> + +<p>"Sailed under, Sultana. I have held the flare aloft in my hand while +swimming until a moment ago, when the powder burned out."</p> + +<p>"And Rufe?"</p> + +<p>"The sloop is close by. Thou art sailing fair at his stern if thy course +was not changed to avoid me. His topmast is gone; he sails slowly."</p> + +<p>Then without more ado the splendid human animal clutched a backstay and +swarmed aloft with the agility of an ape, showing not a whit of strain +after his battle with the roaring seas. He reached Stumpy, sent that +numbed mariner down, and searched the waters with his keen vision, +waiting for another lightning flash. And when it came, fainter now as +the thunderstorm receded, his resonant voice boomed down:</p> + +<p>"Broad abeam the sloop lies! She runs before the wind!"</p> + +<p>"Slack away the main-sheet!" cried Dolores, heaving the helm up. "Hail +every minute, Milo!"</p> + +<p>"Shall I send him a shot immediately, lady?" roared Hanglip, at the +schooner's foremost gun.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_699" id="Page_699">[Pg 699]</a></span>"Hold with thy shots, villain! Does Rufe deserve no sport? Stand by with +the grappling-hooks. I'll run him down!"</p> + +<p>"The sloop is dead ahead!" hailed Milo, though none on deck could detect +anything of her in the blackness. Dolores listened intently; then +twirled the wheel, and cried: "I hear her! Ready the grapnels?"</p> + +<p>"Aye, ready!"</p> + +<p>"Then watch—and heave!" she commanded; and with the suddenness of light +the schooner swept around in a swift arc, the black shape of the flying +sloop stood out against the angry sea crests, and the two vessels came +together with a crash of timbers and a rattling of gear.</p> + +<p>A distant rumbling of thunder succeeded a faint flash, and wind and rain +came down with increased fury as if to balance the defection of the +electric element. The darkness of Erebus fell upon the surging vessels, +and men groped at the rails in a blind effort to make out a footing for +boarding the sloop.</p> + +<p>"Follow me; I want Yellow Rufe alive!" cried Dolores, leaving the wheel +and springing to the bulwarks. Instinctively Peters stepped to the +wheel, and as he passed his employer he leaned to whisper in his ear:</p> + +<p>"Let them once leave these decks, sir, and we'll up hellum and away!"</p> + +<p>Venner's eyes glittered at the prospect; but he could not see the faces +of his friends; he could only hear Pearse's low tones beside him, and +the mumbled words indicated no great agreement in the scheme. Uncertain, +his mind confused between desire to escape and desire to see more of +Dolores and her hidden cave of wonders, Rupert Venner hesitated in his +decision; and in the next moment it was out of his power to decide. For +Rufe, in desperation now, met the boarders at the rail, backed by his +half-dozen crazed adherents, and murderous steel glittered dully against +the inky sky.</p> + +<p>"Beat down his cringing curs, but leave me Rufe!" cried Dolores, +opposing her own dagger to the sweep of the pirate's cutlas. And as the +schooner's crew roared at Hanglip's heels, storming over to the pitching +sloop's decks to pursue mercilessly the panic-stricken runaways, the +girl pitted agility and splendid knife-craft against the terror-driven +strength and wolfish fury of the trapped traitor.</p> + +<p>"Hah! Thy black heart fails thee!" taunted Dolores, leaping down from +the rail to the schooner's streaming deck and thus avoiding a whistling +stroke of Rufe's cutlas. The pirate fell forward with the impetus of his +blow, and stumbled in a heap at the girl's nimble feet. "Up, man!" she +cried, leaping back to permit him to rise. "What, art afraid of a woman? +Here, then, I prick thee! Now wilt fight?" She darted her dagger swiftly +downward, and the partially healed cross on Rufe's cheek blazed red +again.</p> + +<p>"Woman or devil, I'll see thy heart for that!" swore the pirate, and +rose with a bound and hurled himself at the girl. She stepped aside +agilely and laughed mockingly at him, while as he again stumbled with +the swing of his avoided blow she darted close, and her knife ripped his +sword-arm from wrist to elbow.</p> + +<p>Mouthing crazily with fury, Rufe leaped backward until his shoulders +struck the rigging, and, seizing his cutlas in his left hand, he poised +it by the blade for a deadly javelin cast.</p> + +<p>Now upon the scene flared a great blaze, and Stumpy's scowling face +appeared at the back of it. He, with readier wit than his fellows, had +sought out a tar-pot and lamp; and at the moment his mistress stood +defenseless before the impeding steel, the club-footed pirate poured +lamp-oil into the tar, and cast the flaring wick on top of all.</p> + +<p>A circle of light spread from wheel to foremast, with Yellow Rufe at the +main rigging in the center of it. The light dazzled him for a second, +and his throw was stayed. The three yachtsmen, huddled in their chains +aft, stared in helpless amazement at the tableau; for such it became, +when the fight stopped for a breath and every man's passion-filled face +was lighted by the red glare.</p> + +<p>"Shoot him down!" shouted Pearse in horror.</p> + +<p>And Venner and Tomlin strove for words without success. Venner was dumb +and sick in face of Dolores's peril. Yellow Rufe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_700" id="Page_700">[Pg 700]</a></span> uttered a grim, +Satanic growl of laughter, and drew back his arm for the cast. His +plight was utterly desperate; he knew death waited for him with +clutching talons, and with his last breath he would reap toll that +should make his name a thing to recall with dread afterward.</p> + +<p>"This for thy witch's heart!" he howled, and his arm quivered. Then out +of the shadows aloft, above the smoky flare, came down the tremendous +shape of Milo, forgotten in his post at the masthead, but never taking +his eyes from his Sultana.</p> + +<p>Like a gorilla he slipped down the backstay with one hand; with the +other hand he reached downward with a swift, sure clutch, and as Rufe's +wrist flexed to cast his javelin Milo's hand gripped him by the neck +from behind and swung him bodily off his feet, while the wide-flung +cutlas flashed through the air and plunged with a hiss over the side.</p> + +<p>"I thank thee again, Milo," said Dolores, slipping her dagger into the +sheath and looking on at Rufe's struggles with the unconcern of one far +apart from the actual conflict. "I wished to take him alive; yet had +almost been forced to cut too deeply. Bring the villain to me. And, +Caliban, get more flares, lanterns, lights, and make us a theater of +justice here."</p> + +<p>She stepped aft, saw Peters at the wheel, and smiled as she realized how +her boarding of the sloop might have resulted.</p> + +<p>"Hah, but it would have availed thee nothing!" she smiled at Venner. "I +read thy heart as I read the stars, friend. Watch how completely Yellow +Rufe pays his debt to me. He has fled me through forest and mountain; +through a sea of howling storm; yet he pays. And thus all men pay who +think to flout Dolores. Keep thy eyes wide, friends, and watch."</p> + +<p>Yellow Rufe was brought before her, and his swarthy face was pallid in +the red light. There was something of the splendid beast about this +fellow, too; a quality that showed even when he faced certain death and +no merciful one. He had run, and when overtaken he had fought; and now +he must pay.</p> + +<p>"Hanglip, to the wheel here!" Dolores commanded. "Six of you bring back +the sloop. The rest attend me! Bring the schooner to her course, +northwest, Hanglip; and, Spotted Dog, rig me a whip at the foregaff-end. +Yellow Rufe, pray or curse while ye may. Thy course is run. There is +nothing left to say. Ten minutes remain to thee."</p> + +<p>The doomed pirate stood in silence while the preparations were being +made; but when Spotted Dog brought down the end of the rope he had rove +through the block at the end of the gaff, and stood grinning +anticipatively before Dolores, Rufe's tongue came loose, and he burst +into a torrent of futile, raving blasphemy.</p> + +<p>"Take the rope end forward, and pass it around the bows, so that the +rope passes beneath the keel," Dolores ordered, and every eager villain +in the band knew now what fate awaited Rufe. The schooner, not being +square-rigged, was badly fitted for the operation of keel-hauling; but +Dolores's inventive brain had devised a refinement of even that +refinement of torture. She waited for the rope end, and when Spotted Dog +brought it aft, on the weather side, passing clear from the gaff to +leeward, under the keel and up to windward, she stood aside so that the +yachtsmen could witness all.</p> + +<p>"Tie his hands, Milo!" she said. It was carried out, in spite of Rufe's +fierce fight against it. "Now place the noose about his throat tightly." +That, too, was done, and now the rope led from Rufe's neck, over the +weather rail, under the schooner, and up to the gaff. Three men stood by +the hauling part of the rope, and at a gesture from the girl six others +joined them. On every face was a little doubt, for none saw exactly what +was coming, least of all Rufe.</p> + +<p>"Now release him!" said Dolores quietly, and Rufe was left standing +alone, his hands tied, but his feet unfettered. He glared around as if +he saw a slim chance yet for life; the hope died the next moment, for +Dolores signed to the men at the rope, they began hauling, and the +terror leaped into Rufe's eyes afresh.</p> + +<p>For a moment Venner and his friends saw what they imagined to be a piece +of grim jesting; but they, as well as Rufe,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_701" id="Page_701">[Pg 701]</a></span> speedily saw there was no +jest in this. For as the rope tightened, and other roaring ruffians ran +joyously to take a pull at it, Rufe was drawn irresistibly toward the +weather rail with a choking drag on his throat. He seized the rail, and +strained with his every sinew to fight that deadly peril; the rope only +tightened more; it was either go or strangle for him; fight as he might, +he was forced to climb on the rail, to aid in his own funeral.</p> + +<p>The yachtsmen turned dizzy with the awfulness of the man's end; but they +could not take their fascinated eyes from the scene. They saw Rufe +topple over the rail with a choking curse, and saw the rope pull him +under the vessel; they saw the rope quiver to the pirates' lusty pull as +the victim was battered against the keel. And they saw the terrible +figure leap from the sea to leeward and fly to the gaff-end as the men +ran away with the rope to a roaring chorus. But they saw no more. Their +eyes refused to look at a repetition of that horror. And Dolores, +watching them keenly, came to them, after giving final orders regarding +Yellow Rufe's body, took their chains in her hand, and said:</p> + +<p>"When again the thought comes to leave me, gentlemen, think well upon +what I have showed thee. Now come below. I owe thee some refreshment +after a night of storm. 'Twill be approaching dawn ere the schooner can +beat back to my haven. Come. I will serve thee with supper."</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE FIRES OF THE FLESH.</h3> + + +<p>In the schooner's saloon the atmosphere was peaceful by contrast with +the hurly-burly outside; yet even here the steep slant of the deck, the +shrill, protesting squeal of working frames and beams, the sullen thud +and swish of racing seas along the vessel's skin, kept the storm ever in +mind: the dizzy plunge of the bows into great gray seas, with its +accompanying rise of the stern and the hollow jar and thump of the +rudder-post in its port, kept the interior humming with sound as from a +distant organ.</p> + +<p>Again chained to the mainmast, the three yachtsmen stood gloomily +regarding Dolores, whose capable, battle-wise fingers now performed a +task more in keeping with her sex and charm. Under the great swing-lamp +in the skylight she leaned over the table, mixing wine in low, stout +cups, spreading a silver salver with food from the pantry. And a +thrilling picture she made in the soft glow of the lamp. The beautiful +face was warm with color; the scarlet lips were slightly opened in a +brilliant smile; intent upon her task, she swayed with superb grace to +the tremendous lurches of the driving schooner, ignoring all outside +affairs.</p> + +<p>Her preparations completed, she placed tray and cups at the end of the +table nearest the mainmast, turned around the deep armchair which had +been the owner's own, and sat down, offering a cup and the tray with a +little laugh of satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"Come, friend Rupert," she said, thrilling Venner again with her vibrant +voice, "thou shalt be first. Eat—and drink. See, for thee I do this." +She raised the cup to her lips, and kissed the brim, fixing her +fathomless eyes full on Venner as she did so.</p> + +<p>He struggled with his feelings for a moment, and hated himself heartily +for even debating his attitude. But he fell, as he had done before, +dazzled by her witchery. His eyes blazed, his blood leaped, and he took +the cup with a mumbled attempt at thanks. Dolores smiled at his +confusion, and in that smile was the allure of a Circe.</p> + +<p>Venner's expression became less tense as he noted the faces of his +fellows; for in their eyes he read jealousy, rank and stark, and it +warmed him to the marrow. In the next instant his warmth rose to fever +heat, and malice twisted his features; Dolores had taken another cup, +and now she offered it to Pearse, with a smile yet more gracious than +before.</p> + +<p>"My silent friend, here's to thee, too," she murmured. His cup she +kissed twice, and presented it carefully so that the place she kissed +was against his lips. "Drink. I have sweetened it."</p> + +<p>As Venner's brows darkened, so did John Pearse conquer his first flush +of self-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_702" id="Page_702">[Pg 702]</a></span>contempt and put on a smile that irradiated his usually serious +face. And Tomlin brightened, too, waiting in what patience he could +muster for his turn, which must come next. To him Dolores turned, cup in +hand, and rising at the same time gave him his wine with a brief: "Here, +drink, too. I must leave thee a while."</p> + +<p>She forced the cup into Tomlin's trembling fingers, gave him never a +glance, but went out of the saloon on her errand.</p> + +<p>When he realized she was gone, Craik Tomlin dashed down the wine like a +petulant boy, and cursed deeply and fiercely. And not until then did +Venner and Pearse awake to the true artistry of the woman; for here, +instead of making of Tomlin a raging foe, willing to plot with all the +power of his alert brain for their ultimate release, she had aroused a +demon of black jealousy in him which promised to set all three by the +ears.</p> + +<p>Restricted as their movements were, they were forced to nurse whatever +feelings Dolores had implanted in them in full sight of each other. And +Tomlin left no doubt as to his feelings. At the farthest scope of his +chain he flung himself down on the slanting floor and crouched there +with dull-glowing eyes bent loweringly upon his friends. Venner laughed +awkwardly, and glanced at Pearse; the laugh died away and left a silence +between them that was vividly accentuated by the manifold voices of the +laboring vessel. For in the swift meeting of eyes, John Pearse and +Venner, host and guest, friends to that moment, saw in each other an +established rival, a potential foe. Involuntarily they drew apart; and +when Dolores returned from the deck she found them spread out like star +rays, having nothing in common except a common center.</p> + +<p>She gave no sign that she noticed them; but her heavy, fringed lids +drooped over eyes brimming with gratification. As she stepped from the +stairs the schooner swung upright, the deck overhead thundered to the +slamming of booms as she came about, and then the cabin sloped the other +way, rolling the scattered wine-cups noisily across the floor. Neither +man looked up; but Tomlin's cup rolled so that it struck his foot, and +he gave voice to a deep oath, terrible in its uncalled-for savagery. +Then Dolores gave them outward notice for the first time.</p> + +<p>With a low, pleasant laugh, she stepped quickly to Tomlin's side, laid a +hand on his sullen head, and forced him to look up at her.</p> + +<p>"I owe thee something, friend," she smiled, and Tomlin flushed hotly +under her close regard. "I treated thee badly in my haste. Come"—she +went to the sideboard, filled another cup with wine, and came back, +kneeling before Tomlin in the attitude of a slave while her big eyes +blazed full into his.</p> + +<p>"Drink, for I like thee best," she whispered, sipping the wine and +putting the brim, warm from her lips, to his.</p> + +<p>And Tomlin drank deeply, greedily, trembling under her close proximity. +He felt her hand take his chain, heard the tinkle of links, and knew, +without seeing, that she had unlocked his fetters and he was free.</p> + +<p>"Now sit here with me, and thou shalt tell me about thy world, my +friend, the world thou shalt take me to."</p> + +<p>Her soft, thrilling voice set Tomlin's blood leaping; and as she spoke +she led him to Venner's great chair and sat him down in it. Then, facing +at the length of the table her other two captives, she stood behind the +big chair, her arms on the top, leaning low to Tomlin's ear, her lips +almost brushing his cheek.</p> + +<p>And she whispered to him musically, seductively; her jeweled fingers +played with his hair; the soft, warm skin of her arms slid over his neck +and face; when, in a frenzy, he reached impulsively for her hand and +gripped it, she laughed yet more deliciously and permitted him to hold +it.</p> + +<p>"Why must you seek another world, Dolores?" Tomlin said hoarsely. "Here +you are queen. Out in the greater world you can be no more. Stay, and +let me stay with you."</p> + +<p>"And would my paltry possessions pay thee for renouncing thy people, thy +home?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Home? People? God! I renounce Heaven itself if you say yes!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_703" id="Page_703">[Pg 703]</a></span>"We shall see, my friend," Dolores sighed, and Tomlin felt her tremble +slightly. "My chief desire is to leave behind me this life of herder to +human beasts. To go into the world whence comes such as thee, Tomlin; to +live among the people who can make such as these"—she indicated the +rich furnishing of the saloon, the sideboard silver and plate, the +stained glass of the skylight.</p> + +<p>"All these things I have, and more—nay, but thy treasures are nothing +compared with what I shall show thee in the great chamber—yet must I +keep them hidden because of the beasts that call me Sultana! Where they +came from, these treasures, must be men like thee, Tomlin, women like +the painted women of my gallery, people with the art to make these +things instead of the brute power to steal them. And there I will go, +and thou art to be my guide."</p> + +<p>"Then, in Heaven's name, let us go now!" cried Tomlin, trying to rise. +She laughed in his ear again, and her soft, warm arms pressed him back +in the chair with a power that amazed him. "We shall go, in good +season," she whispered. "But—" The rest was murmured so faintly, yet so +tremendously audible to his superheated brain, that he drew back and +stared up at her with an awful expression of mingled unbelief and horror +distorting his face.</p> + +<p>"Do you know what you say?" he gasped, and shot an apprehensive glance +toward Venner and Pearse.</p> + +<p>"Surely, my friend," she crooned. "Thyself alone, of those who came in +this ship, may return. If I am desirable, see to it that I can be +pleased with thee." Dolores stood up, bent upon him a dazzling smile, +leaned as if to kiss his lips, then with a tinkling little ripple of +mirth blew a kiss instead and ran up the companion-stairs to the deck.</p> + +<p>Tomlin stood glaring after her as if fascinated. His face, deeply +flushed a moment before, had gone deathly white; his profile, turned +under the lamp toward his companions, showed deeply puckered brows over +stony eyes, lips parted as if to utter a cry of horror. And Venner, +fuming inwardly, had seen enough to recall some of his badly scattered +wits. He called Tomlin by name hoarsely, softly, and exclaimed when he +looked around:</p> + +<p>"Tomlin, shall we three be ruined body and soul by that sorceress? Come, +help us out of these chains, and we will make a bid for liberty. We can +reach Peters and such men as are left, by way of the alleyway to the +forecastle; I know where weapons are to be got, and we'll put our fate +on the cast. Come. Pearse is of a like mind, eh, Pearse?"</p> + +<p>Pearse did not reply at once, and Tomlin saved him the trouble; for, +recovering himself with a shudder, he put a hand on the companion-rail +and started up the stairs with a laugh of contempt.</p> + +<p>"I have no concern with your troubles, Venner," he said. "As for +liberty, I am free as air. I believe patience is the medicine you need."</p> + +<p>Tomlin reached the deck with tingling ears, for even Pearse came out of +his reverie to curse him. But curses or benedictions counted nothing at +that moment. In every patch of light he saw Dolores's devilishly lovely +face; in every swing of the vessel he saw her consummate grace; he was a +thirsty man seeking a spring, knowing full well that a draft must kill +him. He stood alone outside the companionway, wondering at the absence +of people, at the absence of Dolores. A solitary man stood at the wheel; +and, looking around for others, Tomlin noticed vaguely that the black +storm was broken, that watery stars were winking down, and that almost +in the zenith a gibbous moon leaned like a brimming dipper of +quicksilver, ready to drop from the inky cloud that had but just +uncovered it.</p> + +<p>Then voices reached his ears from forward, voices full of wondering +anger, and he stepped out clear of the deck-house and peered ahead on +the windward side. There, two miles away, the land loomed black and +forbidding; and high up, on a crest, a great red blaze leaped and +swirled against the flying clouds.</p> + +<p>As he stood, Dolores ran aft, ignoring him utterly in her haste. Her men +grouped themselves along the waist of the schooner,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_704" id="Page_704">[Pg 704]</a></span> waiting for +commands. The Feu Follette was already doing her best; that is, the best +under such sail as was safe to carry. But there, to windward, and yet +two miles distant, some part of the pirate village was burning, and none +might say yet what part it was.</p> + +<p>The one thing certain was that it could not be the great chamber. That +was of rock; it might be destroyed by an explosion; never by fire. So +there was a ring of exultation in Dolores's tone when she sent the hail +along:</p> + +<p>"Loose both topsails and set them! Caliban, thou small villain, out and +loose the outer jib. Main-sheet here! Oh, haul, bullies! Flat—more +yet—so, belay!"</p> + +<p>Then the girl flung the man from the wheel, seized the spokes herself, +and began to nurse the schooner to windward with truly superhuman art. +Closer yet she brought the graceful craft; closer, until the luffs +trembled and the seas burst fair upon the stem and volleyed stinging +spray the full length of her. And as she drew nearer, the blaze seemed +to diminish and blaze afresh as if fire-fighters were there indeed, but +lacking weapons to fight with.</p> + +<p>"Is it the treasure-house?" Tomlin asked anxiously, stepping beside the +girl. She stood in deep shadow; the dim radiance from the lighted +binnacle touched her face, breast, and arms with soft light, and her +eyes, as they flashed swiftly toward the man, glittered with some subtle +quality that sent a shiver running down his spine.</p> + +<p>"Treasure-house?" she repeated, and her voice was no longer soft and +alluring; it was metallic and menacing. For the second time, first in +Venner, now in Tomlin, she had seen the true source of their +fascination. "No, it is not the treasure-house. It is the council hall, +where thou wert lodged." She snatched her gaze from the compass and +fixed him with the cold, unwinking stare of a snake. "Where thou wert +lodged, my friend who would renounce all for me. Where, had I cared to, +I might have left two of ye, taking with me to safety only the one whose +brains are not afire with soulless gold and jewels."</p> + +<p>Tomlin grew hot and uneasy. "My brain is on fire with your beauty, +Dolores," he returned, trying to force her gaze to meet his again.</p> + +<p>"Prove it to me, then," she replied shortly, and waved him away, +devoting her attention now to making the anchorage, already close to.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">PEARSE ENTERS THE CAVE OF ALADDIN.</h3> + + +<p>Lucky it proved that Pascherette had been left behind when the schooner +sailed after Yellow Rufe. Even Dolores, with all her consummate wisdom, +had forgotten the existence of the old woman she had degraded to kitchen +drudge; still more utterly had she forgotten the relationship existing +between the old woman and the late victim of her terrible vengeance.</p> + +<p>Sancho had called the old crone mother, whether with blood reasons or +not none knew. And at bottom, much of Sancho's rebellion had come of +anger at the treatment meted out to her. And it was Sancho's despairing +cry, when Milo cast him out into the Grove, that brought the old woman +from her concealment in the forest. The awful plight of the unlucky +wretch had aroused in the woman's withered breast a demon of revenge +that knew no limits; and the departing schooner, then barely visible to +her, filled her brain with the knowledge that the strangers who came in +that vessel had been the indirect cause of her Sancho's fate.</p> + +<p>She knew they had been placed in the cells behind the council hall; she +knew nothing of Dolores's last-minute decision that had taken them with +her. She knew nothing as to who or how many were left in the camp; but +she knew, she had terrible and ever-present proof in that moaning, +groping, brainless thing that was Sancho, that her mistress had shown a +leaning toward the strangers at the expense of her own people, and that +she herself might expect no mercy if ever caught. And with the low +animal cunning that served her for intellect she knew her penalty could +be no greater if she struck one blow in revenge before taking to the +woods in final flight.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_705" id="Page_705">[Pg 705]</a></span>Her plan was simple. Watching Sancho for a while, so that she might not +lose him, she searched for dry wood among the drenched underbrush, piled +it against the rear of the council hall, and set fire to it, fanning the +faint flame and feeding it, guarding it with her scanty garments, until +the red tongues shot up in a powerful, self-supporting conflagration.</p> + +<p>Then she had darted back to the forest fringe, found Sancho, and turned +his sightless, blank face toward the blaze so that he might feel the +warmth and guess the cause. But she knew nothing of his cracked brain; +she knew only of his physical agonies; the utter absence of interest in +him when she would have shown him what she had done shook her to the +foundations of her own reason; and her eldritch scream pealed up among +the trees as she flung her arms aloft and cursed the place.</p> + +<p>It was the scream that brought Pascherette out of the hut, where she +sheltered from the storm, to see the council hall in flames. It was the +scream that told the little octoroon where the fire had birth. And +Pascherette, too, believed that the three strangers were still within +the cells. She had plans of her own that required the safety of those +men, at least for a while. And her active brain gave her the solution +before the old woman had ceased to curse.</p> + +<p>Like a small, sleek panther Pascherette ran toward the old woman; she +saw Sancho, too, but instinctively knew that after Milo's treatment of +him he could not be dangerous; ignoring the man, she drew her knife as +she ran, and with a brief, panting, "That for thee, witch!" struck the +old woman down at Sancho's stumbling feet.</p> + +<p>Now she gave all her energies to subduing the fire; and, swiftly +rallying every man or woman in the camp she drove them with blows and +shrill invective to beating the blaze with sodden boughs and wet sand. +She set men with poles to batter down the doors to the cells; but the +doors had been built to oppose that kind of entry. Frantically she drove +the fire-fighters to another place, while she heaped up fresh fire +against the doors in the hope of burning down what could not be burst. +And it was the last up-blazing shaft of fire as the doors fell that +Dolores saw in the moment she brought the schooner to anchor. +Pascherette was emerging, singed and blackened, with dark rage in her +glittering eyes at having found the cells empty, when Dolores and her +crew arrived on the scene with Venner and Tomlin and Pearse in their +midst.</p> + +<p>"What! Pascherette again?" cried Dolores, glaring at the girl with red +suspicion in her face. "Is this thy work? Speak!"</p> + +<p>Pascherette stared in surprise at the three strangers, and her painfully +scorched lips strove to answer. Her throat was dry, and at first words +refused to come. But in the pause, when fifty faces glowered at the +girl, something stumbled across the open in the firelight, and Milo's +sharp vision distinguished it. He went up to Pascherette, with deep +concern in his devoted eyes, and laid a strong arm about her trembling +shoulders. She relaxed toward him, and managed to whisper to him. He +flung out his free hand toward the open space, and cried to Dolores:</p> + +<p>"There is the traitor, Sultana! This is the avenger."</p> + +<p>Dolores looked; every eye was turned where Milo pointed; and the brutal +laughter of some of the hardiest pirates mingled with the groans of the +three yachtsmen, whose escape from a horrible death by fire could not +reconcile them to the staggering vengeance that had overtaken the wretch +who had attempted that death. Bathed in an infernal glow, grotesque as a +creature of a diseased brain, the unhuman Sancho staggered across the +glade and into the darkness of the forest, bearing in his handless arms +a ghastly burden in which the hilt of Pascherette's dagger glittered and +flashed as the firelight touched it.</p> + +<p>"Back! Let him go!" cried Dolores; and a score of shouting ruffians +returned from swift pursuit, leaving Sancho and his burden to pass into +the oblivion of the great forest.</p> + +<p>Milo examined the damage, and reported. The cells were useless now, +except merely to confine captives. They did not fit in with Dolores's +plans thus, and she sent Milo to a distance with John Pearse while she +carried into effect a new fancy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_706" id="Page_706">[Pg 706]</a></span> Her crew had gone to their own places, +to soothe the fatigues of their night's work in carousal; Pascherette +stood near by, gazing at her mistress with mute appeal that she, too, be +permitted to seek alleviation of her own sore burns.</p> + +<p>"Wait, child," said Dolores, seeing the girl's trouble. "I'll cure thy +hurts soon."</p> + +<p>Then she separated Venner and Tomlin, taking each in turn to a vacant +hut. And to each she whispered patience and faith; to each her voice +imparted a renewed thrill. To Venner she said:</p> + +<p>"Thy anger with me was foolish, good Rupert. I did but smile at thy +friends to make thy task easier. Now see; I leave thee unfettered, and +thus." She drew his head down and lightly kissed his hair, laughing with +a little tremor: "Think of what I asked of thee, Rupert. To-morrow I +shall ask thy decision."</p> + +<p>In turn to Tomlin she whispered:</p> + +<p>"The night has been arduous for thee. I was impatient with thee. Thy vow +of devotion to me rang true, though I doubted it at the moment. +To-morrow I will hear what thy heart speaks. To-night, see, I free thee. +For thy own safety, though, do not venture beyond these doors save with +me. My rascals are fierce creatures of jealousy and suspicion. Good +night, friend." Him, too, she left tingling with her kiss, and whatever +others in the camp did that night, two men found sleep elusive and vain.</p> + +<p>Milo brought Pearse to her at her call, and together they went to the +great stone before the chamber. Milo rolled back the rock, while his +expression showed uneasiness. But he had learned his lesson when +protesting against Pascherette's admission to the cave of mystery, and +uttered no warning now.</p> + +<p>Pascherette, in spite of her burns, bent a roguish face upon Pearse as +that puzzled gentleman waited for some word or motion that should give +him the reason for this unexpected favor.</p> + +<p>Still Dolores said nothing. The rock rolled away, and Milo stood aside, +she entered, touching Pearse on the arm as she passed him, and he +followed meekly, Pascherette bringing up the rear with Milo after the +giant replaced the great stone. Then Dolores turned back to Pearse, +under the soft, red glow of the unseen lamps, and flashed a bewildering +smile upon him.</p> + +<p>"Wilt believe now that I love thee?" she whispered, and her lids drooped +over swimming eyes. "Beyond that great door lies the chamber to enter +which costs death. Art afraid?"</p> + +<p>"Lead on," replied Pearse hoarsely. There was no trace of fear in his +voice or in his eyes; but Dolores warmed gladly to the knowledge that +here at last was a man whose thoughts were bent upon her and not on her +chamber of treasures.</p> + +<p>They stood before the massive sliding door of plate and jewels, and here +the human side in John Pearse showed through for an instant. Under the +great, yellow lantern the gold and silver plates, the glowing rubies, +the glinting emeralds, made a picture of fabulous riches that even he +could not ignore. But at the upward slide of the door his eyes left the +richness of it without a flicker; he waited for the heavy velvet +hangings to be drawn, and when Dolores's eyes sought his they surprised +his deep, ardent gaze fastened full on herself and not upon what might +next be revealed.</p> + +<p>"Enter, man of my heart," she smiled, and stood aside to permit him to +pass.</p> + +<p>In the first steps over the threshold John Pearse saw little save a dim, +cool hall, vast and full of vagrant shadows; then, when Milo had +arranged the lights so that they gradually grew in power, flooding the +chamber with mellow radiance, his soul seemed to burst from his throat +in one choking, stupefied gasp.</p> + +<p>"The Cave of Aladdin!" he choked, and stood open-mouthed while Dolores +laughed softly at his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Nay," she reproved. "'Tis the Cave of Dolores. 'Tis mine, and"—she +turned her face up toward his alluringly—"may be thine, if thou'rt a +true man!"</p> + +<p>With shrewd artistry she twisted away as he strove to clasp her, and +there she left him standing, in the midst of untold treasures that every +moment were increasingly revealed to him. Without another glance for +him, or apparently another thought, she took Pascherette by the hand and +led her down the chamber to the great chair.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_707" id="Page_707">[Pg 707]</a></span> Here she busied herself +with salves and lotions to assuage the scald of the girl's fresh burns, +which were more painful than serious. And every moment she was thus +charitably employed her gleaming eyes were fixed upon Pearse from under +concealing lashes; every moment Milo's dusky face was bent upon her from +the end of the chamber with an expression of absolute adoration and +gratitude. For tiny Pascherette was custodian of the giant's green +heart; and honest Milo never sought very deeply for motives. It was +enough for him that Dolores, his Sultana, the being he worshiped as he +worshiped his gods, was ministering with woman's infinite tenderness to +her maid, a creature as humble as himself.</p> + +<p>Pearse, too, even in his intoxication of senses, saw and warmed to this +evidence of real womanliness in one he had small cause to think anything +other than a bewilderingly alluring fury. He could not hide his +thoughts, and Dolores saw them betrayed on his face; Pascherette +surprised the look on her mistress's lovely face that told her the +imperious beauty possessed a heart of living flesh and blood. And +Pascherette shuddered nervously at the fear of what must happen should +that heart ever feel humiliated.</p> + +<p>"Keep still, child," Dolores laughed happily, mistaking the reason for +the girl's shudder. "It is finished now. Thy hurts will pass in thy +sleep. Go to thy big man there, and have him pet thee. I have no need of +thee until I call. Go, take him away. I would be alone with my guest."</p> + +<p>The girl ran to Milo, and together they went down to the gallery beyond +the picture door. Then Dolores set out with her own fair hands wine and +sweetmeats, the confections taken from the yacht, strange and new to +her, but in her mind something desirable to such men as Pearse, else why +had they brought such things? And again using her innate witchery, she +set a chair for Pearse at a distance from her own, where she could look +straight into his face or hide her own, as her fancy dictated.</p> + +<p>"Hast seen the like before?" she smiled, looking at him over the brim of +a chased gold flagon.</p> + +<p>"Never, never, Dolores!" he said, and his eyes blazed into hers. He +moved his chair close to her, and reached for her free hand.</p> + +<p>"What! Hast thou no eyes for these things?" she exclaimed in simulated +surprise, taking her hand away and indicating the wealth around the +walls. "Man, thy eyes are idle; look at those gems, those paintings; +hast ever seen the like of those 'Three Graces,' then, that they have no +interest for thee?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have seen the like, wonderful, wonderful being," he returned +hoarsely. "You I have seen; you, you, I see nothing else but you, +Dolores!"</p> + +<p>She dazzled him with a seductive smile, full of fire-specked softnesses, +and offered him her flagon.</p> + +<p>"Drink, comrade. Drink here, and we shall talk of thee and me, and what +concerns us both nearly. Art sure thy eyes are not blinded by the nearer +beauty?"</p> + +<p>"I am not blind! I never saw with clearer vision!" Pearse cried, taking +the flagon with tremorless hand. "I care nothing for these tawdry +gauds."</p> + +<p>"Ah! Then thou'rt the man. Come, thy faithful soul deserves reward. +Come, I will show thee treasures thou hast not dreamed of yet; and all +shall be thine, with me—at a price."</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE TREASURE TEST.</h3> + + +<p>Dolores gaily took John Pearse by the hand and led him down the chamber +to the dais on which stood the vacant chair of state of the dead Red +Jabez. The great canopied bed still stood there; but it was curtained +in, out of sight, and unused; Dolores preferred her own low couch, with +its strangely beautiful composite furnishings of silk and tiger-skins, +velvet and snowy polar-bear rugs, heaped high with luxurious cushions +that made it a restful lounge by day as well as a sleep-inviting couch +by night.</p> + +<p>Beside the couch, between it and the dais, Milo had set the +treasure-chests, leaving the lids wide-flung, the contents but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_708" id="Page_708">[Pg 708]</a></span> thinly +concealed by silken shawls. The end of a rope of matchless pearls hung +over the edge of one chest carelessly, without apparent motive; yet when +she guided Pearse to the couch and seated him, Dolores scanned his face +with glinting eyes that peeped out through narrow slits. She saw his +look of interest; then his mouth turned upward in a smile that said +plainly: "Here is a theatrical trick to impress me!"</p> + +<p>"Now thy reward is come," whispered Dolores, leaving him with an arch +smile and kneeling before the big chests. She tore away the shawls and +plunged her hands into the glittering hoard to the wrists, flinging out +upon the couch and the floor, upon Pearse's knees and into his hands, +rubies and emeralds, diamonds and pearls, golden chains and ornaments +for the hair in a bewildering, stupendous litter. And, her face turned +from him, her narrowed eyes were fixed upon him, and in their gleaming +depths burned a smoldering anxiety that was nearing impatience.</p> + +<p>For John Pearse cloaked his feelings better than his fellows; he smiled +at the shower of riches, met her questing glance with a smile, and +smiled again with shaking head when she stood before him, aglow with +yearning for his decision, and asked simply:</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Baubles, playthings, Dolores!" he laughed up at her. He seized her +hands, stroked the satin-skinned forearm, and said softly: "These are +not worthy of such a woman as Dolores. These are but the gauds of a +beautiful woman. To fit you, they should be the adornments of a +goddess!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, then thy lips uttered truth!" she cried delightedly. She stooped +swiftly to him, twined her arms about his neck, and laid her warm cheek +to his. "Now I shall show thee treasures indeed, my John!"</p> + +<p>She ran to the one chest yet unopened, and flung away the silk covering. +Here were the gems of the craftsman's art. Stones of unparalleled color +and size were in this chest; but their chief merit lay in their cunning +settings, their consummate delicacy of workmanship. Here the art +collector might find his El Dorado; in all the world such a collection +could scarcely be found in one place. Here were shrines and temples, +carved from single immense stones or pieces of jade; here was a woven +thing of gold and silver, in which the warp and woof lay close as +tapestry, portraying as no tapestry could portray it the fabled valley +of "Sinbad," in which the sands were gold, the sky silver, and the gems +were gems indeed.</p> + +<p>"Is this to thy mind?" Dolores cried, tossing to him a golden ball which +by some amazing internal mechanism played fairy chimes as it whirled +through the air.</p> + +<p>Her lips parted in flushed pleasure at the result of her display, for +John Pearse was smitten with the collector's fever. He missed her ball +through sheer inability to tear his eyes from the other treasures. And +as his brain began to grasp the stupendous truth, to more readily +estimate values, his eyes turned from the more gaudy works of art, and +noticed, for the first time clearly, the pricelessness of many greater +things of canvas and wood, ivory and glass, with which the apartment +abounded.</p> + +<p>"Now thy heart craves my treasures, too, eh?" she chided, gliding to him +and laying a hand on his head. Yet she felt glad of his awakened +interest. It was merely another card she might yet have to play.</p> + +<p>"Astounding!" he gasped. His gaze fastened upon a boule bric-à-brac +stand, on which stood an Aretine vase two feet high, of peerless form +and glaze. The ticking of the great Peter Hele clock drew his attention +to a work of ebony and ivory as scarcely could be believed as coming +from man's hands.</p> + +<p>"Now thou'rt of a kind with thy fellows!" she cried in anger. "Look at +me! No, thy eyes will not deign to seek me now!"</p> + +<p>Pearse snatched his eyes away, and answered her with a laugh that sent +her blood leaping again.</p> + +<p>"My Dolores forgets she demanded my admiration for her treasures," he +said. "What would you have, splendid one? Shall I say these treasures +are still paltry, when I see their countless worth? Still I say you are +the treasure beyond price.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_709" id="Page_709">[Pg 709]</a></span> These are but a little more fitting for you. +That is all. Am I forgiven?"</p> + +<p>He leaped to his feet, seized her hand, and attempted to slip an arm +about her waist. She, lithe as a leopard, slipped from his grasp with a +glad laugh that rippled in a low murmur to his hot ears, and intensified +the glare that had come into his eyes. She failed to see that glare. It +was the glare of greed; stark and utter greed, that counted no cost and +brooked no opposition in driving for its ends.</p> + +<p>"Thou art forgiven indeed!" she replied, panting and disheveled, a thing +of wondrous loveliness. "So far art thou forgiven that I shall put thy +heart to the grand test at once. Of thy fellows none can compare with +thee for scorn of wealth and desire of me. Sit down again, my man; let +us reveal our inmost hearts to each other."</p> + +<p>She told him, keeping him at provoking distance, of her heart-hunger for +the outside world, the world of art and things of beauty. She thrilled +him with her vibrant voice, mesmerized him with her distant, caressing +touch and glorious, limpid eyes. She made his blood pulse hotly with +desire with her soft-spoken offer of self-surrender to the man who +should lead her from her sovereignty over human beasts and set her feet +in the high places of the earth.</p> + +<p>"And with these my treasures, I shall make my man a king in truth," she +said, slipping along the couch toward him and laying both hands clasped +on his arm. She threw back her head, shaking loose her great masses of +lustrous hair, and poured her soul at him from half-closed, moist eyes +that gleamed like midnight pools in starlight. "Yet must my chosen man +assure me of his love for me, and his contempt for my riches. For, +though my treasures shall be his, yet will I be first in his heart or +forget him."</p> + +<p>"And first you are, and shall be, Dolores," whispered Pearse, leaning +his chin on her forehead and glaring covetously at the littered wealth +of the chests. "What man of warm blood can see any other being or thing +when Dolores is by?"</p> + +<p>"Then come. I believe thee," she said, rising slowly. "Come with me, my +man above price. See here."</p> + +<p>She swept back a piece of tapestry at the rear of the chamber, and +disclosed a dark and gloomy cavern, hewn out of the solid rock, as was +the greater cavern. From a brazier she took a pine splinter, lighted it, +and beckoned Pearse into the cave. And as soon as his eyes adjusted +themselves to the gloom, he saw the place stowed tightly from floor to +ceiling with kegs and half-casks, hooped and marked with black +characters.</p> + +<p>"Gold?" he gasped, perspiration starting to his brows.</p> + +<p>"Gold!" Her rejoinder was tense, almost savage; she glared at him from +under the torch, a quivering shape of disgust.</p> + +<p>"Why, Dolores, don't look like that," he laughed. "I did but wonder. If +this were all gold, it could not enhance your worth in my eyes."</p> + +<p>"Then the proof will be easy. This is not gold. It is gunpowder. Our +whole store. My rascals are not to be trusted with more powder than they +can use at once. From this store I dole them out their rounds; thus are +all safe. But at this moment I have other use for this powder. Stay +here; or no, help me. It will be finished the sooner."</p> + +<p>Dolores ran out into the great chamber again, Pearse following her +wonderingly. She left him in wonder but a short time; for, gathering up +a great armful of treasure she started back to the cave, crying: "Come, +fill thy arms, too." He paused, and she took up his hesitation swiftly, +feeling again a surge of doubt and disgust rise in her breast. She +called to him, scornfully: "What, art afraid? Come, faint one; beyond +here is my secret outlet from this place. Now art satisfied?"</p> + +<p>And John Pearse followed into the cave, a-tingle with the hope that he +was indeed the elect. He saw her fling her riches down on the tops of +the kegs; she bade him do likewise, and then led the way back for more. +And so she went, and so he followed; journey after journey was +completed, until the gunpowder-kegs were almost buried beneath the +wealth of an empire. Then the girl stepped outside, and called Milo. The +giant appeared with silent speed.</p> + +<p>"Milo, burst me one of these kegs," she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_710" id="Page_710">[Pg 710]</a></span> ordered, and her voice forced +Pearse's attention; it was so cold, passionless, utterly controlled. The +keg was burst, and a trickle of coarse cannon powder ran on the floor.</p> + +<p>"Lay a damp train out to the ledge over the grove, Milo!"</p> + +<p>Milo disappeared through the gallery, trickling moistened powder from +his fingers as he went. Then, when his voice sounded back along the +passage, Dolores again took Pearse by the arm and said, looking him full +in the eyes: "Thy test, friend. Here am I. Out there is the grove, and +beyond it the sea. Take this torch. Put light to the powder train, and +thou and I will depart in the white schooner. We shall leave nothing for +these vultures to fight over. But together we will go far away into thy +world, thee and me."</p> + +<p>"And leave my friends here?" he asked, huskily.</p> + +<p>"Ay, my man, but not alive!" she whispered, thrusting her dark, flushed +face close to his, and letting her lips breathe their fragrance upon +him. "They, thy friends, are not as my beasts. They have the brains of +the white kings of the earth; they have the cunning which makes of all +other races slaves and dependents. Leave them here, living, and in a day +they will rule these rabble and together they will hunt us down. Come, +haste. Put thy fire to the train."</p> + +<p>"Not yet! Tell me what deviltry is to be worked upon my companions."</p> + +<p>"Hah! Then thou'rt but lukewarm in thy love. Am I not Dolores? Am I not +worth thy two friends? Listen, I'll tell thee my price, friend. If thy +friends are to live, then destroy this trash ere we go, so that they get +it not. If thy heart is bent upon saving this treasure, then thy hand +must first put thy friends into their long sleep. Nay, peace! There is +no alternative. The man who mates with me shall be a man indeed; no +petty, squeamish lover whose weak heart sickens at removing a rival."</p> + +<p>"Give me until morning," he replied, dry of throat, and pallid of face. +"It is a terrible thing you ask, Dolores. Yet I dare not say the cost is +too high. As for destroying these treasures, that I know is but a trick +to try me. You could never go out into a new world and take a low +station. That you would have to do if I set fire to that train." He +suddenly darted a look of fierce challenge at her, "There!" he cried. +"The trial is yours!"</p> + +<p>He flung down his torch, and the powder-train began to splutter and +fizz. Dolores flashed a look of approval at him, and burst into a +ringing, happy laugh. She kicked aside the torch, and trampled out and +relaid the train; then ran to Pearse impulsively, and said with simple +earnestness that utterly deceived him:</p> + +<p>"Now I believe in thee again, and for ever. 'Twas but to try thee, John. +We will leave nothing of worth when we go. But that makes it the more +imperative that thy friends have no power to harm us afterward. Think +not that Dolores will take a lower station. I shall be queen wherever I +go, and my man shall be made a king by my power.</p> + +<p>"I give thee until noon to think over thy answer. Go, and the gods +protect thee and make thee faithful to me."</p> + +<p>Calling Milo back, she bade him conduct Pearse from the great chamber, +and as they passed out, little Pascherette peered up at Pearse with an +impudent smile, and with her head on one side like a bird she chattered:</p> + +<p>"White stranger, thou'rt a fool! What Dolores wills, will surely come to +pass. If thy heart fails thee, and thy friends are safe at thy hands, +dost think they will have like scruples? Fool again! One of them will +kill thee and the other, and that man will gain a peerless mate. And, +bend down thy tall head, thou imitation giant—already thy two friends +are liberated, each seeking the life of the other, though neither knows +of the other's freedom!"</p> + +<p>"What?" stammered Pearse, gripping the girl's slim shoulder fiercely. +"If you lie—"</p> + +<p>"Pshaw! One need not lie to befool thee!" Pascherette retorted +scornfully. "Sleep, and if thy throat is not yet slit on thy awakening, +make thy decision quickly, and tell it to Dolores."</p> + +<p>Pearse would have answered her with more questioning, but she laughed at +him, and bade Milo shut him out. So the great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_711" id="Page_711">[Pg 711]</a></span> rock fell, and Pearse +wandered into the camp, not knowing where he went, and caring little. He +had no place to sleep, so far as he knew; yet he felt no wonder. He +walked through the sleeping-camp, across the grove, and into the forest, +his brain on fire and seething with the problem before him.</p> + +<p>"The treasure, with or without the woman!" he muttered, clenching his +hands savagely. "The treasure! Ye gods! There must be the wealth of +<i>Monte Cristo</i> there!" He broke off into a harsh laugh at thought of his +challenge with the torch. "The witch!" he chuckled. "She was clever, but +John Pearse overreached her. Now I know her heart. But—"</p> + +<p>He wandered on, and his mind was centered upon Venner and Tomlin. The +more he thought over the situation, the more he found his ideas forming +themselves after Dolores's.</p> + +<p>"Why should I share it?" he asked of the winking stars.</p> + +<p>And while he communed with himself regarding her and her demands, +Dolores overlooked Milo in a task that brought a sparkle to her eyes and +a gleaming smile to her lips. They were repacking the great treasure +chests.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">PASCHERETTE DEALS AGAIN.</h3> + + +<p>Dolores spent her night in slumber as peaceful as a babe's. When Milo +had completed his task with the treasure chests he went to his own +couch. John Pearse wandered deep into the eery forest, his brain filled +with tumultuous fancies, while Craik Tomlin and Rupert Venner lay in the +dark before the open doors of their separate cells, struggling for a +decision with their own good and evil natures. But Dolores, before +retiring called Pascherette to dress her hair and gave the little +octoroon some secret instructions against the morning.</p> + +<p>"Now to thy bed, girl, and wake with bright eyes," said Dolores, her +toilet completed. "Let thy busy tongue wag its liveliest then; see to it +that the strangers hear whispers and rumors, yet keep them apart and +from harm a while. Thy task with the other rabble is easy. I care not +how they are divided. But divided they must be; to the point of mutiny. +Go, and sweet dreams to thee."</p> + +<p>It was then that a subtle happiness stole into Dolores's face; then her +great luminous eyes closed slowly in utter peace; then that she lay down +with a gentle sigh on her couch of furs and slept care-free and smiling.</p> + +<p>Dreams not of the brightest might have ruffled her calm had she seen the +night watch of her maid. For the moment Pascherette was dismissed, and +gave a second thought to her orders, a light of dawning hope, +prospective triumph, broke over the small, gold-tinted face and +sleepiness fled for the night.</p> + +<p>"Divided they shall be!" she whispered, and hugged herself rapturously. +"Divided to her disaster and—Milo's triumph!"</p> + +<p>Then the maid wrapped herself in a robe, and went out to the camp.</p> + +<p>Like a fantom she appeared to Venner, and as swiftly vanished; but in +the moment that she bent over him she whispered in his ear that Tomlin +was the chosen of Dolores; that he and Pearse were doomed at the hands +of their friend.</p> + +<p>"I tell thee, watch," she said. "By noon to-morrow the truth shall be +shown to thee." And in leaving him she placed in his hands the rapier +that had been taken from him by Dolores.</p> + +<p>To Tomlin next she appeared, and his rapier also she returned; but in +his ear was breathed the name of John Pearse. To find Pearse himself was +harder; but she waited, and shortly before the dawn he emerged from the +forest and walked dully toward his own charred cell.</p> + +<p>"Hah, my friend," she said to him, suddenly appearing from the shades. +"I fear thy tardiness has defeated thee. Now thou'lt need to look to +thyself, for the man Venner has vowed thy life to Dolores, and that of +Tomlin."</p> + +<p>"What! Venner?"</p> + +<p>"Surely. Why not? Is not Dolores worthy such a sacrifice then? Hah, but +Venner is a man of decision. Thy eyes saw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_712" id="Page_712">[Pg 712]</a></span> the treasure? It's lost to +thee—unless—" she whispered, peering up into his angry face.</p> + +<p>"Unless?"</p> + +<p>"Unless thou prove the better man. Dolores would have thee before all +the rest, friend; but she despises a waverer. I tell thee thy fortune is +yet in thy hands."</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"Here, I have thy sword. Take it, and keep aloof and watch. When thou +canst see men carrying the treasure chests out to the white vessel, then +will be the time to strike. Join thyself with the men who seem faithful +to my mistress. There will be fighting; and the spoils are for the +victor."</p> + +<p>Pearse would have stayed her, but she ran from him with a tantalizing +laugh and vanished into the women's quarters.</p> + +<p>In the morning, when the men had breakfasted, a hum of activity pervaded +the place which was attributable to the octoroon's subtle influence. As +if by prearrangement, men drew apart into little knots, each gathering +about a leader and showing indecision until each man ascertained exactly +where his fellows were going. Then Dolores appeared with Milo, and she +faced four distinct parties before the great stone.</p> + +<p>The sun was metallic in its redness, rising from behind a group of +low-hanging, hazy clouds, casting its fierce beams on the point and the +low shores of the anchorage. A brazen sky overtopped the scene, giving +to green foliage and yellow sands alike, a glare as of terrific +artificial light.</p> + +<p>As Dolores appeared, the party headed by Caliban stepped forward, +muttering angrily, and every man kept hand on knife or cutlass. Caliban +himself, nervous and yet determined, glared at the formidable giant and +suddenly sprang out alone, shaking his first at Milo, and working +himself into greater fury. A frown darkened the face of Dolores; she had +commanded Pascherette to bring about a condition of unrest, but nothing +like this; for in all four parties was an attitude of suspicion of +herself, not of each other. She spoke in a low voice to Milo, then +raised her hand and advanced toward Caliban.</p> + +<p>"Well, whelp of a deformed dog!" she cried. "What do ye seek with me? Is +this the way I've taught thee to beg?"</p> + +<p>"I beg nothing!" screamed Caliban, pacing to and fro restlessly. "We +demand, not beg!"</p> + +<p>"Demand? Have a care for thy loose tongue!"</p> + +<p>"My tongue's my own! We are tired of thy trumpery state. Tired of thy +mystery and falsity. We know thy plot—know thy cunning scheme to carry +thy favorites away from here—to carry away the treasure that is ours, +not thine! Think ye we men will let ye go, to set the dogs of war-ships +upon us? Here and now we demand a settlement."</p> + +<p>"Demand, again? Good Caliban"—she said softly, and smiled upon +him—"thy training has been faulty. Come, I will answer thee."</p> + +<p>"Ye answer us all, or none. I know thee too well to trust thee. Answer +these men, who ask thy reason for keeping these three strangers to the +detriment of thine own people. Sancho paid dearly for his sight of thy +great chamber. Did the stranger who was in there with thee last night +suffer, too?"</p> + +<p>"That's the talk; answer!" shouted the crew, led by Caliban's band and +supported less vociferously by the rest.</p> + +<p>"Silence, then; I will answer!" cried Dolores, quivering with suppressed +rage. She spoke again to Milo, then turned to face the mob, her head +erect, her eyes ablaze.</p> + +<p>She flashed a keen glance toward Pearse, who had sidled over to the band +led by Stumpy, who seemed less accusative than the others; she nodded +faintly, approvingly, and sought the others. Venner stood aloof, on the +fringe of Hanglip's crowd; Tomlin stood almost by the side of Spotted +Dog.</p> + +<p>"I will answer. I see among ye men of troubled minds, who are not yet +disposed to flout my authority. Thee, Caliban, I have forgiven before; +yet here thou art, venturing again to confront me with demands. I will +not reply to thee, nor to any one man or party. To ye all, my people, I +have my answer. In one hour, in the grove,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_713" id="Page_713">[Pg 713]</a></span> ye shall hear and be +satisfied. That is my answer now. Come Milo."</p> + +<p>She walked slowly and steadily straight through the midst of the +muttering, grumbling mob, Milo at her back like a gargantuan shadow. And +looking neither to one way or the other, meeting eyes that glared in her +path with cold, dignified disdain, she proceeded through the camp, +across the grove, and to the ledge behind the altar. Savage curses +followed her; men jostled at her heels and dared Milo to prevent them; +the giant, calm and cold as his mistress, moved forward like a human +Juggernaut, laying a resistless hand upon a presuming shoulder here, +flinging aside a leering ruffian there.</p> + +<p>And as the mob thinned, and Dolores entered the cool glade, something in +the situation which she had failed to realize before now struck her with +force; she started at the thought, then uttered a low, rippling laugh of +satisfaction. For Pascherette, in her cunning scheme of double-dealing, +had played into her lady's hands to an extent unhoped for by Dolores.</p> + +<p>"Milo, the wolves are ready to tear," she said. "And they shall +tear—not me, but themselves! Didst note the three strangers? Even they +shall help more than I had hoped." She stepped up behind the altar, and +as she waited for Milo's assistance in climbing to the secret entrance +to the great chamber she asked:</p> + +<p>"Thy blow-pipe, hast forgotten its use."</p> + +<p>"As soon forget the use of my fingers, Sultana!" replied the giant, +permitting a grim smile to wrinkle his face for an instant.</p> + +<p>"Then get thy darts. Have thy pipe ready here, thyself concealed, and +watch thy time to strike. But first light the altar fires. The rogues +believe in my magic no longer; I shall teach them anew, and such magic +as shall convince some of them."</p> + +<p>From the camp arose a babel of uproar, men shouting against each other, +curses and threats alike aimed broadcast. And impatient of the delay, +small groups straggled into the grove to wait, Stumpy's party first, +their leader striving fiercely to quiet their noise. Dolores reappeared +soon, dressed in her altar robe, and her flashing eyes told her quickly +that John Pearse wavered between staying with his chosen party and going +in search of his companions. She caught his eye, and smiled brightly at +him, beckoning him to her.</p> + +<p>He went up to the altar slowly, his face dark and sullen. She waited for +him, ignoring the mutterings of the pirates, and as he approached her +she gave him her hand.</p> + +<p>"My friend, it pleases me to see thee among my faithful ones. Hast made +thy decision?"</p> + +<p>"Decision! False woman, the decision was made while yet I was with you. +The decision was yours, not mine."</p> + +<p>"False? Why, good John, what does that mean?" she asked, frank surprise +on her face.</p> + +<p>"Have you not taken Venner for your man? Is he not your chosen mate, at +the price of my life and Tomlin's?"</p> + +<p>"Fool!" she cried, fiercely. "Thy dreams have mixed thy brains. What +nonsense is this? I told thee thou wert my man, at a price. But thy +decision! Time is short. Say quickly what thou wilt do."</p> + +<p>"Prove to me that I have heard that which is untrue, and I give you my +answer at the hour you demanded it—at noon."</p> + +<p>"If thou remain here, the proof shall be shown thee," she replied, dark +with passion. Not yet had she quite seen through the cunning of +Pascherette. And a growing tumult beyond the trees warned her of greater +stress at hand, she had no more time to spare in argument with Pearse. +She waved him back, and with fire in her eyes commanded Stumpy to take +his men to one side.</p> + +<p>"Stand there! Thy rascals will not dare to flout me!"</p> + +<p>"We don't want to, lady," growled Stumpy, sullenly. He motioned his men +to follow, and took up a position at the right of the altar. But he +glared fearlessly at Dolores as he went, and added: "Ye have none more +faithful than Stumpy, if thy heart is still with us and for us. But +things begin to look plaguey rough, Dolores, since ye spared the white +schooner and her owner."</p> + +<p>Swiftly Dolores stepped down and glided to Stumpy's side, his men +drawing back in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_714" id="Page_714">[Pg 714]</a></span>voluntarily, not in sufficient numbers to be able to +cast off their old awe of her.</p> + +<p>"Thy ear, good Stumpy," she whispered. "Art for thy fellow pirates, or +for me? Speak quickly."</p> + +<p>"I'm for you, lady," he replied, shifting awkwardly on his mutilated +foot. "For you, but not if what we heard is true."</p> + +<p>"I tell thee it was false. Now art for me?" She bent upon him a smile of +dazzling beauty, soft-eyed and almost tender, and the pirate's face grew +ashamed; he knelt at her feet in humble obeisance, and the girl laid her +hand on his head, and bade him rise.</p> + +<p>"Then remain faithful, Stumpy, and thou and thy men shall share in my +fortunes. Look well to the stranger there. Keep him with thee. I hear +the vultures coming."</p> + +<p>She returned to the altar, took her place behind the swirling smoke, and +stood motionless, awaiting the arrival of the crowd whose noisy progress +could be traced step by step. And presently they broke into the grove, +unawed and uproarious, Caliban leading. Still the parties kept apart. +Hanglip and Spotted Dog ranged themselves on either side of Caliban's +gang, and every eye glared redly at the statuesque figure at the altar.</p> + +<p>"Answer! Give us yer answer!" cried Caliban.</p> + +<p>"Hear, my people!" Dolores cried, raising her arms for silence. "My +answer is this. Among ye is a traitor. That traitor has spread lies +among ye. Ye are my people, and none other. Did I not save the white +ship for ye? What if I preserved her people. They are here, and here +they shall remain. Had I thought to desert ye, could I not have gone in +the night? Who should say no? Am I not queen of ye all? Then why this +childish talk of leaving ye?"</p> + +<p>Dolores was carefully fighting for time; she wished to dissect the +feeling of the crowd before her, and while she spoke her irrelevant +nothings, her keen eyes roved over every face. And Spotted Dog drew and +held her gaze as no other did; his face was awork with savage unbelief, +his loose lips wreathed and curled in his impatience to speak. At last +his fury could not be longer restrained; he sprang to the front, and +howled:</p> + +<p>"Lies, all lies! Thy chit of a maid—"</p> + +<p>The words were choked in his throat with terrible suddenness. Like +something unearthly, reaching from the unknown, the hand of death +gripped Spotted Dog and he stumbled and fell forward, gnashing his teeth +and clawing futilely at his breast. Dolores did not move. Her expression +did not change. Milo had again proved faithful.</p> + +<p>But others of Spotted Dog's band, the greatest malcontents, stood +forward and peered down at their fallen leader; then with a shout of +rage they leaped up, faced the altar, and urged their fellows on.</p> + +<p>"More infernal witchcraft!" they cried. "Tear the black witch and her +altar down!"</p> + +<p>A moment of frightful silence followed, for the speakers felt the same +mysterious hand that had reached for and grasped their leader. One by +one they dropped in their tracks, smitten none knew how or whence; and +even Pearse, with Stumpy's band, shivered at the terrible uncanniness of +it. Then Caliban shook off his terror, sensed human agency in the silent +death, and looked around for the hand that sped it. As he glared, a dart +entered his own breast; but this one, ill-sped, failed in its mission. +The pirate staggered, his eyes widened, then he seized the protruding +dart. For an instant he hesitated; then taking the direction indicated +by the slanting missile, he flung an arm toward Stumpy's crew and +howled:</p> + +<p>"There's the dog! There's the sudden death! Tear 'em up, bullies! Pull +Stumpy down!"</p> + +<p>In an instant the grove seethed with a terrific conflict, in which +Stumpy's party was set upon by three times the number. And John Pearse +was carried into the thick of the fight; unwilling or not, his skilled +rapier began to take toll of the roaring furies about him. And while the +battle raged, and Dolores stood calmly looking on, one of the pirates +whose duties had kept him at the anchorage of the schooner appeared with +a rush upon the scene and shouted:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_715" id="Page_715">[Pg 715]</a></span>"Lads, ye're being fooled! The slaves are even now taking the treasure +down to the schooner!"</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">WHILE VICTORY HANGS IN THE BALANCE.</h3> + + +<p>The cry rang through the Grove like a trumpet call, and the fight was +stayed instantly. Every eye flashed upon the bringer of the news, and +behind him stood Pascherette, partly hidden by the trees, her small, +eager face peering from behind a trunk. And as she took in the scene, a +great terror stole into her eyes and her lips opened in a gasp.</p> + +<p>The octoroon had played her great coup. She had carried a lie to the +pirate, hoping that his telling of the treasure to his fellows would +precipitate such an assault upon Dolores that nothing could survive it. +Now she saw the attack already launched without her connivance; she saw +the pirate, dead, and saw Stumpy and one of the strangers stoutly +defending the queen.</p> + +<p>As she stared, at a loss, Caliban staggered out in front again, +clutching at his wound, and screamed:</p> + +<p>"Satan seize ye if that witch escapes ye now! Tear her down! Tear her +down! Then none can keep the treasure from ye."</p> + +<p>His last word ended in a sob. From the hidden giant another dart was +sped truer, and Caliban pitched headlong on the steps of the altar. And +Pascherette, terrified now that they would leave their work incomplete, +swarm after the false treasure report, and thus leave her at the mercy +of the enraged Dolores, frantically sought for Milo among the press. She +knew nothing of his secret duty with the blow-pipe: seeing nothing of +him among the defenders, she surmised he was inside on other duty bent. +In desperation she placed all upon a single hazard, and, running out +into the Grove she screamed:</p> + +<p>"The man lies! It is a lie, to make ye forego thy vengeance. There is no +treasure taken away. Make thy work complete!"</p> + +<p>A medley of conflicting cries arose as the pirates again separated into +three parties. Hanglip's crew, with those of the fallen Caliban, +detached themselves from the rest and from two sides threatened the +altar, where Dolores stood like a statue, glaring at her maid with +deadly fury. Hanglip himself seemed irresolute in the face of the maid's +denial; he stood with cutlas raised, not yet sure whether to attack or +first see to the treasure story. The decision was made for him; for the +pirate bringing the news, seized Pascherette in a fierce grip, and with +knife at her breast shouted:</p> + +<p>"This little snake told me the loot was going, lads! Get the job over, +as I do this!"</p> + +<p>Pascherette squirmed in the pirate's grasp, but all her cunning now +could not avail her. The knife flashed downward, and she fell to her +knees, her tiny golden hands pressed to her side, blood trickling +through her fingers. And her face froze in a mask of horror when from +behind Dolores stepped Milo, armed with a great broad-ax, and bent his +deep black eyes full upon her with terrible accusation in them.</p> + +<p>The giant saw the coming storm, and knew the futility of trying to stem +it with his blow-pipe. He emerged, armed with his ax, at the moment when +the pirates, answering their mate's cry with a shout, surged up the +altar steps with blood in their eyes.</p> + +<p>Dolores now shook off her seeming unconcern, and with alert vision took +in the tremendous crisis. Stumpy's band, with Pearse at their leader's +side, had been driven back in the first attack to the rock itself; and +now stood with their backs to it grimly waiting for the second onset. +They had fought hitherto for her; she saw to it that they did not change +their allegiance. Leaping up to the ledge behind the altar, she cried:</p> + +<p>"Stumpy! Thou'rt my man. Bring thy fellows up here; one man may hold a +score here. Milo! Make way for my faithful ones!"</p> + +<p>With Stumpy on the ledge, and his score of men, the battle became dead +for the moment. Few of the pirates had firearms, except on forays, and +then their ammunition was doled out to them. By this means they had ever +been kept in subjection; and now the plan was to prove their undoing;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_716" id="Page_716">[Pg 716]</a></span> +for they could not reach their prey, whose cutlas points presented an +insurmountable barrier to their storming the rock. And with John Pearse +up there among the defenders, Tomlin and Venner found themselves +wondering just what their own position was. They, unblinded by the rage +of the pirates, saw the futility of storming that rocky wall with steel, +and in the momentary hush and indecision they withdrew from the mob and +stood apart, thinking over what was to come.</p> + +<p>To Dolores, the hesitation of her foes was something she could not +brook, for her great hope now was to set her rascals at each other's +throats to their ultimate annihilation. She whispered into Milo's ear.</p> + +<p>"Get thy blow-pipe again. Send a dart into Hanglip's black throat, and +let every man see how 'tis done."</p> + +<p>The giant obeyed. The slender, six-inch dart sped fair to its mark, and +Hanglip dropped. But as he fell his eyes saw, as did his men, whence had +come the mysterious death that had already taken heavy toll among them. +And Dolores saw her plan work to amazing effect; for Hanglip, with his +last wheezing breath, raised himself on his elbow, and barked:</p> + +<p>"Now ye see the magic! 'Tis but a man's breath. Up, lads, and take pay +for me!"</p> + +<p>The assault started in grim, silent fury. In waves the attackers mounted +the altar; men gave comrades backs, flung them upward, only to catch +them again as they recoiled from the steel of the defense like broken +seas at a rock base.</p> + +<p>But as the fight advanced, and stricken men were piled high on the great +altar, attacking steel reached higher and began to reap results. +Stumpy's men, now fully persuaded of their queen's regard for them, +fought like paladins, roaring out their rough sea-cries as they cut and +stabbed with increasing gusto. Even Pearse fell under the spell of +fierce action; his rapier played among the heavier strokes of cutlas and +broad-knife like summer lightning. And did a hardy pirate gain the ledge +in spite of all, there stood Milo, like a bronze Fate, with deadly ax +poised to turn success into death. Yet Stumpy's little band grew less; +and Dolores, standing over all like an Angel of Doom, saw that something +must be done speedily unless she was to be left with too great a number +of survivors from this lucky conflict.</p> + +<p>"Make a swift assault, Stumpy. Milo, swing that great ax of thine for +only five minutes," she said. Then when the fight raged higher yet, she +drew Pearse by the arm into the secret entrance.</p> + +<p>"Here, friend, are muskets and pistols. Load them while I pass them out. +We shall see how hungry for our blood these wolves are."</p> + +<p>She showed him the store of arms, in a small cave next to the powder +store, and musket powder and bullets were also there. As he loaded the +weapons, she passed them out in armfuls, then gave Stumpy a flask of +powder for priming, and told him to hold out until Milo could bring up +other resources as yet unknown.</p> + +<p>"And," she said, leading Stumpy inside for a moment, "here you see a +powder-train. There, on the floor. Now hear me, my faithful one, should +thy foes still beat thee back, bring all thy men along this passage, but +before ye come, touch a fire to this train. I shall await thee at the +end, Stumpy, and together we shall see these dogs destroyed."</p> + +<p>She called Milo, gave him a command, and then took Pearse with her into +the great chamber. Here she answered his questioning glance with a soft +smile, and seated him in the great chair.</p> + +<p>"Thy sword has done nobly, good John," she said, laying her hand on his +head. "The peril is over now. Rest. In a little while Milo will have +that which will fill these hungry dogs to the gullet. Rest here. I'll +soon be with thee." She leaned down, laid her lips lightly on his face, +and whispered: "And be of good cheer; the end is in sight for thee and +me."</p> + +<p>She left him sitting there, wrapped in his confused thoughts. Then she +flew to help Milo with his new engine of war which was to decide the +day. From a corner of the apartment the giant dragged a brass culverin, +mounted on a swivel, stolen from the poop-rail of some tall Indiaman in +years gone by. This was charged with powder,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_717" id="Page_717">[Pg 717]</a></span> and Milo searched for +effective missiles for it. He brought a handful of musket balls to +Dolores; she shook her head decidedly after a moment's thought and +objected: "Those round pellets are too merciful for such cattle. What do +they want? Treasure! Give them treasure, good Milo—their fill of it." +As she spoke she ran swiftly into the treasure chamber and seized +handfuls of gold chains, while at her command Milo followed her with +great gold coins in his huge hands. These they rammed into the cannon, +until links of gold fell from the muzzle; then Dolores regarded the +terrible thing with a mirthless laugh and bade Milo get to work with it.</p> + +<p>"Bid thy men fall back into the gallery as if beaten," she said. "And +when the vile bodies of those howling wolves fill the opening, deliver +the treasure to them, and may their souls be shattered with their +bodies! And that none may remain to repeat this day's mischief, when +they break and fly loose, Stumpy and his dogs shall harry them and +pursue them into the depths of the forest. Let the maroons finish what +we so well begin. See thy gun does not harm the— Wait," she cried, +"hold thy artillery until ye see me across the Grove! I shall give thee +a sign, then loose thy hell-blast."</p> + +<p>Leaving Milo, she ran again through the great chamber and out by the +rock door, which was rolled aside and standing open. Then around the +mass of the mountain and skirting the grove, past the prostrate +Pascherette she sped, casting a glance of bitter hate at the sorely +wounded octoroon, but never halting until she reached a point of the +underbrush immediately behind the spot where Venner and Tomlin still +ranged back and forth uneasily watching the fight.</p> + +<p>She rustled the foliage noisily, and the two men swung around in alarm. +She thrust her head through the leafy screen, and showed them her face +full of tender solicitude. Her great dark eyes were very soft; her +scarlet lips were parted in a rosy smile. Venner glared at her, then +flashed a glance of reawakening distrust at Tomlin, who returned it +tenfold.</p> + +<p>"Peace, good friends," she said, softly, laying a finger on her lips and +nodding toward the raging battle. "Come with me. Both of ye. The day +goes badly with me, and I would undo much that I have done toward ye. +Come quickly, and with caution."</p> + +<p>A momentary distrust for her made them hesitate; then she whispered +intensely: "Haste. This is your opportunity."</p> + +<p>Venner first shook off his moodiness and followed her into the brush; +and Tomlin was close behind him. When she had them in covert, she +stepped out once more, waited to catch Milo's eye at the ledge, then +gave him the sign. And the defenders fell back as if suddenly broken and +beaten. She waited still, until the attackers swarmed over their own +dead, stamping over her altar, and gained the entrance, where they +crowded in a milling, roaring mass. Then she glided back to the +underbrush and said tersely:</p> + +<p>"Come!"</p> + +<p>Venner and Tomlin walked on either side of her, not caring to meet each +other's eye, for their subjection to Dolores's spell was complete +whenever in close proximity to her. Hurriedly she led them around the +cliff to the great entrance, beyond which they had never stepped. And +they went full of tremendous hopes and suspicions, in which the hope +predominated; they failed even to cast a look at their schooner, then +lying free at anchor, with a few men visible on her decks. Three of the +pirates' long boats lay on the shore abreast of her.</p> + +<p>They stood in the entrance to the great chamber, sensing some of the awe +that filled the mysterious place, peering into the gloom where the ruby +lights now failed to cast their glow in the broader light of day +entering the open aperture. Dolores led them in with a gesture and a +smile, and they reached the massive plated sliding door and stood +beneath the yellow lantern, gazing in speechless wonder at the richness +of that barrier. And while they waited, mystified and uneasy, from +beyond the mountain came the crash of Milo's gun, and the tremendous +discharge reverberated through and through the rock, making the passage +where they stood rumble and quake as if the mountain were about to fall.</p> + +<p>Their faces went white, and Dolores gave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_718" id="Page_718">[Pg 718]</a></span> them a reassuring clasp of the +hand while she pressed the side-post of the door and started the pulley +and weight mechanism that would give them entry.</p> + +<p>"Welcome, friends. Enter," she smiled, standing aside to permit them to +pass. And Rupert Vernier and Craik Tomlin, forgetting their gloomy +thoughts regarding each other, entered the great chamber, and were +brought to a sudden halt at the sight of John Pearse sitting at his ease +through the strife in the high chair of state.</p> + + +<p class="continue">TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month.</p> + + + +<h1><a name="Part_IV" id="Part_IV"></a>The Pirate Woman</h1> + +<h2>by Captain Dingle</h2> + +<p class="center">Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc.</p> + + +<p class="continue2"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2.</p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">DOLORES DEMANDS A DECISION.</h3> + + +<p>Milo let loose his infernal blast, and the smashing report was followed +by a hush as of death. Then through the blinding and choking powder-reek +came the groans and shrieks of the mutilated wretches whose evil fate +had placed them in the path of the horribly despatched treasure. The eye +could not penetrate the smoke that filled the narrow rock passage; +Stumpy and his men were blackened and smeared with smoke and sweat, +demoniacal to the ultimate degree; and these were the men Milo hurled +forth now to make the <i>débâcle</i> complete.</p> + +<p>"Out upon them!" he cried, urging Stumpy to the ledge. "Leave not one of +these dogs alive, Stumpy, and thy fortune is made. Thy Sultana will +reward thee magnificently. Out with ye!"</p> + +<p>Stumpy hitched his poor clubfoot along in brave haste, and flourished +his cutlas in a hand that dripped red. For once in his stormy life the +crippled pirate felt something of the glow that pervaded the heart of +devoted Milo: for a moment he felt he was redeeming himself by enlisting +his undoubted courage in a worthy cause.</p> + +<p>"At 'em, lads!" he roared, leaping down through the smoke. "Dolores, +Dolores! Give 'em hell, bullies!"</p> + +<p>He stumbled and fell, his crippled foot playing him false. He sprang up +with a curse of pain, bit hard on his lip, and plunged into the huddled +remnants of the attackers, his roaring bullies at his heels. His +onslaught was the one thing needed to put terror into the hearts of the +survivors of Milo's blast. Coming through the leek like so many devils, +Stumpy and his crew put their foes to flight and followed eagerly, +hungrily; the forest rang and echoed with the clash of action and the +smashing of underbrush in panicky flight.</p> + +<p>Now Milo, his duty to his Sultana performed, thought of Pascherette. The +little octoroon lay where she had fallen, a pitiful little huddled heap; +never once had her pain-dulled eyes left the giant, or the place where +he might appear. And now she saw him coming toward her, not as a +ministering angel, but like a figure of wrath, swinging his great +broad-ax in one hand as easily as another man might swing a cutlas. She +shivered as he stood over her, accusing.</p> + +<p>"Milo!" she panted, gazing up at his magnificent height in plaintive +supplication.</p> + +<p>"Serpent!" he replied, and the utter contempt in his voice went to her +heart like a sword-thrust. "Hast a God to pray to before I send thy +false soul adrift?"</p> + +<p>"I have but one God, Milo; to Him I should not pray."</p> + +<p>She fixed her burning gaze upon him, and in her pained eyes blazed all +the tremendous love that actuated her small being.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>"A God thou canst not pray to, traitor? Art afraid, then?"</p> + +<p>"Not afraid, Milo," she whispered, and her eyelids drooped. "I cannot +pray to one who looks down upon me as thou dost."</p> + +<p>"I?" The giant's expression changed to frowning displeasure rather than +anger. "I?" he repeated.</p> + +<p>"Thee, my heart. Thou'rt my god, my all. For thee I have done this +thing. For thee, who even now canst not see where lies the falsity. +Milo"—her weak voice sank to a low murmur—"I beg thy forgiveness. My +love for thee caused me to sin. My life is to pay the supreme price. Let +me die at least in thy forgiveness."</p> + +<p>"Forgive? Forgive thee, who worked for the destruction of the being I +worship? Rather shall I speed thy soul!"</p> + +<p>Pascherette struggled to a kneeling position, crossed her tiny hands on +her panting breast, and looked full into his eyes as a wounded hart +looks at the hunter. Her lip quivered, her small, gold-tinted face, once +so piquant and full of allure, had taken on a gray hue from her pain, +but there was no hiding the great, overwhelming love for the giant that +gleamed in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Milo," she said, and the word was a caress, "Milo, if thou must, strike +swiftly. Yet again I ask, forgive."</p> + +<p>The giant slowly lowered his great ax, and his honest heart answered the +pitiful plea. His deep chest swelled and throbbed; into his face crept +the look that had been there on that day when he told Pascherette he +loved her—loved her, yet worshiped Dolores as his gods. Letting the ax +fall to his elbow by the thong at the haft, he stooped and tenderly +picked up the girl, carrying her as a child carries a doll; yet his face +was averted from Pascherette's passionate lips that sought to kiss him.</p> + +<p>"Not yet can I forgive thee," he said. "Be content that I shall not kill +thee, girl. Perhaps, if thy acts have failed in their end, I may forgive +thee; not yet."</p> + +<p>He carried her around to the great rock, and through the passage into +the great chamber, bursting in upon a situation of growing intensity. +Dolores sat on a corner of the table, with all her seductive lures in +her beautiful face, smiling invitingly at Rupert Venner. Craik Tomlin +glared at both, yet his gaze seemed hard to restrain from wandering +around the gorgeous chamber, whose wealth he saw now for the first time. +Venner, too, had been seized by the jewel-hunger, although neither he, +nor Tomlin, guessed at the immensely greater wealth that had been +revealed to Pearse. As for Pearse, he sat glowering in his chair, +nervous and smoldering; ready at a hint to draw steel without caring +what the object. He simply saw rivalry where fifteen minutes before he +had thought his own course clear.</p> + +<p>Milo appeared to them; carrying his sobbing burden, and the interruption +brought a blaze of fury to Dolores's face. She went pale, and her hands +clenched and opened nervously.</p> + +<p>"Well, slave?" she cried, and Milo started. Never had she used that tone +to him.</p> + +<p>"Sultana, I thought thou wert alone," he replied, haltingly. "I have +brought Pascherette to thee for forgiveness."</p> + +<p>"I forgive? Pish! What care I for thy chit? Take her where ye will, and +trouble me not with such trash. Out, now! Let me not see her face again, +and I care not what ye do with her. But haste. I have work for thee and +a score of slaves. Bring them here quickly!"</p> + +<p>Silently Milo bore Pascherette to the small room beyond the great +chamber, which had been her resting-place while not in attendance on +Dolores. And there, still shaking his head to her plea, though with +deepening trouble in his eyes, he left her, crying herself into a fitful +slumber.</p> + +<p>Then with slaves dragged from the corners where they had cowered during +the fight, he entered the great chamber, and at Dolores's command set +them to carrying out the closed treasure-chests that stood in their old +places around the walls.</p> + +<p>And the sight of the great chests actually going out brought fiery +jealousy back to the eyes of the three yachtsmen. Now Dolores +half-closed her own inscrutable eyes, and watched them, catlike, +cunning. Pearse sprang from the great chair and began pacing the floor +in a heat. Venner alone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> seemed to retain any vestige of control over +his feelings; and he rapidly lost his color and began to peer about him.</p> + +<p>One chest went out, and the cries of the slaves could be heard as they +lowered it over the cliff. They returned for another, and now Dolores +leaped to her feet and followed them, flinging over her shoulder a smile +of invitation. Pearse answered instantly; the others paused. Then she +laughed like a siren and held out her hands to the hesitant ones, and +said softly and pleasantly:</p> + +<p>"Have no fears, timid ones. Thy minds are indeed hard to fathom. I but +want to show thee how I am repaying thee for thy sufferings here. Come."</p> + +<p>They followed her, and together they entered the rocky tunnel. At the +end of it the yellow sunlight blazed like a fire, in the circular +aperture was framed a picture of wonderful beauty. The blue sky, flecked +with fleecy cloudlets, filled the upper half of the circle; then the +sparkling sea of deeper blue lifted its dazzling whitecaps to the kiss +of the trades and formed a gem-like background for the brazen sands, the +glowing green-and-purple of the Point, and the dainty ivory-and-gold of +the white schooner.</p> + +<p>It was all mellowed and diminished as seen through a glass at great +distance; and on the shore the men toiling to load a great +treasure-chest into a long-boat looked like tiny manikins posed about a +delicate model of marine life. The second chest yet stood on the +cliff-edge, slaves about it lashing double slings and tackles that led +from a boulder for lowering it down.</p> + +<p>Dolores stepped back, permitting the three men to take in the view +without restriction. And she watched them again, her face enigmatic if +they glanced at her, breaking into an expression of nearing triumph when +they looked away, and left her free to scrutinize them. She saw John +Pearse step a pace behind the others, and his fingers clutched absently +at his rapier-hilt while the veins on his neck stood out and throbbed +like live things.</p> + +<p>"One more chest, perhaps two, and I shall see who will be my man!" she +whispered to herself.</p> + +<p>Then she left them without a word, and returned to the great chamber, +where she snatched up an immense rope of pearls and resumed her seat on +the edge of the table. There she sat, giving them no glance, when the +three men came back, hastily, uneasily, one behind the other, with +Tomlin bringing up the rear, scowling at Venner's back malevolently.</p> + +<p>Idly now Dolores rolled her pearls on the table, and one by one she +crushed them with her dagger-hilt—crushed in one moment the wealth of +many a petty princeling, and still crushed gem after gem without so much +as a flicker of interest on her cool face. The three men glared at her, +and at each other, and the stress they were under could be felt like an +impending electric storm. Tomlin's teeth gritted together harshly, his +lips were dripping saliva, and he could stand it no longer. He stepped +suddenly before Dolores, seized her hands, and cried:</p> + +<p>"Woman, you are mad! Do you know what those things are? They are pearls, +woman, pearls! Stop this crazy destruction, and in God's name let us go +before you madden us."</p> + +<p>Dolores turned her cool gaze upon him, drew her hand away easily yet +without apparent effort, and crushed another pearl between her gleaming +teeth.</p> + +<p>"Pearls?" she repeated, tossing away the shattered gem. "Pearls, yes, +friend. What of it? Do ye value these trifles, then? Pish! I have such +things as these, aye, one for every hair on thy hot head. But let ye +go—ha! That is in thy hands, my friend, thine and thy companions."</p> + +<p>"Yes, we know your price!" gasped Venner hoarsely, staring full into her +eyes. "But what is to prevent us now, when we have you alone, and that +great giant is away, from binding you fast and sailing away with the +treasure you have already put in my vessel?"</p> + +<p>"What can prevent?" she echoed, simulating surprise that such a question +should occur to any one. "Nothing shall prevent, my friend, if any of ye +think to try it. Have I not said my treasure is for the man who wins it. +Am I not waiting for the man able to take it, that I may go with him, +too?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> Here—" She suddenly flung down the pearls at Tomlin's feet, +glided close to Venner, and thrust her red lips up to him, her violet +eyes like brimming pools behind her drooping lashes. "Here, tie me, my +Rupert. Here are my hands; there my feet. Bind me well, and go if thou +canst. What, wilt thou not? There, I knew thee better than thou knowest +thyself."</p> + +<p>She stepped back with a low laugh, and her arm brushed his cheek, +sending the hot blood surging to his temples. John Pearse crouched +toward Venner, as if waiting for him to lay a finger on Dolores at his +peril. She smiled at all three, and stepped over to the side of the +chamber, where she carelessly pointed out sacred vessels and altar +furnishings, gems of art and jewel-crusted lamps.</p> + +<p>"Here, also, is a reason why ye will not go, my friends. Your eyes, +accustomed to these things in the great world outside, dare not ignore +their worth. And I tell ye that all the treasure now going to the vessel +could not purchase the thousandth part of my real treasure, which I will +not show, until I know my man." She glanced at Pearse as she spoke, and +saw rising greed in his eyes. He had seen the real treasure; he was ripe +for her hand. Milo and his slaves returned for another chest, and +Dolores waited until they had gone; then she glided swiftly toward the +passage, and turned at the door.</p> + +<p>"I shall return in fifteen minutes, gentlemen," she said. "Then my man +must be ready, or I will drop the great rock at the entrance, and leave +ye all three caged here until ye die. For go I will, mated or mateless, +with all my treasure, ere the sun sinks into the western sea." And as +she left them she flashed a look of appeal at John Pearse.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE SLUMBERING SAVAGE.</h3> + + +<p>Pearse followed her with his eyes until she vanished into the passage; +then with muttering lips and harshly working features he strode down the +chamber to the great tapestry behind which lay the powder store. The +suspicion had come to him that Dolores was fooling them all regarding +her real treasure; for he believed she had shown him everything, and if +those heavy chests contained but a tithe of the whole, life was certain +that the gems around the walls were not what she meant when she said she +had still a thousand times greater riches than the chests contained.</p> + +<p>He tore aside the tapestry, and tried to see through the gloom of the +cavern. His eyes could not pierce the blackness, and he looked around +for a light, while Venner and Tomlin walked toward him with sudden +interest in their faces. Over the tall Hele clock a lantern hung; a +gaudy thing of beaten gold, in which an oil wick burned, gleaming out in +multicolored light through openings glazed with turquoise and sapphire, +ruby, and emerald. He took this down, and impatiently tore away the side +of it to secure a stronger light. Again he went to the powder store, and +now Venner and Tomlin were at his back, peering over his shoulder or +under his arms in curiosity as to his quest.</p> + +<p>And, sensing their presence, he swung around upon them savagely, +muffling the cry that answered the message of his eyes. Flinging the +lantern down, he trampled it out, and with snarling teeth he faced them, +his rapier flickering from the sheath like a dart of lightning.</p> + +<p>"Back!" he barked, and advanced one foot, falling into a guard. "This is +no concern of yours, Venner, nor yours, Tomlin. Back, I say!"</p> + +<p>Tomlin stared into his furious face and laughed greedily. His keen eyes +had seen a vague, shadowy something in the cavern, that filled him with +the same passion which consumed Pearse.</p> + +<p>"So you are the lucky one, eh, Pearse?" he chuckled, and his hand went +to his own rapier. He stepped back a pace, and, never taking his eyes +from Pearse, cried: "Venner, it's you and me against the devil and +Pearse! A pretty plot to fool us, indeed; but Pearse was too eager. Peep +into that hole, man, and see!"</p> + +<p>Venner glared from one to the other, not yet inflamed as they were. But +what he saw in their faces convinced him that great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> stakes were up to +be played for, and he edged forward bent upon seeing for himself.</p> + +<p>"Back!" screamed Pearse, presenting his rapier at Venner's breast. +Venner persisted, and the steel pricked him. Then, as Tomlin's weapon +rasped out, Venner's blood leaped to fighting-heat with his slight +wound, and in the next instant the three-sided duel was hotly in +progress.</p> + +<p>Three-sided it became after the first exchanges. For Pearse, the most +skilled in fence, applied himself to Venner as his most dangerous foe, +and with the cunning of the serpent Craik Tomlin saw and seized his own +opportunity. Let Pearse and Venner kill each other, or let that end be +accomplished with his outside help, and there was the solution that +Dolores had demanded them to work out; one of them left, to be master of +the wealth of Crœsus; to be the mate of a magnificent creature, who +could be goddess or she-devil at will.</p> + +<p>With a satanic chuckle Tomlin drew back, leaving his friends to fight +themselves weary, his own rapier ever presented toward them, urging them +on with lashing tongue. And Venner flashed a look at him as Cæsar did at +Brutus, and suffered for his lapse in vigilance. For with the pounce of +a leopard Pearse was upon him, and his rapier grated over Venner's guard +and darted straight at his throat. But Venner's time had not come yet; +Tomlin flashed his own weapon in and parried the stroke for him, backing +away again with a murderous snarl.</p> + +<p>"Not yet, my friends!" he cried. "You're too strong yet, Pearse. At him, +Venner; let me see you draw blood as he has, that I may see my own way +clearer."</p> + +<p>From the other end of the great chamber Dolores watched the conflict +from the concealment of the velvet hangings over the door; and her hands +were clasped in ecstasy, her lips parted to the swift breathing that +agitated her breast; in her blazing eyes her wicked soul lurked, sending +out its evil aura to envelop the combatants and instil deeper hatred +into them.</p> + +<p>The fight raged back and forth around the powder store; once a sudden +onslaught by Pearse forced Venner back to the great chair; Tomlin's +swift rush to keep close brought all three into a tumbled crash at the +dais, and the chair was overturned in a heap of flying draperies that +entangled their feet. And while Pearse and Venner struggled vainly to +maintain their footing, Tomlin began to accomplish his own dire ends. +Crouching, with his dark face full of evil passions, he drove his point +first at one, then at the other, stabbing through the involved silk and +skins.</p> + +<p>In his furious haste to complete his murderous work, he sprang forward +carelessly, his foot became entangled, and he pitched face downward upon +his victims. Now Pearse seized the opening; but when he arose, +stumblingly, there was a different expression on his face, a +horror-stricken realization of Tomlin's treachery. Venner lay, still +unable to disentangle himself, but slightly hurt, and he, too, regarded +Tomlin with a look of sorrow and reawakening sanity.</p> + +<p>"Up, murderer, and fight!" rasped Pearse, stepping astride Venner and +glaring down at Tomlin. "Venner, draw aside. Let me punish this +scoundrel we have called friend; then meet me if you wish."</p> + +<p>Tomlin looked up with a snarl of baffled rage, expecting swift reprisal +for his treacherous attempt. Gone was the last vestige of civilization +from his face; greed of gold, jewel-hunger, blood-lust, all played about +his reddened eyes and cruel, down-drawn mouth. The primitive came +through the veneer of culture and showed him the man he really was. And +evil though his spirit had proved, in this final test his courage showed +up like that of the tiger. He leaned on one elbow, watching Pearse like +a cat, then slowly knelt and stood, keeping his point down. With the +bestial cunning that had overwhelmed him, he circled away from the +trappings and draperies of the chair that had brought him down, and +responded to Pearse's chivalrous waiting with a sneer.</p> + +<p>"You had better have made sure while you had the chance, Pearse," he +grinned, showing his teeth wolfishly. "Venner can wait. There is no +treasure for three; Dolores is mine! Guard!"</p> + +<p>With the word Tomlin made a savage attack without waiting for Pearse to +fall into guard. And Dolores came from her concealment, advanced +half-way down the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> chamber, and watched with a new intensity that was +not apparent while Venner was in the fight.</p> + +<p>Pearse avoided his opponent's thrust at the expense of a pierced left +hand, which caught the other's point a hand-breadth from his breast. +Then the duel dropped to equality. Swift and silent they fought, silent +save for the rasp and screech of steel on steel, their feet padding +noiselessly on the deep-piled carpet. Venner drew aside and watched, his +eyes losing their hard glare, and some of his old expression returned to +his face. It was as if his resurging emotions were bringing back to him +the shame and remorse of a gentleman inveigled into performing a +despicable action. He, too, saw Dolores approaching; saw the tensity of +her expression; sensed some of the tremendous hopes that actuated her, +now that she saw the rapid culmination of all her plots and seductions.</p> + +<p>She stood quite near to him now, leaning forward in an attitude of utter +anxiety. She saw nothing of Venner; her great, violet eyes were dusky +and full of yearning, her hands clutched at her breast. And all the +intensity of her gaze was fixed upon Tomlin. She responded to his +momentary success when he drove Pearse back with a savage assault, with +a panting little cry of joy; she fell back with widened eyes when a +counter-attack forced Tomlin almost upon her. And her lips opened in a +gasp when a vicious clash of steel told of a pressed onslaught, and +Pearse lunged heavily forward.</p> + +<p>In the instant when Pearse followed his first plunge, Dolores stood in +uncertainty through which dawned jubilation. Then her face went white, +she seemed to lose all her splendid vitality; for her astounded eyes +fastened upon Pearse's rapier-point, protruding a foot from Tomlin's +back, and slowly the stricken man sagged away and fell at her feet, +clutching at the steel at his breast and snarling like a beast.</p> + +<p>A hush fell over the great chamber. Then from a distance came the sound +of voices, voices of men down at the shore, ringing clear and sharp on +the still air, accentuating the deathly hush that clung around the +actors in the scene like a heavy mantle. It startled Dolores into +renewed life. She ran with feverish eagerness toward Tomlin, hurling +aside the others, and crouching upon the body in dry-eyed rage.</p> + +<p>Venner sought to catch the eye of the victor, and saw in Pearse a +reflection of the feelings that had possessed himself. John Pearse +showed every sign of horror and awakened sanity that had marked his own +expression before the fatal fight had started. Their eyes met, and there +was no challenge in them. Both dropped their gaze involuntarily upon the +huddled figures at their feet; and it was Pearse, the man who had +precipitated the conflict at first, who nodded with his head a silent +invitation to withdraw. Venner stepped after him, softly and with bowed +shoulders, shuddering violently as he passed the expiring Tomlin.</p> + +<p>They reached the door together, and with the rocky tunnel open before +them, once more holding up to their eyes the picture of absolute beauty +of sea and sky and shore, they filled their lungs with fresh, wholesome +air, and shook off the last of the evil spell that had held them.</p> + +<p>"In God's name, Pearse, let us fly from this hellish place!" whispered +Venner, dropping his rapier to the rocky floor with a clatter, and +thrusting his hand out in reconciliation.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Venner, and pray Heaven we may forget!" replied Pearse fervently. +"But how shall we get away? The giant and his crew are yet at the +schooner."</p> + +<p>"We must wait. They will return soon for more booty. Then we must seize +the chance. Is that somebody coming now?"</p> + +<p>Milo's great shoulders reared above the cliff, and behind him came the +slaves. They came directly toward the great rock, and Pearse flattened +himself against the wall in the shadow of the portals, pressing Venner +back also with a hand across his chest.</p> + +<p>"Hush! Hide here. Let them enter, and we'll make one leap for the +shore."</p> + +<p>The giant swung into the passage, his black eyes blazing with some +emotion that the hidden pair could not fathom. It was something on the +border of fear, but of what? Fear and Milo was a combination hard of +reconciliation. The slaves at his heels followed dumbly, slaves in +thought and action; if their dulled brains ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> awoke, it was but to +the call of animal appetites; they were incapable of devotion such as +Milo's, and as incapable of shock should their obedience fail reward. +They passed into the great chamber, and a throaty cry of alarm burst +from the giant at the sight of his Sultana prone on the floor.</p> + +<p>"Now!" whispered Pearse, taking the lead. "Swift and silent!"</p> + +<p>Like ghosts they ran from the tunnel, glanced around once as they +reached the cliff path, then leaped down the declivity. That swift +glance showed them the camp deserted except for the wondering women, who +wandered idly among the empty huts, ever looking toward the forest +wherein had vanished all their men, waiting with bovine patience for any +one to settle their uncertainty for them.</p> + +<p>And the forest was yet very still. The Feu Follette lay at a single +anchor, heading in the light breeze fair to seaward; a few heads showed +above her rail, and the stops had been cast off from her snowy sails. At +her gangway a single boat lay, the painter made fast on deck; on the +foreshore the other two long-boats were drawn up on the sand, planks +running up to their sides in readiness for the embarkation of yet more +treasure.</p> + +<p>Venner and Pearse raced down the steep path, using little precaution, +sending showers of stones and clods flying before them. And Peters, the +schooner's sailing-master, saw them coming, and his voice rang out +calling for hands to man the boat. Two men answered and entered the boat +as the two fugitives reached the shore and ran along the Point. Pearse +counted the minutes at their disposal, and saw the futility of waiting +for that boat. He clutched eagerly at Venner's arm, and panted in his +ear:</p> + +<p>"Tell them to hold on! Let them get the schooner ready for swift +departure. Come, we must swim for it."</p> + +<p>Venner hesitated but a second. Then his hail went hurtling over the +still haven, and the two seamen scrambled out of the boat again.</p> + +<p>"Swim it is, Pearse," he said, leading the way down to deep water. "Swim +it is, and may the ever-cleansing sea wash out of us the last traces of +insanity."</p> + +<p>Together they plunged into the blue sea and swam swiftly out to the +schooner.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE FLIGHT OF THE FEU FOLLETTE.</h3> + + +<p>Dolores, flinging herself down upon Craik Tomlin, seized his face +between her hands and raised his head, placing her knee beneath it. She +panted like an exhausted doe, yet the fire that leaped from her eyes +gave the lie to her attitude of sorrowing humility. Her lips moved +feverishly, but she could not or would not speak aloud. Tomlin's eyes +were closed in agony, his teeth were clenched tightly upon his under +lip; he gave no sign that he knew of her presence. And a sudden fury +seized her at his irresponsiveness. She shook his head between her hands +savagely.</p> + +<p>"Wake! Speak!" she cried hoarsely. "Art indeed dead, at the moment of my +triumph?"</p> + +<p>Tomlin's eyelids flickered, and his lips strove to speak. One hand went +weakly to his face, to grasp her fingers. And into her anxious ear he +managed to whisper:</p> + +<p>"Evil luck fought with me, Dolores. Yet I die content if you care."</p> + +<p>"Care!" she echoed, shaking his fingers loose impatiently. "Care? Yes, +this I care, bungler: I care because of all three of thee, thou alone +wert covetous enough to obey my conditions. With thee alive, there was +hope of thy friends' speedy death. With thee dead, which of the others +will wipe his fellow from his path for me? Why, think ye, did I fawn on +John Pearse? But to arouse in thee the demon of jealousy; why did I +smile on Venner, and call him my Rupert? To steel thy arm against him. +And for what?"</p> + +<p>She suddenly laid his head down on the floor, leaned over him with her +lips almost brushing his cheek, and whispered fiercely: "Speak! Canst +live?"</p> + +<p>Tomlin's face lost some of its pain. The thin lips straightened into the +semblance of a faint smile. His glazing eyes opened slightly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>"I am done for," he whispered. "Dolores, kiss me again. I die for you."</p> + +<p>The beautiful fury sprang to her feet, spurning him. She glared down at +his chalky face in utter scorn.</p> + +<p>"Kiss thee? Thou die for me? Pah! I kiss no carrion. A half-hundred men +have died for me this day, I hope. I kiss him who lives for me and +conquers, not the weakling who dies!"</p> + +<p>Without deigning another glance at her victim, she turned away and went +to meet Milo. He now entered with his slaves.</p> + +<p>"Where are the two strangers?" she demanded harshly.</p> + +<p>Milo returned her stare with a look of simple surprise. He had seen +nothing of them, and had thought of them being yet with his mistress.</p> + +<p>"I saw them not, Sultana," he replied.</p> + +<p>"Saw them not, great clod!" she blazed at him, clenching her hands in +rage. "Are they here, then?"</p> + +<p>Milo looked around in bewilderment. In all her life Dolores had been his +especial care; in her many moments of temper she had perhaps pained his +devoted heart, but never had she used to him the tone she now used. It +seemed to his simple soul that the foundations of his faith were being +wrenched loose.</p> + +<p>"I will find them, Sultana," he said quietly, and turned to leave by the +tunnel.</p> + +<p>"Stay here, thou blind fool!" she commanded him. "I will find them +myself. Here is work more fitting for a slave. How many chests are going +to the ship?"</p> + +<p>"Three."</p> + +<p>"And how many have ye yet empty here?"</p> + +<p>"Three, lady."</p> + +<p>"Then get them quickly. Until I return, bid thy fellows replace the +treasure that is still in the powder store. And haste, for I will leave +this place this day, though all the fiends say no."</p> + +<p>She ran along the tunnel, and Milo set his men to their task. As he +passed along to the powder chamber, a low moan arrested him, and he +halted in sudden remorse for Pascherette, whom he now felt he had judged +harshly. He left his fellows and went to the tiny alcove where the +little octoroon lay, and his great heart leaped in response to the +worship that shone in her dark eyes. He saw the dry and cracked lips, +the flushed face, and fetched water and wine before he would speak to +her. Then, with her small head and slender shoulders against his immense +chest, he gave her drink, soothing her pain with soft speech and +caressing hand.</p> + +<p>Pascherette's wound was deep, and bleeding internally; a fever already +burned in the tiny maid's veins. She peered up at him wistfully, all of +her mischief, all her piquancy gone and replaced by a softened, humbled +expression that wrung Milo's heart-strings.</p> + +<p>"Will ye not kiss me now, Milo?" she whispered, with a pearly drop +brimming from each eye, where laughter had so lately dwelt.</p> + +<p>"Pascherette, thy fault was great," he answered, yet in his face was a +look so forgiving, so excusing, that the girl shivered expectantly and +closed her eyes with a happy sigh.</p> + +<p>Yet the kiss was not given. From the great chamber the angry voice of +Dolores rang out.</p> + +<p>"Milo! Where art thou, slave!"</p> + +<p>And the giant tenderly laid Pascherette down again, and ran in answer.</p> + +<p>"Sultana?"</p> + +<p>"Blind, idle dolt! While thou art fondling that serpent of thine, thy +mistress's affairs may go hang! Haste with the treasure, or feel my +anger. While thy useless eyes were mooning on nothing, the strangers +have escaped. They are even now getting sail on the white vessel. Carry +the chests down to the Point as soon as ye may. I will stay them yet, +and they shall learn the cost of flouting Dolores! Hasten, I tell ye!"</p> + +<p>Milo winced at her address; his black eyes, usually holding the utter +devotion of a noble dog, glittered with tiny sparks of resentment; yet +the habit of years could not be lightly cast off, and he bowed low, even +while Dolores had turned her back on him, and picked up a great empty +chest to carry it to the powder store. Here in the flickering light of a +pine splinter the slaves worked feverishly, their abject eyes spark<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>ling +with borrowed radiance from the riches they handled.</p> + +<p>And while they worked, Dolores emerged from the tunnel, flashed one long +glance of derision at the moving schooner, and sped down the cliff to +stop her flight.</p> + +<p>The Feu Follette was poorly enough manned with Peters and his four men. +With the ready help of Venner and Pearse the getting of the anchor and +the hoisting of the heavy fore and main sails was an arduous job, but it +was accomplished under the tremendous urge of remembrance. None wished +to have the experiences of the past days repeated; Peters was anxious to +get his beautiful vessel into safer waters; the Feu Follette's owner and +his guest were doubly anxious to drop those blue hills of ominous memory +below the horizon forever. They gave scant attention to the three great +iron-bound chests that stood between the guns along the waist; getting +clear occupied every faculty.</p> + +<p>The tide setting directly on the Point, with a breeze dead in from +seaward, forced the schooner perilously close to the bar that had been +her undoing before; but, with the lead going, Peters speedily found that +his previous mishap must undoubtedly have been due to clever misleading. +After touching lightly once, and getting deeper water at the next cast +over the lee side, he understood the trick of the extended false Point +and stood boldly along shore.</p> + +<p>And as the schooner gathered steerage-way, hugging the Point closely, +Dolores ran out along the sandy beach and plunged into the sea abreast +the moving vessel.</p> + +<p>"Here's that vixen woman, sir!" cried Peters angrily, looking toward +Venner for instructions. Peters had the helm, and owner and guest stood +against the companion, ready to lend a hand at the sheets, forward or +aft.</p> + +<p>Venner and Pearse stared at the swimmer, then turned and gazed +searchingly at each other. In the face of each lingered a trace of the +subjection they had fallen under; neither could quite so quickly forget +the allurements of this woman. Her kisses had been as sweet as her fury +had been terrible; and the absence of Craik Tomlin was an additional +incentive to memory.</p> + +<p>"Shall we take her away?" asked Venner, avoiding Pearse's eye as he put +the question.</p> + +<p>"Can't you make more sail, Peters?" was Pearse's reply.</p> + +<p>Venner laughed softly, agreeably; and the next moment Dolores hailed +them. She swam swiftly, with effortless ease, slipping through the sea +like a sparkling nymph in her native element. But the schooner traveled +fast, and, though she lost no ground, she gained but slowly. She hailed +again.</p> + +<p>"Rupert, my Rupert!" and finished the cry with a rippling laugh. "Art +stealing my treasure and leaving me?"</p> + +<p>"By Heavens, Pearse, I had forgotten these chests," said Venner +uneasily. Pearse regarded him closely, fearing that Dolores's spell was +yet powerful. He gripped Venner tightly by the arm, leaned nearer, and +said:</p> + +<p>"Venner, so long as that blood-polluted treasure is on your deck, so +long will you be unable to settle your mind. Bid the hands pitch it into +the sea, for God's sake!"</p> + +<p>A lull in the wind slowed the schooner down, and Dolores gained a +fathom. Her fair face was set toward them in a bewitching smile, and she +waved a gleaming arm at them. Venner fought with himself in silence for +a brief while, then with a shudder stepped to the wheel.</p> + +<p>"Get the hands, Peters," he told the sailing-master, "and heave those +chests overboard. Quickly! You shall lose nothing by this, but don't +delay a moment!"</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">STUMPY FIRES THE MAGAZINE.</h3> + + +<p>Milo and his slaves worked frenziedly at their task, his suddenly bitter +spirit flogging them to unremitting haste. In the giant's troubled face +the smoldering spark of resentment had grown to an incipient blaze that +required but a breath to burst into angry flame.</p> + +<p>One great chest was filled with the choicest of the gems in the powder +store; it was set aside in the entrance beside the tapestry, and another +box was opened before the powder-kegs. Little Pascherette had ceased +moaning, but from time to time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> a choking sob sounded from her alcove +that increased the hard brilliancy of the light in Milo's eyes. The +great chamber was silent as a mausoleum in the intervals between the +clashing and tinkling of gold and stones in the chest; from the outside, +by way of the rock tunnel, came only the sigh and murmur of the crooning +breeze, the softened plash of the tide on the shore, the scream of +wheeling seabirds. All sound of the schooner had departed; there was no +human note in the whole region.</p> + +<p>Then, as the second chest was almost full, and Milo pulled the third and +last along in readiness, from the secret gallery behind the Grove came +the shouts and oaths of men, weary, footsore men, but men with animal +appetites whetted by the day of bloody conflict. They could be heard at +the great door in the painting of the "Sleeping Venus"; not knowing its +secret their way was barred. But Stumpy's hoarse roar could be heard +calling them back to the ledge, and there was a note of menace in his +tired tones. And mingling with his voice was the voice of a woman of the +camp, raised in shrill complaint. Milo stepped to the picture and +listened.</p> + +<p>"I tell ye the fiend has tricked ye, Stumpy!" the woman cried.</p> + +<p>"Tricked me? Have a care how ye talk that way, woman!" Stumpy's voice +replied warningly.</p> + +<p>"Aye, tricked ye and me and all of us! Even now—come to the cliff, and +I'll show ye."</p> + +<p>The scrambling of heavy feet could be heard in the gallery as men rushed +out in answer. How many men Milo could not determine; but fewer than had +followed Stumpy into the forest in chase of their broken foes. The +slaves at the treasure-chests paused in their work, alarm on their +shining faces, looking ever toward Milo for instructions.</p> + +<p>Milo ran back through the great chamber and out by the tunnel to the +cliff, peering around for Stumpy and hoping to see the schooner putting +back.</p> + +<p>Without Dolores he was at a loss; yet he was not ready to leave his +charge to be gazed upon by untried eyes. His breast swelled nigh to +bursting at sight of the schooner. The Feu Follette was but half a mile +away in a straight line from the cliff; she had been tacking against a +light breeze and flood tide around the Point, and while she had sailed +several miles through the water, she had but just gained past the face +of the cliff. And far from returning, she sailed farther and farther +away as he watched, nursed with such skill of sheet and helm as proved +to Milo's seamanly eye that her people would never return of their free +will. And what of Dolores? His condor's vision picked her out as soon as +the schooner. Her gleaming arms and shoulders swept rhythmically over +and over, cleaving the sea easily and smoothly, her lustrous hair +streaming behind her, and the sun glinting brightly from the gold +circlet around her head. She was gaining foot by foot, and Milo keenly +scrutinized the schooner for signs of surrender. There were none. At the +schooner's rail three heads were visible; but Milo knew neither belonged +to Venner nor Pearse. That persuaded him that the schooner was unlikely +to come back. And the even, tireless manner in which Dolores swam +convinced him that she would follow to the end. Yet he would not utterly +believe she had deserted him. He glared around for the men whose voices +he heard now, raised in anger in chorus with the voices of the woman and +her companions. Stumpy stepped out from the grove path with but four men +behind him; and they were in sore plight. Stumpy himself dangled an idly +swinging sleeve that was stained dark-red to the shoulder. A red sear +across his nose and cheek rendered him a demoniacal figure through the +powder, smoke and sweat. And his mates were tattered and cut, their +shirts bore red splashes to a man; their grimed faces and fiery eyes +held the passions of blooded men who see their reward flying from them.</p> + +<p>"I tell ye she's gone for good!" cried the woman who had brought the +news to Stumpy. "See, she's almost there, and three chests of treasure +have gone in that vessel! Her swimming after it is but a part of her +cuteness. Now d'ye believe, fools!"</p> + +<p>The crippled, battle-scarred pirate glared to seaward with red-rimmed +eyes in which flames of revenge started into life. His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> twisted, warped +life had been spent in fighting and trickery; to-day his work had +culminated in a brave stand for what he thought to be straight and +right; reward he expected, but he had earned it with blood and sweat, +hoping at the last that some of his earlier transgressions might be +atoned for in his loyalty to his mistress.</p> + +<p>He hurled aside the persistent women, who sought some reassuring word +from him, and mouthing rather than speaking a call to his men to follow, +he plunged again into the grove path and stumbled toward the ledge +entrance. Here he clambered painfully to the gallery, cursing to himself +bitterly, never looking back to see if his men followed, intent only +upon one absorbing thing. Revenge was beyond him, since there were left +no subjects for his revenge. He had never seen the great stone at the +chamber portals left rolled aside; could not even now imagine such a +situation. No, if Dolores were gone in truth, and with her the strangers +and the treasure, then it was certain, he thought, that the great +chamber was sealed forever. And he would see into its mysteries, even +though they proved barren now. He knew the way; Dolores had shown him.</p> + +<p>Feverishly hunting for a flint, he tore some threads from his shirt and +frayed them into tow. Then with his cutlas he struck a spark and ignited +his threads, carefully nursing the tiny flame until he could find a dry +stick. This lasted him until a pine torch was found, and then he crawled +along the gallery in search of the powder train. That, he knew, for she +had told him, would burst the rock asunder anyhow; and that would be +enough, for he had guessed shrewdly that the gallery was connected with +the great chamber by some secret egress.</p> + +<p>And who knew? Might not Dolores have taken in her haste but part of her +vast store? Stumpy knew as well as Red Jabez the tremendous wealth that +had been deposited in that chamber of mysteries; for he had been with +the red chief from the beginning; he had seen with his own eyes the +riches of a hundred ships taken in there, and never a thing come out.</p> + +<p>"She can't have bagged the lot," he muttered, fanning his torch into a +red flare. "But she'll pay for deserting Stumpy, or Stumpy's a liar!"</p> + +<p>He found the powder train, and the moisture had dried from it, leaving +only a little line of dry, quick-igniting powder. He was not sure just +where the magazine was; not sure how long the train would burn before +the explosion. So down he clambered again, searching at the great altar +for the water-vessels he knew should be there. Then, with a jar of +water, he returned to his train, and swiftly swept up the dry powder and +moistened it a little, making a rough slow match of it.</p> + +<p>"Now we'll see the sights!" he growled, and went to the end of the +gallery and flung his torch into the train.</p> + +<p>He watched it for a moment, to be sure that it would burn, then stepped +down from the ledge and drew back a safe distance to watch the upheaval. +To what extent the mine was intended to destroy he had no idea. He +simply knew that Dolores had pointed it out to him as a means of defense +should the gallery be carried in the attack. He supposed, therefore, +that it would shatter the gallery. Doing that, it must surely dislodge +or loosen rock enough for him to break into the great chamber with aid.</p> + +<p>The thought recalled his men to his mind, and he saw for the first time +that they had not followed him. He started down the path toward the +camp, shouting to them by name, eager to give them an inkling of the +treat in store. But his hail was answered by another, and down the path +a woman appeared running, her hair flying, and tremendous excitement in +every line of her face.</p> + +<p>"Stumpy! Stumpy!" she sobbed and cried in hysterical intoxication. "Oh, +Stumpy, the great chamber is open, and it's full of gold and treasure!"</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">MILO CROSSES THE BAR.</h3> + + +<p>Milo watched Stumpy disappear down the grove path, and heard him call to +his men to follow. Then he regarded the receding yacht intently for a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +moment, and the last vestige of noble devotion went from his face and +gave place to a great and absorbing bitterness. In that instant, the +foundations, pillars, and capitals of his soul shook and tottered; his +universe changed from a thing of golden beauty and heavenly splendor to +a shameful mockery of truth and faith.</p> + +<p>In that moment his thoughts flew back to little Pascherette, and his +great heart yearned toward her. False she had proved, but to what? To +whom? He asked himself these things as he slowly walked back along the +tunnel, not yet knowing what he would do. He answered his own question. +Pascherette had proven false to falsity; she had schemed against the +schemer; and, in the other tray of the balance she had done these things +for love of him, out of a deep and all-powerful ambition to place him, +Milo the slave, in the high place of the wanton ingrate who had deserted +her people. And the thought hurt him now; he had not yet yielded her the +kiss she craved. Even now the little gold-tinted one might be cold in +death, denied that small consolation because of his obstinate heart.</p> + +<p>He ran along the tunnel and burst through the great chamber, cursing the +idle slaves into silence when they cried their helpless queries at him. +And straight to Pascherette he sped, to fling himself down by her side +and seize her tiny, moist hand in frantic appeal.</p> + +<p>"Pascherette!" he whispered with a dry sob. "Little golden one, speak to +thy Milo. Speak, and forgive!"</p> + +<p>The octoroon gave no sign of life, and the giant dropped her hand and +gently raised her pallid face. His lips sought hers in a passionate +kiss, long and yearning; and slowly her eyelids fluttered and opened. +The dark eyes were misty, yet that longed-for kiss had brought back her +fleeting spirit to recognize her man. She closed her tired eyes again, +with a little sign, and the small, pale lips formed the words: "I am +content, Milo, my god."</p> + +<p>The giant bowed his head over her silent face, and his black eyes +searched for a returning flicker of vitality. It was gone forever. +Pascherette was dead; and Milo laid her head down gently, and drew back +to stare at her with growing rebellion and horror. What gods could there +be to use him thus? He leaped to his feet with arms flung upward.</p> + +<p>"Hah, gods of earth and sea, witness Milo's penitence!" he said +hoarsely. "To Dolores I have given the worship that belonged to ye and +ye have taken terrible atonement. Pity me!"</p> + +<p>He paced the small alcove nervously, seeking light where no light was. +Then the harsh shouts of Stumpy's men resounded through the chamber, and +he stepped outside in alarm. For it was not yet possible for him to +discard the usage of years which forbade intrusion in that secret place. +He saw Stumpy's four men standing open-mouthed in the doorway beneath +the yellow lantern, gazing ludicrously at the magnificence of the +furnishings. The slaves at the powder store stood where he had left +them, idle and aimless, but with an open chest at their feet. This now +attracted the pirates' attention, and with a stamp and a shout they +roared through the great chamber, their faces awork with newly aroused +avarice.</p> + +<p>Just for one second Milo pondered staying them. But his soul had soured; +he uttered a grunt of scornful disgust, and waved a hand at them, +muttering:</p> + +<p>"Revel, ye dogs! Plunge thy hands deep. 'Tis all thine, and the fiend's +blessing go with it!"</p> + +<p>He returned to his dead Pascherette and knelt beside her, patting her +cold hands and speaking to her softly and tenderly. Out in the chamber +the pirates had hurled aside the slaves, and, flinging open the chests, +were glaring with wolfish eyes and dripping jaws at the bewildering mass +of treasure revealed.</p> + +<p>Their noise irritated Milo. He went out again to stop them. And he saw a +pirate snatch up a glittering tiara and place it on his head with a +roaring oath. He saw another snatch the bauble off; and in a breath the +pirates were at each other's throats; cutlases flashed and a savage +fight began at the moment the women stole in to see the mysterious +place, and one of their number ran to bring Stumpy.</p> + +<p>The giant glowered at the snarling men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> as at some repulsive beasts, +horrified that they should thus desecrate the quiet of his Pascherette's +death-bed. He was not the Milo of old now. His memory had flown back +through the years to the time when he was a youth of position and great +promise in his own land; when, instead of being the cast-off servant of +a beautiful ingrate, he numbered his own servants by hundreds. And a +great dignity stole into his ennobled face. He softly picked up the dead +girl, and advanced toward the rock tunnel.</p> + +<p>Stumpy met him at the door, and the crippled pirate's eyes burned with +the newborn lust of loot. Stumpy made as if to stay the giant with +questions; but he saw the snarling fight at the end of the chamber and +caught the glitter of jewels. With the stumbling speed of a charging, +wounded bull, he rushed in to join battle.</p> + +<p>Running women brushed against Milo in the passage; all the camp's living +people had caught the fever. The giant strode on, until he stood in the +rugged rock portals and gazed once more over the sea. The schooner had +moved but slightly since he last looked at her; he could see Dolores's +head still advancing, and very near to the vessel now. The breeze had +lulled, perhaps preceding a shift of wind; and the visible people on the +deck of the Feu Follette appeared to be running back and forth in +indecision.</p> + +<p>At Milo's right hand the great rock sat on its ledge, ready to fall at a +touch, and his brooding eyes flashed to it with terrible meaning. +Inside, the great chamber resounded with the clash of steel, the shouts +of furious human beasts, and the shrill cries of women urging them on; +for there must be victors, even to such a sordid fight, and to the +victors, spoils. Where victors and spoils are, there harpy women await +them.</p> + +<p>Milo gazed long and passionately into the face of his dead; then he laid +her softly down outside the rock and arose with a fierce light +irradiating his face.</p> + +<p>"Dogs, who would thus break the sleep of my beloved, I give ye good for +evil!" he muttered. "Treasure ye crave: treasure I give ye, and none may +take it from ye!"</p> + +<p>He turned, put his hand upon the great rock and started it from its bed. +And as he moved the mass, the mountain rocked and crashed with the +thunder of the bursting powder-magazine.</p> + +<p>Down came the great rock, pinning Milo beneath it, threatening in its +final fall to crush him and the body of his love. His great arms shot +out and up, every muscle on his colossal frame stood out like ropes, his +back cracked with the tremendous strain. He stiffened his knees, bit +into his lip until the blood gushed; and a groan burst from his breast +as he felt his stout knees stagger.</p> + +<p>His bulging eyes glared ahead over the sea; into the air flew a thousand +fragments of shattered rock; they fell and thrashed the sea into foam a +mile from shore. Rocks fell upon his already overwhelming burden; his +knees bent, and the blood trickled from his nostrils. And with his fast +ebbing breath he breathed his valedictory, fixing his stony eyes upon +Pascherette as upon his deity.</p> + +<p>"Gods of my fathers, receive my spirit into thy halls. Let thy swift +justice overtake the cause of this upheaval; and receive with my spirit +the spirit of the one who loved me." He fell to one knee, and a great +sob shook him. The rock was falling in a shower about him; it rang and +crashed on the gigantic stone that was crushing him. He bent his gaze in +anguish afresh on the dead girl, now almost buried under stone and +earth, and murmured: "Pascherette, I come! I see beyond the blue ocean +and the golden horizon the throne of my gods. Come, golden one, let us +go. There will our faithfulness meet just reward!"</p> + +<p>He pitched forward upon the dead girl, and the great rock crashed down, +building them a tomb grand as the eternal hills.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE TOLL OF THE GODS.</h3> + + +<p>Venner's order to heave the treasure-chests overboard was not given +without a pang of regret. It was scarcely obeyed without threats; for +the sailing master had been bitten by the treasure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> fever before his +owner and guest came on board. Had they not appeared when they did, the +schooner had gone without them, and Peters had already seen a golden +vista ahead of him. He hesitated now, and Venner left the wheel vacant +to urge him.</p> + +<p>"Over with it, I say! At once! Here, Pearse, lend a hand here, man, +before that witch's great eyes mesmerize us again. See, she smiles yet, +and comes nearer."</p> + +<p>Reluctantly the seamen raised one iron-bound chest to the rail and +poised it there. From the water astern rang Dolores's throaty laugh, +even and full breathing, as if she had not swam a fraction of the +half-mile she had covered.</p> + +<p>"Foolish Rupert!" she cried, never relaxing her stroke. "Why waste the +fruits of thy pains? Hast looked inside then? Nay, take me on board, and +let us look together. Thou wilt not see Dolores drown, I swear. Then +look once more into my eyes, my Rupert!"</p> + +<p>She laughed again mockingly, alluringly, and Pearse turned away with a +shudder, not daring to cast a glance in the direction of Venner.</p> + +<p>"Throw the stuff over, I say!" cried Venner hoarsely, and gave the chest +a push that sent it into the rippling sea with a thunderous splash. And +again that mocking laugh rang out astern; it was nearer, and Dolores's +beautiful face was turned up to them with triumph in every feature. She +had seen the struggle going on in her two intended victims; if she could +but gain to within whispering distance of either of them, surely she +would never let them escape her.</p> + +<p>"Come, take me on board, my Rupert. I have a secret to tell thee, but +thee alone!" she cried, and spurted swiftly, gaining abreast of the +main-chains.</p> + +<p>But the eyes of Venner and Pearse were fixed in astonishment upon the +tall cliff they had left; their eyes stared amazedly, and they stood +like statues, hearing none of her seductive words.</p> + +<p>"What do ye see?" she demanded, frowning up at them.</p> + +<p>A score of sharp splashes in the water around the schooner startled her. +She suspected they were hurling missiles at her, and one struck her +arm. She turned swiftly and her face darkened with fury. Then more small +objects fell about her, and one struck her arm. She turned swiftly on +her side to seek the source, and in her ears boomed the tremendous crash +of Stumpy's explosion, rolling far over the sea, reverberating from the +shores and making the air quiver like a solid thing.</p> + +<p>A great mass of rock hurtled overhead, missed the schooner by scant +feet, and Venner shouted in horror:</p> + +<p>"Throw her a line, Pearse! Here, quickly, before she is crushed by such +a rock as that one!"</p> + +<p>The sea was shattered into foam for fathoms around, and every face on +the Feu Follette stared over the rail in helpless astonishment. But on +the face of Dolores glowed a smile of triumph. She feared nothing of +earth or heaven; among the flying rocks she swam on toward the schooner, +smiling up at them, waiting for the rope that meant victory to her.</p> + +<p>And in the brief space before the rope hurtled out, down from the +heavens plunged a high-flung piece of granite fair upon Dolores. She +seemed to sense its shadow, and in the moment it struck her she half +sank, breaking its force. But it followed her down. The mass struck +between her gleaming shoulders, and she flung up her arms in despair, +turning over and over with the impact, then floating unconscious close +by the side of the white schooner that had been her goal.</p> + +<p>"God! Get her aboard!" gasped Pearse. "She's done for. Yet we cannot +leave her there for the sharks, like a beast!"</p> + +<p>Venner and Peters were already trying with boat-hooks to catch Dolores's +tunic. Pearse threw a line over the girl and drew her nearer and the +hooks took hold. They drew her up the side with a care that amounted to +reverence, for in her unconsciousness she was more beautiful than ever, +her fine features molded in dead white, traced with fine blue veins; the +grace of her form was that of a lovely sculpture now, lacking vitality, +but possessing every line of perfection. The blow that had overtaken her +had failed in its terrible threat to crush her.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>"Lay her in the companionway on the lounge," said Venner. He ran to the +saloon and brought up wine. He bathed her temples and wrists with the +liquor, and forced some between her blue lips. And Pearse chafed her +hands and patted them, gazing down at her in silent awe.</p> + +<p>"Venner," he whispered, when her eyes refused to open, "we must let this +settle the score against her. It's a terrible end for such a creature."</p> + +<p>"For my part, Pearse, I would give all I have just to see those great +violet eyes laugh at me again; to hear that mocking laugh from her +maddening lips. God, will she never awake?"</p> + +<p>Astern of the schooner the sun was slowly descending to the western +sea-rim, and as the course was resumed after picking up Dolores, the +Point and the cliff gradually drew out across the path of the sun, until +the outlines of the rock and trees stood out black and sharp. On the +cliff-top a heavy pall of greasy smoke hung low about the shattered +pirates' camp; from fissures high up the frowning side spirals of smoke +testified to the wide-spread destruction that followed the blast.</p> + +<p>They looked at the terrific devastation, and again at its nearer victim. +And as they gazed down at her, Dolores's lips trembled in a faint smile, +her great eyes opened wide, looking directly and fearlessly back at +them.</p> + +<p>"I thank ye, my friends; I knew you would take me," she whispered, and +the two men turned away with a shudder. As she had lived, Dolores was +now meeting her inevitable end, bold and indomitable.</p> + +<p>"Where are you hurt?" inquired Venner lamely. "Let me do something to +ease you."</p> + +<p>"Ease?" she laughed as of old, but her teeth clenched upon her lower lip +immediately, with the pain it caused. "I shall ask ye to ease me +presently, good friends. Grim Death has me by the throat already. But +carry me outside. I am stifling in here. Let me see the ocean and the +sky at least in my passage. And I have something to tell ye also."</p> + +<p>On the gratings around the stern, abaft the wheel, they laid her on soft +cushions. She drank greedily of the wine and water they offered her; +she quivered with eagerness to unburden her mind before her thirst was +quenched forever. She motioned them, to bend over her, and began to +speak in, husky whispers.</p> + +<p>"That chest, thou cast it overboard. Dost know what was in it?"</p> + +<p>Both shook their heads. None had seen inside the chests after they came +from the great chamber.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell ye, then, for the peace of your souls and the tranquillity of +your voyage. Lest thy men be seized with a desire for treasure that +shall work ye mischief, have them open the other two chests. Quickly, +for I am faint."</p> + +<p>Venner went to the chests himself and flung back the lids, which were +bolted on the outside and not locked. He stared for a moment, +unbelievingly, then nodded to Pearse. Pearse stared, too, in amazement, +and one after the other the sailors were called to see. They saw two +great strong-boxes filled to the brim with iron chains, broken cutlases, +rusty bilboes, and rock; a fool's treasure in truth.</p> + +<p>"'Twas a trick to set my rascals at odds," Dolores told them when they +returned to her. "To thee, Pearse, I showed my treasure, and I fear that +blast has buried it beneath a mountain. Milo was to take it out. I +cannot believe it can have been taken away ere that powder blew it to +fragments. It was still in the powder store."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know," said Pearse quietly. "It was that which precipitated the +fight between us three that killed poor Tomlin."</p> + +<p>"Well, if thou still art hungry for treasure, my friends, there is my +store buried where thou knowest, and I shrewdly fear but few of my +people are left. But I am slipping. Stand aside, that I may close my +eyes on the place I called home."</p> + +<p>Dolores ceased speaking and lay, scarcely stirred by her faint +respiration, gazing over the schooner's stern at the sinking sun. The +golden disk was turning to red and across its darkened face the cliff +and Point stood out in sharp silhouette, which grew larger as the great +glowing sun was distorted and enlarged by the refraction near the +horizon.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> The breeze had changed, and now blew with gentle strength out +of the west, a fair wind for their homeward course, and the strands of +Dolores's glorious hair blew about her face like tendrils about an +orchid of unearthly beauty.</p> + +<p>Presently she stirred again, and now she summoned all her remaining +vitality to raise herself on an elbow. Pearse and Venner leaned closer, +sensing the end in the tremendous brilliancy of her wide, dry eyes.</p> + +<p>She spoke softly, yet with a thrilling note of yearning that choked her +hearers with harsh sobs.</p> + +<p>"Father, I come," she whispered. "If I have failed in obeying thy +commands, I ask forgiveness, for I am but a woman. A woman with +instincts and yearnings, born of the mother I never knew. Thy very +treasures that were to appease me put the yearning more strongly in my +brain. Thy teachings showed me a world of beasts and savagery; thy +treasures gave me dreams of a world peopled by such as I would be. My +mother's blood forced me to seek this other, better world; thy blood +forced me to seek it wrongfully."</p> + +<p>She paused, and gathered her fleeting breath.</p> + +<p>Then, sitting suddenly upright, she flung both arms out to the setting +sun now lipping the sea, and cried:</p> + +<p>"Gods I know not. Yet must there be such, else had I never known the +devotion of a Milo! Wherever ye be, brave Milo, living or dead, commend +me to thy own gods and forgive me for my ingratitude." She seized Venner +and Pearse by the arms as she fell back, and whispered: "In pity, +friends, set my feet toward the west, and launch my poor body down the +sun path as it sinks into the blue Caribbean that was my only home."</p> + +<p>She relaxed with a little shivering sigh, the glorious eyes closed with +a tired tremor, and the spirit of Dolores the beautiful, the wicked, the +tempestuous, winged its way down the mysterious paths of the dark +unknown.</p> + +<p>"Come," said Venner, suddenly shaking off his abstraction, "time is all +too short if we are to render her this last small service."</p> + +<p>"How shall we do it?" asked Pearse doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"We shall send her down her chosen path in a boat. Peters will load the +dingey with ballast, while you and I will lay Dolores out as well as we +may. Bring me that grating, Pearse. We will speed her in the dress she +loved. Her soul would sicken at a suffocating winding sheet. Hurry, for +the sun is half gone!"</p> + +<p>Swiftly they worked, these men who had cause to remember the departed +siren without great love, and they placed her, secured to a grating, +across the thwarts of the dingey, to which the grating was in turn +secured. Then, all prepared, Peters sprang into the boat, bored a score +of auger-holes in the bottom, and as the great red sun set fierce and +blazing behind the black profile of the cliff, the filling boat was set +adrift, straight down the path of the luminary, bound ever westward, +until the sea gods claimed it and its passenger for their own.</p> + +<p>"Farewell, place of ill-luck!" cried Pearce, as the schooner bore away +before the rising evening breeze. "May I never set my eyes on such evil +shores again."</p> + +<p>"Then you will not come back to seek the treasure?" asked Venner, with a +shadowy flicker of a smile.</p> + +<p>"Not for a thousand times the treasure that lies there!" cried Pearse +vehemently. "And I have seen it! The horror of this will haunt me until +my dying day. I only hope God will look kindly upon that poor woman, +that's all."</p> + +<p>"I hope so, too," rejoined Venner thoughtfully. "With a white woman's +opportunities, what a woman she could have been."</p> + +<p>But the gods are inscrutable. Only the warm mantle of the setting sun +gave a hint that Dolores might be even now entering into a place of +eternal rest, where her sins of ignorance and untutored instincts would +not count too heavily against her. The sea is very benign to its elect; +a calm sea in the setting sun received Dolores in arms of infinite +benignity.</p> + + +<p style="margin-top: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 2.25em; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">(The end.)</p> + + + +<p style="margin-top: 2.25em;">[Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original edition have been corrected. In Chapter V, "inscrutaable" was +changed to "inscrutable"; in Chapter X, "Let me show thee they master" +was changed to "Let me show thee thy master"; in Chapter XVII, "could +not enchance your worth" was changed to "could not enhance your worth"; +in Chapter XVIII, "shaking his first at Milo" was changed to "shaking +his fist at Milo"; and in Chapter XXI, "protruding a foot for Tomlin's +back" was changed to "protruding a foot from Tomlin's back".]</p> + + +<p style="margin-top: 2.25em;">[Transcriber's Note: The following summary originally appeared at the +beginning of the serial's second installment.]</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center">PRECEDING CHAPTERS BRIEFLY RETOLD</p> + +<p>Within his mysterious stronghold, "The Cave of Terrible Things," on the +Maroon coast of Jamaica, washed by the waters of the Caribbean Sea, Red +Jabez, Sultan of Pirates, had just died.</p> + +<p>Dolores, his daughter, "a splendidly lithe, glowing creature of beauty +and passion," "a royal woman conscious of mental and physical +perfection," succeeded her father as tyrant over the motley crew of +Spaniard and Briton, Creole and mulatto, Carib and octoroon, and +coal-black negroes.</p> + +<p>Milo, the giant Abyssinian, who knew no fear and no law save the will of +this capricious creature, served Dolores as body-guard and chief.</p> + +<p>Pascherette, "a gleaming, gold-tinted creature, a miniature model of +Aphrodite," beloved of Milo, was her maid and attendant.</p> + +<p>Moved to mutiny by Rufe, the Spaniard, the pirates had risen in revolt +to loot the rich treasure of the dead Sultan's cave; but supported by +Milo, Dolores had cowed them, no less by her dagger than her threats.</p> + +<p>But discontent rode the soul of the Sultana. She longed for other lands, +other people. With Milo's aid she determined to capture the first sail +that passed her shore, and escape.</p> + +<p>When Rupert Venner and his guests, Craik Tomlin and John Pearce, aboard +the Venner yacht, Feu Follette, passed that way, they were easily +induced to go ashore.</p> + +<p>In the midst of a reception accorded them by Dolores, the party beheld +Yellow Rufe and a band of mulattoes and blacks making for the schooner, +from whose rail shots crackled.</p> + +<p>Venner raised a cry of treachery and called, "Come, fellows!" But the +woman held him as much by her eyes as by her promise: "I shall preserve +thy ship, and give thee back an eye for an eye, if thy men are harmed."</p> + +<p>Then she sprang down the cliff like a deer.</p> +</div> + +<p style="margin-top: 2.25em;">[Transcriber's Note: The following summary originally appeared at the +beginning of the serial's third installment. The summary at the +beginning of the serial's fourth installment, if one was present, was +not available when preparing this electronic edition.]</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center">PRECEDING CHAPTERS BRIEFLY RETOLD</p> + +<p>On the death of Red Jabez, Dolores, "a glowing creature of beauty and +passion," took over her father's rule of the pirates of the Maroon coast +of Jamaica.</p> + +<p>With the help of her faithful slave, Milo, the Abyssinian giant, she +crushed a rising insurrection among her riffraff subjects, whose +cupidity had been played upon by Rufe, the Spaniard.</p> + +<p>But Dolores was herself the victim of discontent. Loathing her outlaw +subjects and the island, she determined to seize the first boat that +passed her way, and escape with her jewels and her gold.</p> + +<p>When the pleasure yacht, Feu Follette, came that way, she sent Milo and +her maid, Pascherette, to decoy Rupert Venner and his guests, Craik +Tomlin and John Pearse, to the island.</p> + +<p>In the midst of her reception to her captive-guests, she beheld Rufe and +a band of insurgent blacks and mulattoes attacking the crew of the +schooner, while Sancho, whom she had despatched to care for the vessel +while in the harbor, was joining in the attack.</p> + +<p>Then she rushed over the cliff and into the water, and boarded the boat, +followed by her loyal Milo.</p> + +<p>After a long and bloody struggle, the woman's ruse of firing the ship +with a keg of powder won the day, and Rufe and Sancho fled into the +wilderness, while from the schooner's topmast flew the Sultana's own +flag.</p> + +<p>Demanding that the traitors, Rufe and Sancho, be rounded up, Dolores +threw her three guests into chains, while she accused Pascherette of +abetting the treason of Sancho.</p> + +<p>Then Dolores turned to Venner with the offer of her love if he would +sail away with her, having first despatched his friends. When the man, +whose soul was racked with passion for the beautiful black panther, +recoiled from her condition, she left him in his chains.</p> + +<p>Next she dealt with Sancho, whom Pascherette had lured back to the +woman's mercy; and Sancho emerged from Dolores's presence a driveling +imbecile.</p> + +<p>When Milo beheld at this moment the fleeing form of Yellow Rufe, made +distinguishable by vivid lightning, Dolores determined to complete her +punishments.</p> + +<p>The Spaniard was making good his escape when Milo took up the pursuit in +the little sailboat. Dolores and her crew would follow, by the light of +his flares, in the schooner.</p> + +<p>With the untamed soul of a woman who had never known defeat, Dolores +drove her crew and defied the wind and the waves, and the Feu Follette +was liberated from the mud and swung to the gale as the cry rang out: +"There's the flare—and she's burnin' steady!"</p> +</div> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30057 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/30057-h/images/cover.jpg b/30057-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ab15fe --- /dev/null +++ b/30057-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/30057.txt b/30057.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2215426 --- /dev/null +++ b/30057.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6742 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pirate Woman, by Aylward Edward Dingle + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Pirate Woman + +Author: Aylward Edward Dingle + +Release Date: September 22, 2009 [EBook #30057] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PIRATE WOMAN *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover of All-Story Weekly] + + +ALL-STORY WEEKLY + +VOL. XC + +NUMBER 2 + +SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1918 + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +[Transcriber's Note: This novel was originally serialized in four +installments in All-Story Weekly magazine from November 2, 1918, to +November 23, 1918. The original breaks in the serial have been retained, +but summaries of previous events preceding the second and third +installments have been moved to the end of this e-book. The Table of +Contents which follows this note was created for this electronic +edition.] + + + +Table of Contents + + +November 2, 1918 + + I. THE CAVE OF TERRIBLE THINGS. 193 + II. DOLORES RECEIVES HER DIADEM. 196 + III. THE GROVE OF MYSTERY. 200 + IV. THE PIRATES' BARBECUE. 203 + V. MILO SIGHTS A SAIL. 206 + VI. THE PARTY FROM THE YACHT. 209 + + +November 9, 1918 + + VII. THE ATTACK ON THE FEU FOLLETTE. 466 + VIII. DOLORES DELIVERS JUDGMENT. 469 + IX. THE SULTANA DECIDES SEVERAL THINGS. 472 + X. A REED SHAKEN BY THE WINDS OF PASSION. 475 + XI. PASCHERETTE UNVEILS HER PURPOSE. 477 + XII. SANCHO SETTLES HIS ACCOUNT. 480 + XIII. DOLORES FLOATS THE FEU FOLLETTE. 488 + + +November 16, 1918 + + XIV. YELLOW RUFE'S FINISH. 697 + XV. THE FIRES OF THE FLESH. 701 + XVI. PEARSE ENTERS THE CAVE OF ALADDIN. 704 + XVII. THE TREASURE TEST. 707 + XVIII. PASCHERETTE DEALS AGAIN. 711 + XIX. WHILE VICTORY HANGS IN THE BALANCE. 715 + + +November 23, 1918 + + XX. DOLORES DEMANDS A DECISION. 147 + XXI. THE SLUMBERING SAVAGE. 150 + XXII. THE FLIGHT OF THE FEU FOLLETTE. 153 + XXIII. STUMPY FIRES THE MAGAZINE. 155 + XXIV. MILO CROSSES THE BAR. 157 + XXV. THE TOLL OF THE GODS. 159 + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE CAVE OF TERRIBLE THINGS. + + +A great unrest brooded over mountain and forest; the blue Caribbean lay +hushed and glaring, as if held in leash by a power greater than that +which ordered its daily ebb and flow. + +Men moved or stood beneath the trees on the cliffside in attitudes of +supreme awe or growing uneasiness, according to their kind: for among +them were numbered Spaniard and Briton, creole and mulatto, Carib and +octoroon, with coal-black negroes enough to outnumber all the rest--and +it was upon these last that profound awe sat oppressively. + +Apart, followed by a hundred furtive eyes, Dolores, daughter of Red +Jabez, ranged back and forth before the mighty rock portals of the Cave +of Terrible Things, like some magnificent tigress hedged with foes. +Beyond those portals Red Jabez, Sultan of pirates, arbiter of life and +death over the motley community, lay at grips with the grim specter to +whom he had consigned scores far more readily than he now yielded up +his own red-stained soul. Red Jabez was dying a death as hard as his +lurid life had been. + +Beyond those rock portals none save Jabez and Milo, the herculean +Abyssinian slave, had ever passed. Dolores, next in line, was in +ignorance as deep as her meanest slave, concerning what lay beyond the +great mass of rock which formed the door, and which Milo alone could +move. She knew, as did every one, that the great chamber of Red Jabez +held some vast mystery; she suspected, as did the rest, that it +concealed wealth beyond dreams; deep down in her soul she hoped that +inviolate chamber held for her the means of emancipation; but of this +hope, none knew save herself. For Queen of Night though the white men +called her, Sultana though she was named with fear and submission by the +blacks, though her power was second only to that of Red Jabez, and +barely less than his, a canker gnawed at the heart of Dolores, the +canker of a suspicion that her power was but a paltry power, her freedom +but a caged freedom. + +Somewhere beyond the great ocean that stretched away before her eyes +lay a world she knew nothing of; yet since her earliest childhood her +keen mind had told her that the silk with which she was clothed, the +jewels that encrusted her dagger-hilt, the ships whose pillage had +yielded up these things, must come from lands far distant, more +desirable than the maroon country of Jamaica. More, her ears attuned to +the whisper or roar of the sea, the sigh or shriek of the winds, carried +to her the mutterings of men long held in leash, who now saw in their +chieftain's death the realization of their own wild dreams of riches and +release. All these things told her that the great, strange world beyond +the sea-line was something for her to strive for; not for the rabble who +called her queen. + +She paced back and forth, a splendidly lithe, glowing creature of beauty +and passion, every movement a grace, each grace such as befitted a royal +woman conscious of mental and physical perfection. Her hair surrounded +her face and shoulders in a lustrous, rippling cloud, through which +peeped a bare arm and breast stolen from the goddess of beauty; her +tunic of quilted Chinese silk hung from one shoulder by a strap +fashioned from the ribbon of the Star of Persia, and fastened by the +star; her strong, slender waist was girdled with a heavy gold cord that +supported a long, thin dagger, no toy, in a jeweled sheath; the hem of +her single garment rang with gold sequins to the movement of her +smoothly muscular knees; her high-arched feet were protected from thorns +and shells by sandals of red leather. + +As the moments passed, and no sign came from within the cave, Dolores +restrained her impatience with increasing difficulty. The men scattered +around were not of such stuff; they felt the impending crisis settle +heavily upon them, and white and black alike drew together for the +comfort of close touch. From time to time a hardier spirit uttered his +thoughts aloud, yet always with a glance of uncertainty toward Dolores. +They had reason to glance that way; for every man had tasted of the +queen's justice, which rarely erred on the side of mildness; many of +them had experienced her terrible competence to carry out a sentence in +person. Of them all, not one but knew that in Dolores he owned as queen +a woman who need yield nothing of prowess to any man: her knife was as +swift, her round wrist as strong, her blazing violet-black eyes as sure +as any among them. Not a man could ever forget the offending slave whom +she had thrashed with her own hands, disdaining assistance, until the +wretch tore loose and fled screaming to the cliff to pitch headlong into +the shark-infested sea; nor could they forget her unhesitating dive and +terrific struggle to recover him and her completion of the interrupted +punishment when she had brought him back. + +Yet the stress proved too great, even in face of these memories, and a +tall, powerful Spaniard, heavily earringed, handsome, with a swart, +brutal beauty, delivered a scorching oath to the heavy air and exclaimed +fiercely: + +"A curse on this babe's play! Must men stand here like whipped curs +until a slave commands us enter? Come! Who'll follow me past that door? +I'll know what lies behind this mummery if I choke it from old Jabez's +withered neck as he dies." + +The man stepped forward two paces, glaring defiantly at Dolores, waiting +for men to follow. An uneasy shuffling of feet was his only answer for a +moment; then his eyes shifted with cooling ardor at sight of Dolores. +For a breath after he had ceased speaking, the girl stood like a +splendid statue, except for the glitter of her eyes and a slight +quivering of her limbs; it was as if she awaited some response; then her +face relaxed into a contemptuous smile, and her crimson lips parted to +reveal her even, gleaming teeth. She laughed, a rippling little laugh +like the tinkle of steel links, and with a single gliding movement that +permitted no avoidance she swept to within two feet of the now +frightened ruffian. + +"Yes? Yellow Rufe would choke words from a dying man!" she cried. +"Nothing that lives and can stand on two feet is in danger from such as +he. Peace, slavish dog!" she panted, flinging out a gleaming hand and +seizing him by one earring. "Thus I mark curs that seek their food among +the dead!" With the words Dolores's right hand flashed upward, +knife-armed, and across Rufe's cheek glared a crimson cross; into his +eyes leaped the fear of death. + +"Now go!" she said imperiously, pushing him away. "Let no man forget +that while the life is in Red Jabez he holds thy lives in pawn. When his +spirit goes, ye shall reckon with me!" + +Rufe staggered away, half incredulous that his punishment had fallen +short of death. His companions led him apart with many a backward glance +of apprehension at the authoress of his discomfiture, and a deep, sullen +muttering rippled through the crowd. Dolores resumed her solitary pacing +without another thought for the hardy rascal she had so swiftly and +effectively softened. Her eyes were ever bent toward the great rock; her +thoughts were centered on a vague, mysterious instinct which whispered +to her that with her first admission into that frowning cavern the +mantle of fierce old Red Jabez would fall upon her, and with it would +come power that a Czar might envy! A Czar's power, indeed, but with all +of a Czar's cares and more; for Czar never ruled over subjects like +these. + +A sudden hush fell upon the place; the mutterings ceased as if tongues +were stricken stiff. Rufe, with his head now enwrapped in crossed +bandages, stared toward the great rock with a wavering expression in his +smoldering eyes, an expression that hovered between reluctant +submission, reawakened cupidity, and dawning hope. Dolores stood +motionless, imperious in every line and feature, her heavy eyelashes +veiling the eagerness in her eyes, her red lips curved in royal +indifference. + +The great rock was turning. + +Slowly, yet with the flawless regularity of a millwheel, the mass of +stone was rolled upward and to one side; it rested at last on a ledge, +balanced perfectly, ready to fall again at the touch of a finger; and in +the aperture appeared the human agent of its opening. + +Milo, the giant Abyssinian, guardian of the rock, custodian of the Cave +of Terrible Things, bone of contention for the jealous and terror of the +strongest, filled the entrance with his colossal frame and looked out +with a calm dignity that made the whites cringe with hatred. Slowly, +with stately grace, the giant advanced until he stood before Dolores, +and in his coal-black eyes shone the light of limitless devotion. He +knelt, kissed the sequins on her tunic's hem, then, with both hands +pressed to his forehead, he bowed his face to the earth at her feet. + +"Rise, Milo," said Dolores, gently, and her breath caught painfully as +she spoke. She knew what the slave came for; every man in that community +of pirates, wreckers, escaped slaves, and convicts knew as well as she. +All had awaited this moment, knowing when it came that the mystery of +the cave would be a mystery no longer to at least one of them: all knew +that the summons meant the passing of the old pirate who had brought +them together, ruled them with blood and iron, and forced from them a +homage none of them would render to his Maker. + +"My Sultana, it is time," said Milo, rising and waiting. He needed to +say no more. + +"Lead me to my father, then," replied the girl, and stepped after the +giant with sure step and resolute face, giving no heed to the renewed +shuffling and congregating of her people, nor to Rufe, who again stood +out before the rest and addressed them in fierce tones. + +Dolores entered the great hewn-rock doorway and in spite of her stout +heart and steel will she thrilled in every fiber. At the end of the +frowning passage, whose ruby lamps but accentuated the gloom and +imparted to it an infernal glow, lay the great chamber that only the +chief might enter. What would she find there? Her father, yes, and +dying! Otherwise this summons had never come. The death must be upon him +now; the fierce old sea-king had held his throne-room inviolate through +many bouts with the grim Reaper, knowing his own strength to conquer. +But now he had called, and Dolores sought the unknown with a curiosity +that beat down fear. + +Behind her a heavy thud echoed along the rocky walls, and the outer +light was cut off by the falling of the great stone. In a moment Milo +stood beside her and, taking her hand in his, led her along the utterly +invisible floor until she stood before a massive door. Her feet sank +into the pile of heavy carpets; her nostrils quivered to the delicate +odors of burning spices; at the top of the door a great jeweled lantern +cast a rich, yellow light down the panels, and the girl gasped +involuntarily at the sight revealed to her. Each panel was formed of +scales that overlapped like a serpent's; the scales were roughly +hammered gold and silver, richly chased, and studded thickly with +gems--without any conjecture she knew them to be precious vessels that +should have graced an altar, split, perhaps with a bloody cutlass, and +beaten out into irregular plates to gratify some grim humor of the +terrible old corsair in the long ago. Neither hinges, handle, lock, nor +latch appeared on the surface; apparently the door was solidly embedded +in the mighty rock itself. The giant laid a hand on the side of the +door-frame, and Dolores waited with impatience for admission. For all +her schooled self-control her eyes glinted with astonishment when Milo +stood aside and bowed low, saying: + +"Enter, my princess!" + +Without a sound the massive door had vanished, sliding up and out of +sight in the dark recess of the roof, leaving smooth, steel-lined slots +at sides and bottom that reflected the polish of scrupulous care. +Dolores stifled her surprise, and moved toward the heavy velvet hangings +which still barred her way. These, too, were swept aside with no visible +effort, and the girl stood on the threshold of the chamber of mystery. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +DOLORES RECEIVES HER DIADEM. + + +In a great canopied bed, taken from some rich looted Indiaman, Red Jabez +lay motionless as an effigy in stone. His tall, powerful body was +sharply outlined in coverings of silk and rare lace; the arms and crest +of a ducal house were worked into the pillows that supported his massive +head. His drawn, haggard face was surrounded and all but covered with a +great mane of vivid red hair; his silken shirt, wide open at the neck, +revealed a massive chest, whose tide of respiration had all but ceased +to run. Only his eyes, fierce yet, held token of lingering life; it was +as if the vital spark was concentrated into one final blaze of +tremendous brilliancy. + +The fierce eyes moved swiftly at Dolores's entrance, and one might have +said a film of tenderness swept for an instant over the hard glint in +them. It was gone as swiftly as it came, and the stare settled +unwaveringly upon the stupefied girl. For stupefaction had gripped +Dolores in that first entry into the great chamber. Her wildest dreams, +and they had been at times fantastic, had never showed her anything +measurably approaching the scene that smote her eyes now. For the moment +death, Red Jabez, her destiny, everything melted into the visionary +beyond and left her capable of no volition. + +The great bed stood in the center of a vast cavern; sides, roof, floor, +every inch of the rock itself bore proof of the handiwork of hundreds of +cunning craftsmen; but the furnishings filled Dolores's eyes to the +exclusion of all else. Divans and chairs, cabinets and tables carried +the mind far away to the realm of emperors and kings; vases from China +and Greece stood on stands of boule-work; a tall ebony-and-ivory +clock-case, in which ticked sonorously a masterpiece of Peter Hele, +stood between two gorgeous pieces of Gobelin tapestry. And around her +and above, Dolores's amazed eyes lighted upon gems of the painter's art +such as few collections might boast. The entire ceiling was covered with +a colossal "Battle of the Amazons," by Rubens, each figure thrown out in +startling distinctness, full of voluptuous life and action; the walls +were mantled by vast golden frames holding the best of Titian, Correggio +and Giorgione, Raphael and Ribera. And jewels flashed everywhere; +cunningly placed lamps, themselves encrusted with the reddest of rubies, +the subtlest of green emeralds, flooded walls and furnishings with a +soft yet searching light which seemed to be carefully calculated to +accentuate those things whose beauty demanded light, yet to leave the +eye unwearied. + +"The hour has struck, my Sultana," said Milo anxiously, and Dolores +shook off the spell and approached the great bed. Red Jabez closed his +eyes as she leaned over him, and his lips now alone gave evidence of +life. The girl, reared among the wildest of desolate isolation, knowing +no softening ties of family, her impulses and emotions those of a +beautiful animal, and increasingly so because of her station among the +rabble that called the dying man chief, stared down at her terrible +parent without a trace of visible regret: rather in her eyes shone the +triumph of a victor about to enter upon a conquered kingdom. But the red +pirate was speaking, and she bent her ear to catch his words. It +required no physician's knowledge to perceive in his damp face all the +signs of imminent dissolution. + +"Dolores, my traverse is run," whispered Jabez. The effort all but stole +his breath. He paused; then summoning all the tremendous will that had +dominated his frame when surging with strength, he told what he had to +say in short sentences, nursing the flickering spark to force his +speech. "Never leave here, girl. Let no man go, either. The world has +forgotten me and all of us; but memory is tenacious--it will revive at a +hint; every throat that pulses with hot life here--yes, my daughter, +even your fair throat--was measured years ago--a rope awaits every one. +But here--" + +"Yes, father?" Dolores shivered in the pause; the silence chilled her. +The giant Abyssinian stood at the head of the bed, and now moistened the +dying lips with wine. Red Jabez strained convulsively, snatching at his +throat, and resumed with weaker voice. + +"Here I have been king; here you are queen; all these things you see, +and many more, are yours; life and death are in your hands to give or +withhold. Keep the steel hand, though you wear the glove, Dolores. You +have learned power; with the greater power you take from this chamber, +and with Milo, let nothing, no man, stir your fears. Keep this chamber +as I have kept it; it is your strength; when danger threatens to beat +you down, here you will find--" + +The fluttering whisper ceased. The old pirate lay rigid. Dolores, having +heard so much, yet so little, hovered over the bed in an ecstasy of +unsatisfied hunger for more; Milo stood by, a magnificent statue in +living bronze, his eyes set in a steady blaze on the face of his master. +Once more the blue lips moved. Dolores darted down with eager ear, her +hands clasped as if in supplication. + +"Milo--tell," came the whisper, and with it went up the soul of Red +Jabez to face a tribunal more dread than any earthly judge his body had +eluded. And the tall clock ticked his knell. + +Dolores flung herself down on the bed, patting the dead face with +nervous fingers; but she was dry-eyed, no filial despair raised tumult +in her breast, her pleading was for the impossible--for the dead lips to +speak--and when she was refused her plea, she sprang from the couch in a +paroxysm of royal fury: + +"Now, by the powers of evil, he shall lie uncoffined until those +secretive lips read me the riddle they have half told!" she cried, +pacing between bed and wall with uplifted arms and hard, glittering +eyes. She suddenly paused in her wild walk, turned swiftly, and reached +the bedside with the same subtle, gliding sweep that had carried her +before Yellow Rufe; it was a characteristic movement with her--a +compound of the gliding dart of the tiger-shark and the silent-footed +pounce of its jungle brother. Milo roused from his dejection and sprang +from his knees with amazing promptitude, but he had yet to round the +bed-foot when the splendid fury stood panting over the corpse. + +"Speak!" she cried, shaking the coverlet savagely. Milo, with horror in +his shining face, gently removed her hand, then stood before her with +bowed head, his cavernous chest heaving wildly. + +"Fool! Leave me!" she snapped, and struck the slave with all her savage +force on the cheek. Milo's face turned gray for a flashing instant, then +the doglike devotion that filled his heart shone through his eyes, and +he knelt at the furious girl's feet, his head to the ground. In a moment +he stood up and, laying a hand reverently upon Dolores's shaking +shoulders, he gazed deep into her eyes. She shivered again at the +uncanny hint of volcanic might effused by the giant--volcanic, yet +quiescent for the moment. His lips opened to speak; and she sprang to +the reaction. Now a fresh fury seized her at the slave's temerity; she +flung off his hand, and snatched forth her dagger. + +"Strike, Sultana," said Milo simply. He drew aside the strap of his +leathern tunic, baring his heart. "Strike, but first suffer thy slave to +release thee from this tomb." + +"Release? Tomb? What talk is this?" gasped Dolores, her dagger held +poised aloft, her lips quivering. + +"A tomb it is if thy servant falls, Sultana. None save I can open the +great door. Close it? Yes, any might close it. Come, I will lead thee +out of this awful presence; then at the gate thou shalt send Milo to his +master who loved him." + +Slowly Dolores slipped her dagger into the sheath, and her face was +bowed in confusion. All her life, the giant slave had tended her, +guarded her steps and her sleep, taught her the exercises that had made +her feared by all the turbulent crew outside; and she was now permitted +the saving grace of remembrance. She gave him her hand, and allowed him +to place it upon his head, always his favorite means of expression when +she followed an outburst of rage with contrition; and in softer tone she +begged for an answer to the riddle that had been left with her. + +"Come, Sultana," Milo said, once more laying a hand on her shoulder, +this time without resentment from her. "Thy father, the Red Chief, left +much to be told; I will tell thee all, but not now. Patience, princess," +he pleaded, catching the warning glint in her eyes, "dost thou hear +nothing? Listen attentively--no, not in here, outside--bend thy ear to +this tapestry; 'tis before a cunning sounding stone through which voices +may well be heard on the cliffside. Listen." + +Dolores listened with bad grace, for she regarded this as a subterfuge +of the giant's, and resentment was very ready to rise in her again. But +in a moment her indifference vanished; she grew alert; her body tensed, +and her limbs quivered; the glitter of a queen in righteous anger +lighted her eyes, and she raised an unnecessary hand to impress silence +upon the slave. + +"Hast hear this before now?" she demanded in a vibrant whisper. + +"Since thou entered, Sultana. It could be nothing but rebellion; yet was +I loath to burden my chief with this trouble in his hour of passage. But +I know now that it has risen to heights which demand swift action; +therefore I have made thee aware of it." + +"'Tis that villain Rufe again!" muttered Dolores, still pressing her ear +against the tapestry. The murmur of a hundred voices came clearly to +her, and above all sounded the high-raised shout of one who harangued +the rest. At periods the murmuring became a howl, and the triumphant +note in it left scant room for doubt as to the nature of the address. +The girl, faced with the responsibility of decided action, no longer +able to depend on the wisdom and terrible power of Red Jabez, stepped +from the wall with panting heart and parted lips, but with no trace of +fear. Uncertainty moved her; uncertainty as to the resources of the +great chamber, whose mysteries had scarcely begun to unfold for her ere +the curtain was dropped again. Her stout spirit decided for her. + +"Come, lead me out, Milo," she ordered, drawing herself royally erect +and slipping her dagger around nearer her hand. "We must cool that +rabble before the fire spreads further. Take a weapon, open the door, +and follow me." + +"It is the decision of a fit daughter of my chief," replied Milo, his +great frame expanding to the bounding energy that surged through him. +Unknown to her, his eyes had never left Dolores while she was making her +decision; now joy and ardor suffused and transfigured him. Slave he was, +yet it was he who looked the royal part in that instant. + +"Wait but a breath," he said, and reached in two gigantic strides a +massive oaken chest heavily fastened with wrought iron. Lifting the lid +with reverence, he took out a plain gold circlet and returned to +Dolores. + +"Thy father bade me make this and keep it until thou wast my Sultana, +indeed," he said. He raised the heavy, dull-gold band, and placed it +upon Dolores's brow with the courtly homage of a born noble. It fitted +to perfection--as indeed it should, since the loving fingers that had +fashioned it had crept around the girl's sleeping head many times to +that end--and feminine vanity would not permit Dolores to ignore the +fit. She stepped over to a long gilt-framed mirror, and her beautiful +face grew dark and her violet eyes dusky at the glorious reflection that +gazed out at her. + +"It is well, Milo; I thank thee," she smiled. "Now to scatter the rats +that gnaw at my walls. Lead out quickly." + +Milo entered the passage, raising the plated door and letting it fall +after them. He disdained to carry a weapon; but Dolores was content, for +she had witnessed what those huge hands could do. As they approached the +great stone at the entrance, the sounds outside rang through the +corridor, and the sharp reverberations that accompanied them at +intervals told of an assault on the rock itself with pikes, crowbars, or +other smaller rocks. Milo stooped to the sill of the rock, and placed +his hands beneath it. + +"Stand away," he whispered, and strained his arms. "Let thy servant go +out and silence this clamor--" + +"Open quickly!" she interrupted him, imperiously. "It is not for the +slave to precede the sovereign. Peace, and open." + +Her hand was on her dagger, her head was raised proudly; every inch and +line of her figure irradiated splendid strength and surety; Milo heaved +at the rock, and smiled blissfully. This was indeed how he had dreamed +of his Sultana when she should come into her own. + +He heaved steadily, and the great rock rose from one side, rolling up +and up until it balanced on the ledge; but Milo knew there was some +agency at work that hindered the raising of it; never before had it been +a task to bring sweat to his brow, and now he dripped from every pore. +The rock refused to balance without his hand upon it, and he dared not +take his shoulder away to look over the top lest it fall and crush him. +He cast an appealing look toward Dolores, who was impatiently waiting +for him to stand clear, and she stepped past him to the outside. She was +greeted with a roar of derision that echoed far down to the sea. + +"Peace, dogs of the devil!" she cried with one hand upraised. A roaring +guffaw answered her. Then a burly ruffian, one-eyed and marked by a +great cutlas-scar that ran from his chin across his broken nose and +ended somewhere among the roots of his hair, stepped forward with a +smirk of confidence, and made a mock curtsy. + +"Queen o' the pirates, we salute ye!" he said. Then threw away all +pretense, and swore a ripping curse to the destination of his soul. +"Come, my girl," he shouted, "the game's played to a finish. Th' old +buck is dead, an' we want some o' them pretties he hid away inside. +You're a nice gal, I don't deny, and we ain't going to harm ye if ye +don't hinder us; but we ain't playin' kings an' queens no more. Come +now, let the big feller take us in, and say no more about it, for have +our fling, we will." + +The mob had edged nearer, until now they surged around the entrance so +close to Dolores that she felt the breath of the leaders. She noticed +with sharp wonderment that Yellow Rufe was not among the foremost; but +she was given no time to surmise, for the mob pressed on until she was +forced either to risk an advance or give ground. A little shock rippled +through her when she turned swiftly to see how Milo fared, and found him +gone. The mob saw it, too, and seethed about her with hungry faces. + +"Come on, lads!" they howled. "Milo's gone inside to open up the loot +for us." A grimy hand snatched at the girl's tunic, and in a flash the +entrance was choked with fiercely striving shapes. + +With a gasping cry of fury Dolores struck aside the bold hand, and with +a panther-spring she was upon him. One slender, brown hand, strong as a +steel claw, gripped his throat; the other hand gripped a glittering +dagger that swept like the arrow of fate to his heart and dropped him a +log at her feet. Just for a breath the crowd paused in awe; then +hoarsely growling they packed forward again, and Dolores found herself +fighting desperately against men maddened into steel-armed wolves, +thirsty for her blood in payment for that split. She more than held her +own by sheer skill and suppleness for a space; but assailed from all +sides save the back she speedily felt her limbs growing heavy and +awkward, and a cutlas sang above her bent head when her foot had failed, +leaving her without guard or avoidance. + +Then she knew that she had been permitted to win her spurs. For the +threatening cutlas was caught in mid air by a huge bare hand, wrenched +from its owner's grasp, and returned point first into the assailant's +breast. And Milo's deep voice rang in her ear: + +"Step into the passage, Sultana, and swiftly. Have a care for the body +on the floor, but tarry not. To pause is to die!" + +She felt herself drawn inside, the battle seemed to leave her isolated, +the passage was as still as a cloister after the turmoil outside, and +she stumbled along in the dim red glow, barely avoiding tripping over a +body on the floor which a glance showed her to be a corpse. This was the +man who had tried to crush back the rock door on Milo. + +Dolores spurned the body with her foot, and abruptly turned back, in a +rage to think that she had permitted the giant slave to order her into +skulking security. She halted as swiftly as she had turned; for in the +aperture at the end of the passage the huge form of Milo stood, both +hands raised, and in them a cask was poised. A queer, spluttering sound +at first puzzled Dolores; then she made out a short, hanging fuse +depending from the cask, and it spluttered as it dwindled, flinging +sparks around the giant's bowed head until the point of fire seemed +ready to disappear in the bung-hole. + +"Treasure for dogs!" roared Milo. "Divide it among thee!" The great rock +thudded down as the cask hurtled out into the mob; the next instant the +cavern shook and quivered to a terrific explosion; a moment after the +earth might have been dead for all sound in the passage; yet another +moment and the outer world rang with cries and shrieks, curses and +entreaties, and Milo bowed low to his mistress and said: + +"Now if my Sultana deems fit, it is time to show this scum of the earth +their sovereign." + +"Wait, Milo," replied Dolores, shuddering slightly at sight of him. The +giant was streaked and splashed with blood; for in those moments when he +stood defenseless before casting his infernal machine, a dozen cutlases +and knives had sought his life. + +"Pardon thy slave," he returned, sensing her meaning. "I will go thus. +'Twere not good that these dogs should know their wounds can hurt. Such +scratches are nothing. They are paid for in full." + +"It is well. Lead out again, good Milo, and fear not for me. With thou +beside me I am armed in proof." + +Again they emerged into the air, but now a deathly silence received +them. Silence broken only by the rustling of garments, as a withered old +crone shambled forward and cast herself at Dolores's feet. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE GROVE OF MYSTERY. + + +Dolores stood still, sweeping the scene of destruction with a gaze of +flinty penetration. The groveling crone at her feet affected her like +something unclean, and she spurned the old woman with her foot, stepping +aside with a gesture of disgust. Then she raised her right hand, and +cried with bitter scorn: + +"Come, my brave jackals! Come to the feast prepared for thee." She +lowered her hand and with a contemptuous smile indicated the gruesome +results of the explosion of Milo's awful bomb. + +On the edge of the forest the hardier rascals had halted; at her word +they glared loweringly at her and the impassive giant at her back; from +the shadow of the trees yellow and brown and black faces peered in +quivering terror; but none responded to her command to approach her. The +old woman on the ground alone made audible reply, and her slavish +whining enraged Dolores. With a stamp of her sandaled foot she tore from +her waist the gold cord, slipped off the dagger sheath, and fell upon +the wretched old servitor with a shower of blows. + +"Silence, old cat!" she cried, and the blows fell heavily. "Up with +thee, and away. Go quickly, and make ready the altar in the Grove of +Mystery. Cease thy bleating, old witch, and summon thy shaky wits +against the ordeal I shall put thee to. Some one among ye stirred up the +rising which resulted as ye now see. That one I shall know before +sundown, and he shall bitterly repent him. Away!" + +Dolores was astonished at seeing no sign of Rufe, but outwardly she +showed none of her astonishment. A more vital consideration was present +in the disobedience of the motley crew who as yet made no effort to come +to her call. Drawing herself fully erect when the old woman departed, +she again stretched out her hand and cried: + +"Dogs of Satan! I await your homage. Red Jabez lies dead: yet his spirit +lives in me, your queen. By so many breaths that ye flout me, by just so +many torments shall I have ye torn. Come, dogs. Kneel!" + +A hoarse murmur went up from the forest edge, and first one by one, then +in knots of half a score each, the negroes and half-breeds slunk into +the open and approached her with eyes full of panic. The whites, not so +susceptible to abstract influence, still hesitated, drawing near to each +other in growling consultation. Dolores gave them no sign, though she +watched them keenly from under her lowered lashes. She gave her +attention to the line of abject creatures who filed slowly past her, +each one stopping to grovel in the dust at her feet and passing on. +These Milo halted near by and herded into a shivering, frightened mob. +And Dolores's cool disregard of the whites had its calculated effect. +One by one they stepped out into the open as had the colored men; the +more timorous, or superstitious, came first, some wearing shamed grins, +others palpably impressed by the example of the others and shuffling on +their way uncomfortably. Last of all came the bolder spirits, and these +wore faces intended to express contempt, or at least sarcastic +indifference; but the faces changed invariably on closer approach to the +queen. Memory proved a stubborn master; in every man's breast +remembrance clamored to them to have a care how they bore themselves +before this beautiful fury they called queen. + +Still Yellow Rufe came not. + +When all had knelt, and all had been herded by the giant Milo in two +separate parties, the number was tallied, and of the whites, besides +Rufe, seven were missing. One lay inside the passage; of the rest there +were remains lying about the rocky wall to the cavern that might be +three men or six--human discernment could never decide which. + +Dolores faced her mongrel subjects again and her dark eyes blazed with +fire, her beautiful face was dark with surging blood, every line of her +lithe figure quivered as she spoke: + +"I seek the dog who stirred ye up to mutiny!" she cried. "Yellow Rufe, +if it be he, is not among ye, nor is he one of these carrion scattered +on the ground. If it be some other villain, him I will know before the +sun has stretched my shadow to the cliff. Deliver him up to me, and he +alone shall repay. Disobey, and every biting dog among ye shall swiftly +learn the price of disobedience. I wait." + +The sun was fast setting, and already the shadows had grown long. Five +minutes at most would see the shadow of Dolores's head at the base of +the great rock, and the blacks started whimpering with apprehension. +Among the whites a tremendous quiet reigned; but sullen brows here, +snarling teeth there, gave hint of their interest in the sun's progress. +Still no man spoke. Rather they looked at each other questioningly as +the minutes flew, as if the culprit were indeed not among them. + +But Dolores was wise beyond her years, wise with a wisdom bred of her +volcanic existence in such a station, and she refused to be hoodwinked +by the apparent absence of the man she sought. Her shadow touched the +rock, and without another second of hesitation she turned toward the +forest fringe, walking with majestic carriage and looking neither to +right nor left. She simply uttered one short sentence: "To the Grove!" + +Every man with dark blood in his veins followed her like a sheep, for +terrible things had been witnessed in the Grove of Mysteries: things far +beyond the understanding of such men. The sullen whites hung back +again, for their colder blood was not impregnated with the fears and +superstitions that exerted such tremendous sway over their colored +fellows. Still Dolores gave them never a look; she walked on, and the +forest closed behind her, as if she believed her footsteps followed by +every foot in the unruly crew. + +It was Milo who constituted her dependable rearguard. Milo was there, +and Milo would see to it that no skulker declined his queen's command. +There lay the reason why Dolores so placidly turned her back to men +whose dearest ambition would have been realized by the plunge of steel +between her shoulders at that moment. Milo walked around to the rear of +the hesitant mob, and without a word gripped the hindmost in his two +great hands and hurled him bodily over the heads of his mates in the +desired direction. + +"Swine!" swore a harelipped Mexican, whipping out his cutlas. "I'll see +your black heart for that!" and furiously made play to avenge insult to +his sorely handled fellow. + +The black giant turned as calmly as if his mistress had called him, and +seized the fellow's cutlas hand in one huge fist, crushing bone and +steel into gory pulp without visible effort. His lips never opened, his +tremendous chest was ruffled not one whit; Milo's eyes alone gave +warning of what he might do if occasion arose; and fooled by his obvious +carelessness, the white men closed around him, knives and cutlases +drawn, frantic for his life. + +They should have known better. Their lessons had been many and vivid; +but not a man of them all was of the caliber to learn from a slave. Milo +kept hold of his man's hand, and at the scrape of steel leaving +scabbard, he brought up his free hand and grasped the fellow's left +wrist. Then, springing aside with the resistless impulse of a charging +buffalo, he gained a clear space, and began to swing his victim by the +wrists. + +One complete circle was made with the human club, then a catlike ruffian +watched his chance and darted in with murderous knife at Milo's breast +while the dreadful club was at his back. Cool as a mountain spring, the +giant immediately let go his man, letting him fly far behind him like a +stone from a catapult. In a twinkling of an eye, the great hands that +released the one captive closed afresh on the new assailant in front, +and now the giant gave no further grace. His fingers tightened on the +man's throat and the desperate face went black. Then, keeping the fellow +ever before him, he suddenly flung him into the air by the waist, +shifting holds with tigerish swiftness, and caught him by the ankles as +he came down. He whirled the unfortunate wretch once, and three men went +down under the terrible blow; the rest scattered with furious howls, +bespattered with the blood of their comrade; but one more sight of the +unruffled giant cowed them; none attempted further knife or sword-play. +Then Milo smiled scornfully, and uttered: "Go!" and they went to the +forest like jackals before the lion. The giant saw them on their way, +and tossing his fearful weapon over the cliff, strode after them, an +awful embodiment of relentless, all but limitless strength. + +The forest lay hushed and dim beyond the fringe; whispering leaves and +crackling twigs sounded sharp as a shower of stones in the stillness. +Great trees reared their majestic heads to mingle their foliage and shut +out the light; every creeping, flying, walking creature seemed awed into +a vague murmuring that was deeper than silence. The Grove of Mysteries +was a semicircular space of cool, mossy sward, bowered in great trees +and tangled vine screens; its background was the bare rock of the +cliffside itself--actually, though unknown to the rabble, the outer +rocky wall of the great chamber--and against this stood the altar. + +The old woman had made use of her skinny limbs to good effect, impelled +by a fear that had become terror. The altar was resplendent in silk and +velvet, fashioned for an altar very different from this; but in place of +the vessels usually associated with so sacred a piece of furniture, the +Altar of the Grove was embellished with a mosaic of skulls and bones +surrounding a complete skeleton which held its head in one grisly hand. + +In the hollow eye-sockets glowed a weird fire that darted forth at +irregular intervals like glances of demoniacal hate; at the altar foot a +great censer erupted a dense cloud of pungent smoke that rendered the +altar and those about it still more vague and ghostly. And the glade was +full of cowering, slavering blacks and half-breeds, whose superstitious +terrors reached high tide with each succeeding swirl of smoke or +outflash of eye-socket fires. + +Dolores went directly to the old woman, who stood in cringing +subservience with a plain white garment in her hands. This she placed on +the girl's shoulders, fastening it at the bosom with a small skull of +jade stone whose grinning teeth were pearls, and whose eye-sockets were +empty with an awful blackness. The gold circlet was discarded, and in +its place Dolores placed on her head a turban formed from a stuffed +coiled snake, whose neck and head darted hither and thither on cunning +springs with her every motion and gesture. + +To this awesome place came the herd that Milo drove before him; and not +a man among the hardened crew was hardy enough to carry his bravado into +the Grove. Blacks and whites alike, no matter what their inmost thoughts +might be, yielded to the spell of the place the moment their feet trod +the sward and the congregation settled into the places allotted to them. + +Dolores glided out in front of the altar, and eyes glittered, dusky +throats went constricted and dry with terror when she stirred up the +brazier and was hidden for a moment in the rising volume of blue smoke +in which flashes of devilish light played incessantly. Milo stepped up +behind and above the altar, and as the smoke reeked about him vanished +seemingly into the face of the cliff. There, in an unsuspected outlet to +the great chamber, was the key to much of the magic with which Dolores +kept her turbulent crew on the borderline of fear. She flashed a glance +holding much of anxiety after her giant servitor, and busied herself +about the altar to gain time. + +She had received from his hands as he stepped up the effigy of a man in +black wax, and now she advanced with hand upraised for silence. It was +unnecessary: the silence of the dead prevailed in the Grove. With the +image held aloft Dolores was a magnet that drew all eyes inevitably. Six +inches tall, the image was a cleverly modeled composite of every type in +the motley band; and every man realized this. Placing the effigy on the +altar, Dolores seized from the brazier a glowing coal with her bare +hands and placed it behind the figure. Then she flung both hands high +and her vibrant voice pealed through the Grove. + +"Regard all men the voice of the gods! By this sacred fire shall this +image be melted; and when it is gone, out of its many likenesses shall +remain the shape of him who stirred ye to mutiny against me. That shape +I shall show ye by the power of my will. Lest ye disbelieve that I have +this power, behold! Look for proof in the smoke behind me!" + +As she spoke she stirred the incense to a dense cloud of smoke, and her +blazing eyes, turned from her people, peered through the reek for a +reassuring sign from the rock, for what she now demanded of Milo called +for superhuman swiftness and surety. As the seconds sped, she kept the +smoke swirling thickly, and her voice rang out in a weird incantation +that kept the spectators trembling with the growing suspense. + +Then a triumphant note entered her speech; the smoke rose thicker for an +instant, then dissolved; and as it vanished, high on the rocky cliff, +framed, as it seemed, in the solid rock itself, stood the grim, cold +figure of the dead Red Jabez. + +In this, her grave extremity, Milo the strong, Milo the slave, more than +all, Milo the faithful, had not failed her. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE PIRATES' BARBECUE. + + +A moment of ghastly hush prevailed, then the Grove shook from sward to +tree-tops--pandemonium broke loose and all were in turmoil. + +No need now to wait for the verdict of the wax image; no further +shifting of brazen glances, or winking of knowing eyes. Shrill voices of +terrified blacks, hoarse bellowings of the hardiest rascals who had +ever kissed a dripping cutlas, the throaty roar of men who had played +willing lieutenants to the ringleader: all pealed up to high heaven for +the culprit to come forth and taste of the queen's justice rather than +wait for her vengeance. + +"Rufe! Yellow Rufe!" they howled. They howled it until the forest echoed +with the word. + +"Peace, Devilspawn!" cried Dolores, covering the crowd with an +all-embracing smile of utter scorn. "Think ye I need to hear the name? +Go, all of ye! Fill your swinish skins with liquor, and trouble me no +more this day. When I will that Yellow Rufe appear, here he shall be +drawn, whether he will or not. And in your carousal let this thought be +with ye: Ye are dogs and slaves of dogs; by my will ye live, at my word +ye die. The Red Chief is dead; I am your law, your queen, owner of your +bodies and souls! Let any of ye seek to imitate Yellow Rufe, and Milo +shall pick your limbs apart as if ye were flies. Go now; there is rum +broached, and wine; make a barbecue, and fill yourselves to bursting +like the vultures ye are!" + +"Hello, lads, that's your sort!" roared a purple-faced ruffian with a +hang-lip. "A right proper gal is that. Give her a huzza and crack yer +pipes, lads!" + +"Bravo, Hanglip!" bellowed another of the same kidney. Spotted Dog had +lost part of an ear, and the same knife had seamed his flabby jowl into +the likeness of a bloodhound's cheek; his deeply-pitted visage completed +the ensemble, and no other name would have fitted him as well. "Bravo, +old cutthroat! Let her play queens an' fairies, if she wants to. Here's +for th' jolly grog, lads. Hey, Stumpy, start a cheer for th' pretty +wench!" + +So had the spell of the Grove left them immediately they smelled the +fleshpots. But Dolores still held the altar; and Stumpy, having a keener +memory perhaps than most of his fellows, took the warning that flashed +from her angry eyes. He shivered slightly as his gaze met hers, then, +hopping forward on his one good leg and club-foot, he swung a knotty +fist against Spotted Dog's creased jowl and growled: + +"A turn wi' that poison tongue, Spotted Dog. All hands, too, hear me +talkin'. Here's a royal feast spread for us, an' th' spreader's queen o' +th' pirates! Don't ever ferget that, lads. I ain't hankerin' fer what +Rufe'll get. Away wi' you, now, an' I'll slit th' winepipe o' th' dog as +says disrespect to th' queen." + +And so the rascals trooped down to their hut-village. Noisily, +profanely, full of horseplay and ear-burning jests; but never a voice +spoke any word that failed in its homage when Dolores was the theme. + +Snugly settled around the great rock door, the pirates' village looked +out from a broad level platform over the darkening evening sea. In the +center, its rear abutting on the rock itself, stood the great council +hall and the dwelling of Dolores. In front of this black slaves busily +heaped a great bonfire; torches were thrust into iron rings on doorpost +and tree-trunk; noisy ruffians tramped into a cool cave in the rock and +trundled forth casks and horn cups; while Sancho, the Spaniard, bent +over a whetstone, giving his knife a final edge against the arrival of +the meat. + +A venomous devil was this Sancho, and his contorted face, with the +missing eye covered by a black patch, worked demoniacally in the +gathering darkness with each leaping flame of the ignited torches. The +hand that clutched the knife was a thing of horror; two fingers and half +the thumb remained from some drunken brawl to serve the Spaniard in +future play for work or debauch; and the man, crouching low over his +stone, made a picture of incarnate hate that had no humor in it. + +"Where's th' flesh?" screamed Sancho, looking up, his mutilated thumb +running creepily along the knife-edge. + +"Whet your tusks, lads, here's the blessed manna!" squealed Caliban, a +hunchbacked terror, who kept his maimed carcass secure by virtue of his +viperish temper, coupled with an uncanny skill of the cutlas. "Milo's +our man! Huzza for Milo!" + +Out from the trees stalked the giant Abyssinian, and the shadows and +torchlight distorted him to grotesque proportions. He walked as if his +weight was nothing; yet on his great shoulders he bore a half-grown ox, +its feet hobbled, its tongue hanging from its panting mouth. Straight to +the fire he stepped and cast his burden down, turning again without a +word and going back to the rock portals. + +"Meat for men!" screamed Sancho, crouching again, knife in hand. + +"For men!" echoed Caliban ferociously, and whipped his cutlas out. +"Stand clear!" he howled, and Sancho dodged aside. The little terror's +blade sang through the air with a wicked whistle; it curved high over +Sancho, then flashed down and plunged through the throat of the ox, +pinning the beast to the earth. And when he recovered his breath the +Spaniard swooped upon the prize, and his knife completed what the dwarf +had well begun. + +Then began an orgy that must render description bald and colorless. +Casks were broached by knocking out the heads; long horns of cattle were +filled to slopping over with rare wine or powerful rum; and then up +leaped Hanglip on to an unbroached cask, cup in hand, and bellowed a +toast that set the trees, the sea, the skies clamoring with rasping +applause. + +"The next vessel as heaves in sight, lads! May her sails be silk, her +masts be gold, and her great cabin full o' rum, with a pretty wench +sittin' atop o' every keg!" + +From the fire came the odor of roasting meat, and the black night came +down outside, making of the small circle where the pirates sprawled a +blotch of infernal light, peopled with infernal shapes. But a sprinkling +of faces a shade less evil leavened the mass; for to the feast came +trooping the women of the camp: of a kidney with the men--yet women, +with women's beguilements and softnesses. + +Dolores sat alone in the great chamber, careless of the noise outside, +her beautiful face dark with somber passion. Beside her chair Milo had +placed her treasure chests; hers now, through the death of the terrible +old corsair who had amassed them. Idly she had heaped the table with a +glittering collection of gems that an empress might well have found +interest in; but Dolores frowned as at so much dross, for her thoughts +were far away. The filmiest of lace and silken shawls, jeweled +slippers, gossamer-gold head dresses, pearls and rubies from India and +Persia--all lay in confusion at her hand, and aroused no spark of joy in +her breast. From time to time her brooding eyes flashed and fastened +upon a priceless Rembrandt "Laughing Cavalier" on the wall opposite; +they flashed again when her gaze shifted to a colossal Rubens "Rape of +the Sabines"; her face lighted for an instant when her fingers in +groping closed upon a cobwebby golden net, scintillating with cunningly +wrought jeweled insects caught in the meshes, which had once graced the +all-powerful head of Pompadour. + +"Where such things are, are better!" she whispered vehemently, clenching +her strong, slender hands fiercely. "Where such are fashioned and worn +there are people worthy my power. My people! Pah!" she burst out +passionately. "My people? Dogs! Cattle! Brutes without souls! There--" +she flung a hand impetuously toward the "Laughing Cavalier"--"there is +the pirate who should call me queen! There"--with a gesture toward +Rubens's great canvas--"are men that I would command. Here, I must stay, +why? Because a dead man willed it so. May I wither eternally if I make +not my own laws. Milo!" + +She clapped her hands, and in a moment the giant was before her, +reverent awe in every line of his huge body. + +"Sultana?" + +"Are my beasts well fed?" + +"They eat like crocodiles, guzzle like swine, Sultana." + +"See that the liquor flows freely, Milo. And a word in thy ear. We shall +go from here as quickly as the fates will send a ship. Let no sail pass +henceforth." + +"Lady, that may not be--" + +"Silence! Give me no may not! When I, Dolores, will to go, who shall +stay me?" + +"Death lies beyond the horizon for thee as for all of us, Sultana. +Pirate the Red Chief was last of the band; every man who calls thee +queen is under sentence of death; the pillage of a hundred ships lies +here. Here is safety. The Red Chief's law--" + +"Peace! I am the law! Seek me that ship--and quickly. Shall I live among +such carrion, when the world is peopled with such as those?" she cried +with a sweeping gesture toward a life-size "Three Graces," by Correggio, +epitomizing feminine grace indeed. + +"Thou art fairer, Sultana," replied the giant simply; and the girl +flushed warmly for all her moody dissatisfaction. She smiled kindly upon +the slave, and said more softly: "Thy devotion pleases me, Milo. Yet is +my will unchanged. Seek me that ship. I will go from here. Stay, if thou +wilt, or art afraid." + +"Lady," returned the giant, "when the Red Chief, thy father, took me +from the slave ship he gave me liberty--liberty to serve him. He has +gone; my care is now the queen, his daughter. Going or staying, Milo +remains thy bodyguard. Pardon if I offended thee; thy father desired +what I have told thee. But the ship. This evening, at sundown, a sail +leaped in sight beyond the Tongue." + +"This evening! And ye said no word of it?" cried Dolores, blazing with +fresh anger. She leaned forward in her chair as if crouching for a +spring. + +"It passed as swiftly as it appeared, Sultana. No other eye save mine +saw it; the men know nothing--" + +"It is well, Milo. I had forgotten thy eyes were twice as keen as any +other man's. Keep that condor's vision of thine bent to seaward, and +tell no man of what comes into view. Bring me the news; I shall know how +to keep my rascals in hand. Now go and send to me a woman to serve me: a +young woman, nimble and deft; give the old woman to the cooks for +scullery drudge." + +"A woman here, Sultana?" + +"Here! What bee buzzes in thy great head now?" The giant again looked +grave; the girl's impatience surged anew. + +"Sultana, don't forget that, save thee and me, servant of the great +chamber, none may enter here and go alive?" + +"Now by the fiend, enough!" blazed the girl. "Again, I am the law! Wilt +have it imprinted on thy great body with my whip?" + +Milo made a low obeisance, departed without further speech, and in a few +moments ushered in from the bacchanalian revels a maid for his +mistress. + +"Pascherette will serve thee well, Sultana," he said, leading the girl +forward. He saw approval in Dolores's face and departed, his luminous +black eyes unwontedly soft and limpid. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +MILO SIGHTS A SAIL. + + +Day broke through a silver haze, and as the blue sea unrolled to view, +far down to the southeast, flashed a pearly sliver of sail lazily +drawing in to the coast. It was the merest streak of white against the +sky, and none but Milo's sharp eyes could have seen it. Even at that +distance, and indistinct though it was in the mist, the giant detected +the three masts crossed with yards that proclaimed the vessel a +full-rigged ship. He gazed long and earnestly, to assure himself of the +ship's progress, then hurried along the mountain toward the village. + +He strode with the free stride of a perfect creature, swinging from the +hip and covering the ground at a common man's running pace. His vast +chest heaved and fell easily and rhythmically, the golden-hued skin +rippling and flashing in the rising sunlight; every line of limbs and +torso was the outward and visible sign of abounding health; the straight +black hair falling to his shoulders framed a keen, powerful face of +Semitic mold, in which the high brow and calm, fearless eyes belonged +rather to one of the blood-royal than to a slave. And rightly, too, for +Milo, the giant, was of princely line in his own land, and his present +servitude was an accident that had yet failed to rob him of his +birthright of dignity. + +He came abreast of and above the haven where lay the stout sloop and +boats of the community, and the sounds of noisy industry about the craft +brought a frown and a sneer to his face. It reminded him too vividly of +his actual station, and violently dragged him back from the realm of +visions he had allowed himself to indulge in. The pirates were busily +overhauling their gear, filling water casks, calking dried-out seams, +and sluicing opening decks with copious streams of water, just as they +were used to do in the palmy days when Red Jabez kept them gorged with +pillage. + +Milo hurried faster, for he feared they too had sighted his ship, and +sprang down to the shore to accost surly Caliban. + +"Here, Milo old buck, stick yer beak into this, lad!" screamed Caliban, +thrusting forward a brimming horn of wine. The giant declined +impatiently, waving a hand toward the activity afoot. + +"What, won't drink luck, hey?" cried the dwarf, emptying the horn +himself. "Ain't got the news yet, hey?" + +"News? What news can such as thee have that I am not told?" demanded +Milo contemptuously. Caliban scowled viciously at his tone, but the +giant's hands were strong, and the little ruffian loved his warped life. +He flung down his horn and retorted: "We're to windward o' ye this time, +Milo me lad. Th' queen bade us be ready for a lamb headed this way, an', +sure enough, there comes a craft now, a'most in sight from here. Small +fish, true, but sweet after so long a spell o' famine." + +Milo knew that the ship he had seen could not possibly have been +detected from the village. It must be yet another craft, and, without a +word, he bounded back up the cliff and scanned the waters closer +inshore. There, sure enough, lay a beautiful white schooner, her paint +dazzling to the eye, her decks flashing with metal, her canvas faultless +in fit and set and whiteness. She was still five miles distant and +slowly edging along the coast, as if indifferent to her tardy progress. +The giant noted her exact position, then presented himself to Dolores. + +The girl was luxuriously submitting to the skilful attentions of +Pascherette; her wealth of lustrous hair enveloped her like a veil, +rendering almost superfluous the filmy silken robe she had donned. But +at sight of Milo all her feline contentment fled, and she thrust the +maid from her and stood up to receive his report. + +"A ship?" she flashed. + +"Two, Sultana. The men make ready now." + +"The men? Dolt! Did I not tell thee to keep such news for me?" + +"They saw the small vessel while I was beyond the Tongue. They have not +seen the ship I saw, nor have I told them. It is a great ship, lady; +theirs is but a small, poor thing." + +"I will see it." Dolores suddenly remembered the maid, whose presence +she had ignored. Pascherette stood apart, a small, fairylike French +octoroon, dainty as a golden thistledown; her full red lips were parted +in eager inquisitiveness, and her slim, small body leaned forward, as if +to catch every word; but at sight of her Dolores burst into knowing +merriment, for the girl's eyes told her story. They were fastened in +intense, burning adoration, not on the mistress but on Milo, the giant +slave. + +"La-la, chit!" Dolores cried; "keep thy black eyes from my property." +But more weighty matters than a maid's fluttering bosom demanded her +attention, and she commanded sharply: "Milo, summon the men to the +council hall at once. Let none be absent. Go swiftly!" Milo went, and +Dolores flashed around on Pascherette again: "And thou, hussy, take this +clinging frippery from me and give me my tunic. And, mark me, girl, thy +eyes and ears belong to me. Thy tongue, too. Let that tongue utter one +word of what those eyes see, those ears hear, and it shall be plucked +from thy pretty mouth with hot pincers. Remember!" + +Dolores put on her tunic and swept out to steal a long look at the white +schooner before entering the hall. + +Into the council hall the pirates came trooping, tarry, wet, soiled with +the estuary mud as they were, and stood in a milling mob awaiting speech +from Dolores, who entered from the rear and scanned their faces closely. +Shuffling feet and whistling breath would not be stilled, even in her +presence, for their appetites were already whetted for a victim, and the +fumes of the previous night's debauch lingered. They glared at the girl +and cursed impatiently. + +"Hear!" commanded Dolores with an imperious gesture, and every sound was +muffled, not stilled. "Hear, my brave jackals! For long ye have hungered +for employment fit for the royal corsairs ye are. Now the meal is to +hand." The hall reverberated with the clamor that went up. Cutlases +scraped from their scabbards and swished aloft; bold Spotted Dog +snatched out his great horse-pistol and blazed into the floor, filling +the place with acrid smoke and noise. Dolores's eyes flashed angrily; +she governed her fury, and went on when the uproar subsided: "Your boats +are ready?" + +"Ready and rotting wi' idleness!" roared Hanglip. + +"And ye purpose wasting powder and shot on some paltry craft of the +islands! Wait, my brave lads, I have better game at hand!" + +Now the crowd was hushed in earnest, for none of them saw more than a +frolic coming from such a small craft as the schooner. The girl went on +to tell them of the big ship that Milo had seen, and she painted it a +rich West Indiaman, loaded to the hatches with rum and powder, gold and +jewels, delicate meats and--with emphasis which she carefully cloaked +yet made vivid--dainty ladies, no doubt. + +"Take ye the sloop, then," she commanded, "and bring me no tale of +failure. Ten miles southwest from the bluff she lies becalmed. Let no +man return without tribute for me. Go now!" + +With a whoop the evil ruffians tumbled out, hurling themselves pell-mell +down to the shore, and splashing out to the boats. Their sloop, a long, +beamy Cayman-built craft, of eighty tons and twelve murderous guns that +were cast for a king's ship, could be handled by four men or a hundred. +She carried fifty men now, and she sped out of the estuary before the +faint breeze with a velocity that spelled certain doom for any +square-rigged ship she ever lifted over the horizon. + +Dolores watched them go with inscrutable face; then commanded Milo to +attend her in the great chamber. Pascherette, not yet over her fright, +hovered tremblingly near, and her mistress dismissed her with a +pacifying pat on the head, flinging, at the same time, a string of +pearls around her neck that brought mingled gratitude, greed, and +conceit into her sparkling eyes. + +"How stands the schooner now?" Dolores asked when the girl had gone. + +"She drifts slowly, Sultana. There is little wind. Yet she ever comes +nearer." + +"Milo, that is my ship!" breathed Dolores fervidly. "I have jewels and +silken trash, the richest in my store, which my father told me were +taken from such a vessel. A yacht, he called that craft. 'Tis sailed for +pleasure; trade never soils the holds of such craft; men who sail such a +vessel as that which now hovers near us are of the kind from which comes +such as that!" Once more she indicated the "Laughing Cavalier," and now +her form and face were filled with surging ambition strengthened with +ardent hope. + +"How goes our sloop?" she asked abruptly. + +"Swiftly, but with the dying breath of the wind. By noon she will be +swinging idly, Sultana." + +"Who of the boldest rascals remain with us?" + +"The noisiest dogs have gone. Sancho remains, for Stumpy cracked his +head last night in a brawl. The others here are but cattle!" The giant +uttered the words with bitter scorn. + +"Then, at noon, Milo, we move to secure my ship!" Dolores cried with +gleaming eyes. "Set slaves to move out the false Point and anchor it a +cable-length off the true. I will have a plan then to lure the schooner +on. We must not let her escape, Milo!" + +"Pardon, lady, I know a way!" + +"And that?" + +"I will swim to the schooner and command them to thy presence." + +Dolores smiled whimsically, for she was too wise to be ignorant of the +fact that such men as were in that schooner must first be caught before +they might be commanded. Yet the giant's plan suggested another to her. + +"Hear my plan," she said. "That chit--Pascherette--she's a dainty minx! +Does she swim?" + +"Like a conger, Sultana!" Milo's face lighted warmly, and Dolores +shrewdly guessed then that the petite octoroon's regard for the giant +was not altogether unrequited. + +"Then carry her abreast of the vessel, quickly, and bid her swim out to +it. Let her use some of the cunning that is in her pretty little head, +and make them wonder what else our island has to offer in dainties. +Then, ere evening, I shall have work for thee that shall complete what +Pascherette begins. Command the minx to bring forth all her fascinations +and allurements. Nay, friend, have no fear for thy sweetheart. I warrant +thee she can care for herself, if she will. Go! It is my command!" + +Milo departed, and Dolores went out to the Grove, climbed nimbly to the +cliff-top, and sat down to watch. She had a clear view of the schooner +now winging lazily along three miles away and a mile off shore; the +shore, from the point where her rascals were even now towing out a great +mass of interlaced trees and foliage planted upon stout logs to form a +false point, right along to abreast of the schooner, lay immediately +beneath her eye; the blue sea glittered and flashed under the hot sun, +unruffled by wind, and only bursting into a long line of creamy foam, +where it licked the golden sands. The tall palms nodded languorously, +their deep green heads faintly chafing like sleeping crickets; the +tinkle of the sands came up to her ears like tiny bells. + +Dolores followed with her eyes two swiftly moving figures on the shore +path, hidden from the ocean by a mass of verdure, and she smiled +cryptically. The giant Milo strode on his way like the embodiment of +force; at his side tripped Pascherette, her glossy black crown barely +reaching above his waist, her tiny hand hidden completely in his great +fist. And she kept her bright eyes raised to his great height all the +while, satisfied that her little feet should trip, perhaps, if only her +eyes tripped not from his face. + +Presently they stopped, and Dolores stood up alertly. There was but a +moment's delay, while Pascherette bound her hair more securely; then, +with a flirting hand-wave, the little octoroon darted from Milo, +wriggled through the bushes, and ran lightly down to the sea. In another +moment her small, black head was moving rapidly toward the schooner, her +golden skin flashing warmly in the sun as her arms swept over and over +in an adept stroke that carried her forward with the speed of a fish. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE PARTY FROM THE YACHT. + + +The schooner yacht Feu Follette swam sluggishly along shore, her lofty +canvas flapping in the faint air. On her spotless quarter-deck, Rupert +Venner, wealthy idler and owner of the vessel, lounged in a deck-chair a +picture of the utter finality of boredom. His guests, Craik Tomlin and +John Pearse, made perfunctory pretense of admiring the lovely coast +scenery along the port hand; but their air was that of men surfeited +with sights, tired of the languorous calm, _blase_ of life. + +The schooner's appointments typified money in abundance. From forecastle +capstan to binnacle she glowed and glittered with massive brass and +ornate gilding; along the waist six burnished-bronze cannon stood on +heavily carved carriages, lashings and breechings as white as a shark's +tooth; over the quarter-deck double awnings gave ample clearance to the +swing of the main boom--the outer of dazzling white canvas, the inner of +richest, striped silk-and-cotton mixture. The open doors of the +deckhouse companion revealed an interior of ivory paneling touched with +gold, and hung with heavy velvet punkahs. The walls were embellished +with exactly the right number of art gems to establish the artistic +perception of the owner and to whet the expectation for more yet unseen. +But, with all this, the Feu Follette housed a discontented master and +discontented guests. + +"Oh, for a breeze!" grumbled Pearse, breaking in on the frowning +silence. "How much longer are we to drift around these stagnant seas, +Venner?" + +"The very next slant of wind shall wing us homeward," replied Venner +dreamily. "I, too, am sick of the cruise and its deadly monotony." + +Again silence, marred only by creak of gear and flap of idle sails. The +schooner barely moved now, though the western sky held promise of a +breeze later on. Then came a cry from one of the negro crew forward, +and its tenor stirred the party into mild interest. + +"De debbil, ef 'tain't one o' dem marmaids! Oh, Caesar!" + +A ripple of panting laughter alongside brought Venner and his guests to +the rail in haste, and gone to the windless heavens was their _ennui_. A +gleaming, gold-tinted creature, a miniature model of Aphrodite surely, +arose from the blue sea and climbed nimbly into the main channels and +thence to the deck, where little pools of water dripped from the radiant +figure. She shook her small head saucily, and heavy masses of raven-wing +hair tumbled about her, provokingly cloaking the charms so boldly +outlined by her single saturated tunic of fine silk. + +"Who in paradise may you be?" ejaculated Venner, while his friends +stared with unconscious rudeness. + +"I? I am Pascherette!" laughed the small vision, and her black eyes +sparkled impudently. + +"Pascherette!" echoed Tomlin, bewildered. "Does Jamaica hold such +beauties?" He awkwardly brought forward a deck-chair, while Pearse stood +by in speechless amazement. Venner, as better became the host, ordered a +steward to bring a wrap for the astounding visitor, but the girl laughed +provokingly and declined both. + +"It is not for such as I, fine gentlemen," she said, and her sharp eyes +were roving busily about the schooner, appraising values like a +veritable pirate. "Keep thy courtesies for better than I." + +"Better than you, girl?" Venner's tone was incredulous. He was taking +mental stock of the priceless pearls about Pascherette's dainty throat. +"To be found here?" + +"If not here, where shall ye find such a one as my mistress?" +Pascherette retorted saucily. + +"Your mistress?" + +"Without doubt. I am but a slave, my lady is the queen, Dolores." + +"A queen--a white woman?" stammered Venner. + +"Oh, Venner, let us look into this!" exclaimed Pearse with unconcealed +curiosity. + +"Just what we have prayed for!" Tomlin supplemented eagerly. "Anchor, +Venner, like a good fellow. A jaunt ashore will brace us all up." + +"Nonsense!" objected the owner, albeit with a good trace of +inquisitiveness himself. "The breeze will come by evening; and who knows +what this coast harbors? A bad name sticks to this shore." + +Pascherette had wandered forward, and between sly glances aft and keen +scrutiny shoreward, she flung seductive smiles broadcast at the grinning +crew, prattling prettily to officer and man alike, as if she were indeed +a stranger to the ways of shipboard. While she made her rounds the party +aft entered into a warm dispute; their curiosity was whetted, but not +sufficiently in Venner's case, to whom the safety of the yacht was +paramount just then. They wrangled for half an hour, and the schooner +drifted on until she was within a mile or so of the outflung false +Point. Then they were again startled out of their self-possession--this +time by a cry from the girl who leaned over the bulwarks a picture of +ardent admiration for something in the water. + +Double awnings and snowy hammock-cloths restricted the view shoreward +from the quarter-deck chairs, and surprise as deep as that which greeted +the girl surged through the disputing three at a great splashing over +the side, accompanied by the boom of a voice that must come from a +powerful, free-breathing chest. + +"Room for Milo, servant of Dolores!" the hail rang out, and by the same +means as Pascherette had used, up climbed Milo, to stand motionless +before the white men, an astounding and awe-inspiring shape. + +"Another slave of the mysterious queen?" demanded Venner, when recovered +from his astonishment. "It gets interesting, gentlemen. And what is your +errand, Goliath?" he inquired of Milo. + +"I know no Goliath. I am Milo. I come to summon ye to the presence of my +queen," returned the giant with as much unconcern as if he were inviting +the pirates to a barbecue. + +A titter of amusement passed over the three yachtsmen. It was tinged +with resentment, though, and only curiosity, aroused by shock upon +shock, prevented an angry rejoinder to Milo's speech that could only +have ended one way: in physical damage to three idle gentlemen of wealth +and pleasure. + +"A summons, hey?" scoffed Tomlin. "Your queen values her rank, I think." +A dangerous gleam crept into Milo's eyes, and Pearse detected it in +time. "Venner," he said quietly, "you cannot let this adventure pass. +Here's every element of sport held up to us. Let us obey this command, +and get at least a thrill out of this humdrum cruise." + +Venner was thinking of many things, and his mind needed little making +up. He had never lost sight of those pearls of Pascherette's; his eye +could not be deceived; they were priceless. And Pearse had not failed to +notice the green jade skull-charm that depended from Milo's columnar +neck, a jade skull with pearls for teeth like the altar brooch of +Dolores. And Tomlin, for all his expressed scorn, was tingling with +ardent desire for such piquant beauty and vivacity as Pascherette's. If +such a creature were the slave, then what could the mistress be? He +assumed a more complaisant attitude, and added his vote: "A good way of +passing away this odious calm spell, Venner. Let us go." + +"Where is this great queen, my Colossus?" Venner asked. + +"I will lead thee to her presence," replied Milo. "Thy boat will take us +there in a few moments. Further on, beyond that point, the ship may lie +safely in the haven." + +Venner called his sailing master, and together they examined the chart. +It showed a sand-bar stretching off the point, a deep-water channel, +narrow but accessible, close to. + +"You can work into that anchorage?" asked Venner. + +"Yes, sir, if the air don't die away altogether. It seems good ground by +the chart." + +"Then carry the schooner in and bring up. Call away my cutter, and"--in +an undertone--"keep a good watch, Peters, this is an evil coast." + + * * * * * + +The shrill pipes reverberated under the awnings, and sailors, neat and +trim in white uniforms that contrasted beautifully with their dark +skins, ran to man the graceful white cutter. Pascherette sat in the +stern-sheets, cuddled up like a pretty kitten on a crimson silk cushion, +and Milo stood erect, as firm as if on solid ground, between passengers +and rowers as the boat sped shoreward. As the two craft separated the +schooner stood out in veritable beauty, an exquisite thing of gold and +ivory, pearl and rose. Venner's eyes lighted with pride at sight of her. +Even a long, eventless cruise had not killed the artist in him. He +touched Milo softly on the thigh and said with a smile: + +"Has your queen anything like that, my friend?" + +Milo cast a disdainful glance at the yacht, abruptly turned away again, +and replied shortly: "That is nothing." + +"Nothing!" said Venner. "Then where have you seen daintier work of men's +hands and brains?" + +"Thou shall see. Thy ship is a petty thing." + +"Now, by Heaven, Venner, he has you there!" laughed Tomlin, never +ceasing for a moment from ogling Pascherette, who purred with +contentment and smiled slyly at the frown that came to Milo's face. + +"Oh, yes, a poor thing!" laughed Pascherette, hugging her knees and +rippling over with amusement. "My mistress is a great queen. +These"--touching her pearls--"thy rigging could be formed of such, if my +queen willed." + +"And in the house of such a great queen, my girl, are doubtless other +things of beauty and worth?" put in Venner with growing sarcasm. + +"As witness this pretty wench!" smiled Tomlin, striving to fix the +girl's capricious attention, which persisted in flying ever to Milo. + +"Patience," returned Milo. "Do ye know of anything of untold worth--my +queen has that which will buy it? Have ye seen a thing of peerless +beauty--in my queen's house are many of its peers! Patience!" + +No word more would the giant utter. Like a bronze statue he stood erect, +guiding the cutter to a small landing with a silent gesture. And as the +boat swept alongside and the yachtsmen began to experience the thrill of +near expectancy, Pearse caught sight of a knot of men loitering on the +nearby slopes, and their appearance startled him. + +"Good Lord, look at those piratical ruffians!" he cried. + +His companions started, and doubt came into their faces. Then +Pascherette arose from her seat and pressed near to Tomlin, with an +insinuating, caressing movement; and that ardent gentleman exclaimed +impatiently: "Oh, never mind their looks! Come on Venner! This is what +I've dreamed of all my life! Come on!" + +Milo touched Pearse's arm, said briefly, "Come!" and that reluctant +visitor stepped ashore; while Venner, after a little twinge of +misgiving, succumbed to his curiosity regarding the hidden glories of +this strange realm, and followed the great black readily enough. + +Up the cliff they followed Milo, Pascherette running ahead and looking +backward ever and again with a seductive gesture of invitation; and in +good time they stood before the council hall, the loitering pirates +staring at them wonderingly, and from them to the graceful white +schooner just then entering the narrow channel. + +"Enter!" said Milo, and stood aside at the open door. + +The interior was dark and awfully still, and the three white men paused +on the threshold doubtfully, regarding each other with half-ashamed +faces. + +"Enter!" reiterated Milo, and curiosity got the better of them, for a +swirl of fragrance eddied out to them, and one by one, until the hall +was dotted with them, ruby and amber lights twinkled before them, +seeming to beckon them on to something mysterious in the shadows beyond +the soft lights. + +"Neck or nothing!" muttered Venner, leading the way. His friends +followed in silence. Then the doors closed behind them; but fear, doubt, +unbelief, all went to the winds at the spectacle that slowly unfolded +itself before their gaze. + +"Cleopatra reincarnated, by God!" gasped Venner. His friends could find +no words to express their sensations in that moment. + +Dolores glided out from the heavy hangings behind her chair of state, +and stood, a vision of majestic loveliness, on the dais. Clad in her +short tunic, her hair bound to her brow by the gold circlet that Milo +had made, she had calculated effects with the art of a Circe. Her +rounded arms and bare shoulders, faultless throat and swelling bosom, +radiant enough in their own fair perfection, she had embellished with +such jewels as subtly served to accentuate even that perfection. Upon +one polished forearm a bracelet was pressed, a gaud formed from one +immense emerald cut in a fashion that forced one to doubt the existence +of such a cutter in mortal form. About her neck a rope of exquisitely +matched black pearls supported a single uncut emerald which might have +been born in the same matrix with that on her arm. Her red leather +sandals were fastened, and her ankles crisscrossed, with such bands of +glittering fire as a goddess might have stolen from the belt of Orion. + +These things were revealed gradually by cunningly manipulated light +effects until Dolores blazed out entire before her stupefied guests. +They, seeking for relief from the spell, sought in her face some answer +to the riddle; but her expression was that of a being apart: +tantalizingly, inscrutably indifferent to their presence. Then Milo +advanced, prostrated himself before her, and reported his errand done. +"Rise, Milo, and I thank thee," she said, and her soft, yet vibrant, +voice sent a thrill through her waiting guests. Dolores waved a hand +toward the door. "Send Sancho in to me at once, Milo, and do ye watch +for the return of my wolves." + +The giant went out; yet the calm face of Dolores gave no relief to the +three yachtsmen; uneasiness began to sit heavily upon them, and it was +not lessened by the entry of Sancho, for such an awful impersonation of +evil in one man they had never seen before. + +"Sancho," Dolores commanded him, "it is my will that the vessel now +entering my haven be cared for as mine. See to it!" + +"The lads are hungry, lady; it is long since they tasted such--" Sancho +snarled his protest with wickedly curling lips that revealed ragged +yellow fangs. Dolores stared him down with blazing eyes, held his gaze +for a breath and uttered: "Go! See to it! Thy life is the bond!" and +Sancho slunk out like a whipped cur. + +There was an uncanny hint of dynamic force in the girl's swift +assumption of authority, and Tomlin found his throat very dry despite +the fact that he was drinking greedily of her beauty. Venner stole a +look at Pearse, and saw in that gentleman a reflection of his own rising +uneasiness. And then, at that instant of shivery doubt, Dolores smiled +at them; and in that same instant three men, with immortal souls, forgot +everything of the world and affairs in the mad intoxication of her +charm. + +"Welcome, sirs," she smiled, and stepped down to offer each a hand in +turn--not in handshake, but with an air that said plainly homage was due +to her; and whether he would or not, each of her guests raised the hand +to his lips with reverence. + +"What is your pleasure, lady?" asked Venner quietly. He was resolved to +show his friends the way into this magnificent creature's intimate +confidence; and the resolution promised interesting developments, for +each of his friends nursed a similar one. There was, even now, less of +comradeship in the looks with which the friends regarded each other. If +Dolores detected this, she made no sign. She gave a hand to Venner, led +him to the door, and smiled invitation to the others. They followed +hungrily. + +"I will give thee food and wine," she said; "then I have much to say to +thee. I have commanded that thy ship and thy men be cared for; to-night +ye are my guests. Come! But first give me thy swords. Thou'rt with +friends." They complied dumbly, dazed by her radiant charm. + +They stepped outside into the glaring sunlight; a light breeze was now +singing in the tall palms and making silvery music of the wavelets along +the shore; far away to the southwest a sliver of sail was in sight, and +to a practised eye could be made out as the pirate sloop returning. +Dolores glanced swiftly around, seeking some evidence that her commands +to Sancho were being obeyed; but she saw no man--no figure save the +ancient crone she had discarded and sent to the drudgery of the kitchen. +With a keen sidelong glance she saw that the schooner was heavily +grounded on the Point; a second glance told her that her guests were +thinking little of the schooner, for their eyes never left her face. But +notice was forced upon them, and the reason for the camp's desertion +impressed upon her, by the weird, drawn-out scream of jubilation that +issued from the old woman's withered throat an instant before her old +eyes gave her sight of her mistress and froze the cry at her lips. + +"Ha, ha, ha!" she shrieked, waving skinny arms. "That's the way Red +Jabez taught his lambs! Flesh your blade, my bully Rufe, and bring me +some of the meat!" + +Abruptly Dolores's guests swung around to follow the direction of the +old woman's arm, and the girl darted a look of fury at the scene. Out +from the point poured Yellow Rufe and a horde of strange mulattos and +blacks, and shots crackled from the schooner's rails. On the little bay +two boats filled with Sancho and his men pulled frantically toward the +fight, and the haven rang with howls of gleeful anticipation. Venner +uttered a smoking oath, and clutched Tomlin and Pearse by the arms. + +"Come fellows!" he cried. "This is treachery!" + +"Treachery? Ye wrong me, sirs!" Dolores's soft voice halted them. They +stared at her, and she gave them back look for look until she saw the +blood surge back to their faces and their eyes lose their hardness. Then +she laughed, low and sweet, and waved them back. + +"Wait. I shall preserve thy ship, and give thee back an eye for an eye +if thy men are harmed. Trust me, will ye not?" She paused a moment to +thrill them with her eyes; they stayed. They she sped down the cliff +like a deer. + + +TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month. + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE ATTACK ON THE FEU FOLLETTE. + + +By means of the floating blind the Point had been carried out across the +narrow channel until its edge rested on the bar; and the schooner lay +with a heavy list broadside on to the hard sand. Yellow Rufe and his +followers, runaways from the pirates' camp, maroons banished from their +homes for crimes against their fellows, rebellious slaves, and what not, +splashed through the shallow water and stormed the Feu Follette by way +of the jib-boom and head-rigging, while Sancho urged his boats on toward +the vessel's quarters. + +Dolores, uncertain yet as to Sancho's motives, but in no uncertainty as +to Rufe's, paused but to look around for Milo as she leaped down the +cliff. The giant was even then engaged in thwarting an inclination on +the part of the yachtsmen to follow Dolores, for, her spell gone for the +moment, Venner felt all an owner's solicitude for his property. But Milo +had been well schooled; he knew how to play upon little weaknesses; +Pascherette had told him, if he had not seen for himself, how +amorousness and cupidity formed the key-note of character in the +visitors; and now he used the knowledge to the fullest extent. The +little octoroon appeared as Dolores watched; she had hastily attired +herself in dry clothes, a single garment more filmy and daring than that +she had worn to swim aboard the schooner, and from her mistress's store +had borrowed jewels that transformed her into a beautiful little golden +butterfly. + +Dolores saw all this in a flash; she saw Pascherette take capable charge +of the three men, led them away from the cliff, and then Milo advanced +to the steep path. Turning swiftly to resume her career, Dolores uttered +a shrill, piercing cry that the giant understood perfectly, and she +plunged into the sea as he bounded down the slope to her support. + +The schooner's crew were already hard pressed; but they fought like men, +led courageously by Peters, the sailing master. As Dolores cleft the +sparkling water, speeding out to them like a gorgeous sprite of the +waves, men tugged at gun-tackles to swing a piece around to rake their +own decks, for Yellow Rufe and his ruffians had swept the forecastle +clear of defenders. And Dolores reached the vessel, climbed over the +low-listing rail nimbly as a jungle cat, at the instant when Sancho's +boats hooked on to the main-chains and took the crew in the rear. + +The pirate queen stood for a single long breath to grasp the scene in +its entirety. Panting slightly from her exertions, her blazing eyes and +heaving breast rendered her a figure of bewildering and awful +loveliness; and the Feu Follette's men paused in the fight out of sheer +amazement. + +Sancho's gaze fell on her the moment his evil head topped the rail, and +into his eyes crept an expression of detected insubordination. He sought +Yellow Rufe, but Dolores had seen all she needed to apprise her that +this was a concerted attempt to flout her authority. Then Rufe's hoarse +roar went up, and the tide of struggling men surged anew, and Sancho, +plucking up heart, rejoined with a scream. + +"Into the sea with the dogs!" he cried. "'Tis such a craft as Jabez +would love to see ye carry." + +The fight rolled aft, and Dolores was left standing alone by the midship +shot-rack. She singled out a few of her men by name, and commanded them +to rally to her side; then, seizing a cutlas from the deck, she glided +tigerishly to the main companionway, down which the pirates were now +driving the beaten crew, and the men she had picked out were shorn of +all indecision as Milo leaped on board with a bull-throated shout and +gained her side. + +"Sancho! Rufe! Have done with this play!" she cried, placing herself in +front of the blood-hungry horde. "Dogs, fall back! Have ye no memory +that ye forget how Dolores strikes?" + +Milo had picked up a handspike, and with it across his breast he bore +back the scowling rascals, smiling the while himself with quiet +contempt. But one, hardier than the rest, ran to the skylight, dashed in +the glass with his boot, and cried with outflung arm: + +"A plague upon her and her strokes. See yonder, lads--her cunning +trick--our sloop comes back empty-handed, as she well knew it would--and +here lies to your hands work that the Red Chief had reveled in. Down +with her and the big bull! Below is loot fit for bold fellows." + +Without moving from where he stood, Milo pivoted around, the heavy +handspike--six feet of true ash--rigid as a bar of iron, took the +overbold pirate at the base of the skull and spilled his brains into the +breach he had made. Growling with fury, a man from Sancho's crew sprang +to avenge the stroke with steel, and his blade creased down Milo's +sturdy ribs before the giant had recovered from his own swing. And with +the hissing slit of ripping skin Milo's debt was paid for him. Dolores, +agile as a panther, reached the pirate with her cutlas pointed, and the +steel hilt rang against his breast-bone. + +But in the momentary pause in her vigilance, a score of Rufe's ruffians +burst past her and poured below into the saloon, where renewed sounds of +combat told of the ferreting out of the beaten crew. + +"Milo, follow me!" cried Dolores, springing down the stairs herself, +careless whether her wavering half-dozen followed or stayed. Her whole +soul was sickened with the fear that this vessel, the long-wished-for +means of her release from what had become a hateful bondage, was in +danger of destruction at the red hands of Rufe's undisciplined dogs. And +swiftly approaching on the freshening evening breeze her sloop grew +momentarily clearer to the eye; it was easy to fancy she could hear the +howls of disappointed rage pealing up from her deck; it needed no second +sight to determine the side those humiliated pirates would take, when +they hove alongside another prey which promised at least a taste of +coveted loot. + +In the brief time since the pirates' entry the schooner's saloon had +become a place of desolation. All the magnificence of unrestricted cost +was there; and all the beauty of artistic selection; and over all was +the mark of the beast--blood and torn hangings, corpses and splintered +panels, chaos and sulfur smoke as the pillage started. Dolores sought +out through the smoke a breathing man in the uniform of the yacht, and +swiftly placed her lips to his ear, her mind made up to a terrible +expedient to save this vessel for herself. + +"Tell me quickly--where is the magazine?" + +The man opened his agonized eyes, saw that splendid blazing face close +to his own, and shook his head loyally. He would give his master's +enemies no assistance. + +"Speak, fool!" she hissed, shaking him. They were alone by the great +table-leg on the red-stained carpet. "I would defeat these sharks! Where +is the powder?" + +The man looked into her eyes again, and she smiled at him. It was +enough. He weakly pointed to a stout door on the starboard side, forward +of the sailing master's stateroom door, beyond which the sound of axes +already resounded. The owner's and guests' quarters were filled to +overflowing with ravenous wolves tearing and ripping in a frenzy of +pillage. At the after-end of the saloon a pirate stood over a great +cask, issuing jugs of liquor to such of his fellows as found time amid +the riot to drink. Milo gripped his handspike, waiting for a command +that should send him like awful Fate into the thick of the murderous +mob. + +"Milo! Bring me a powder-keg from that magazine!" Dolores said, still +crouching low and hidden beneath the smoke-pall. The giant entered the +room, shattering the lock with a lunge of his shoulder, and returned +bearing an unopened keg of cannon powder. + +"Place it upon the table." Then the girl rose to her feet with eyes +glittering coldly and lips pressed to a tight line. "Find me a lighted +brand--swiftly!" she said, and when the giant snatched up a splinter of +dry wood, lighting it at the steward's brazier in the little pantry off +the saloon, she swept majestically aft to suddenly confront the roaring +ruffian at the wine cask. + +"Milo, hurl this liquor cask away!" + +Milo picked up the heavy barrel as a man might pick up a cushion, heaved +it above his head, and flung it like a cannon-shot at the door, behind +which rang the greatest noise, while the pirate, whose care the wine had +been, gaped like a stranded fish. + +"Now this dog!" + +The man followed his cask before his mouth closed from his astonishment; +but as he flew his leathern lungs performed their office and warned the +pillagers of peril. Out from cabins and storerooms poured the rascals, +gorged with fine wines and delicate foods seized in their pillaging; +steamy with blood not yet dried on their bestial faces. And when the +great saloon was full, Dolores raised her torch above her head and +blazed out at them: + +"In five short breaths this vessel carries all thy black souls to hell! +Skulking rats, swim while the breath is in you!" + +The torch came down, Milo smashed in the head of the keg, revealing the +terrible contents, and as if in grim jest he snatched up a sprinkling of +the powder and flicked some grains into the flare of the torch. If there +had been any doubt as to the deadly earnestness of Dolores, there could +be none now, for sparks crackled and spit in fearful nearness to that +open keg. Men stampeded for the stairs, hurling each other down in their +frenzy; but Yellow Rufe and Sancho lingered. Theirs had been the +gravest fault; if they fled, it must be only to do penance some other +day; if they forced Dolores's hand, at least she and that scornful giant +must die the death also. They stood their ground, staring defiantly into +her expressionless face. + +Dolores spoke no word more. Milo stood like a bronze figure of Doom at +her side, his noble face expressionless as hers. Between them stood that +keg of terrible possibilities. The girl lowered the torch until the +flame all but licked the wood of the keg; a dropping piece of charred +wood fell audibly against the side. Sancho's breath caught painfully; +Yellow Rufe's bloodshot eyes wavered. Still they held on. + +"Milo, I give thee freedom!" said Dolores in a low, distinct voice that +carried to their ears like the sound of a silver bell. "Farewell, +faithful friend!" + +The torch swept around, fanning to a blaze in the eddying air, then +darted toward the keg. And with a yell that echoed on deck and far out +over the sea, Yellow Rufe and Sancho turned and fled, fighting with each +other, as had their less bold fellows, for the precious air of safety. + +Dolores laughed contemptuously, flung the torch aside and bade Milo +trample it out, then she, too, ascended to the deck to view her victory. +The sea was dotted with swimming men, the beach was full of running men, +terrified men made the cliff resound with their cries. Then, sure that +the schooner was free of foes, Dolores looked toward the sloop, now +within hail of the schooner and coming fast with sail and sweeps, while +her crew stared over the low bulwarks in puzzlement as to the reason for +the hasty exodus from the strange craft. + +"Here, Milo, is fresh fare of trouble. Hast brought my own flag?" + +"Here, Sultana," replied Milo, taking a carefully folded silken banner +from a pocket in his leathern tunic. + +"Hoist it, then, at the main! Perhaps Hanglip and Caliban, Stumpy and +the rest of my brave jackals, will forego their expected meal at sight +of it. And send forth a shout for slaves; this vessel must be cleansed +and her people's wounds attended to." + +Up at the schooner's lofty main-truck the Sultana's private flag +fluttered out; the mark and sign of Dolores's ownership. And while three +anxious yachtsmen on the cliff-top waited for her return, a hundred and +twenty hungry and thirsty baffled ruffians on the sloop cursed her +vehemently in their hoarse, dry throats. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +DOLORES DELIVERS JUDGMENT. + + +On the level sward before the village the three yachtsmen paced back and +forth in an ecstasy of apprehension. Pascherette had left them, after +playing them like fish with her own charms and a hinted promise of +Dolores's favors as bait; and the moment they were alone Venner shook +off the spell in a resurging determination to attend to the safety of +his vessel in person. + +"Follow me, Pearse; come Tomlin!" he said. "We are three mad fools to +stand here while these pirates loot and wreck the Feu Follette!" + +Tomlin shuddered as he started to follow. Pearse kept silence, but did +not hesitate. But they had not stepped ten paces before they realized +fully the completeness of their helplessness, for Venner, first to +attempt the path down, was brought to a halt by a musket leveled at his +breast, the musketeer showing only his head and shoulders above the +cliff edge. And as Tomlin and Pearse came up, they, too, were abruptly +halted in like manner; and a grinning Carib motioned each back with an +unspoken command which was none the less inexorable. + +They returned to their first positions, and resumed their nervous walk, +condemning themselves as utter idiots for venturing unarmed into such a +nest of vipers at the urge of curiosity, novelty, feminine attraction, +greed--whatever their motives had been. And here Dolores came upon them, +while all about them swarmed the disgruntled pirates from the sloop, and +those of the mutineers whose abject fears warned them to take whatever +punishment their queen chose to mete out rather than to escape only to +be brought back to endure penalties immeasurably more terrible. + +Yellow Rufe and Sancho were not minded to stay, however; they had +vanished; and Dolores's keen eyes noted this the moment she surveyed the +scene. She walked swiftly to the door of the council hall, turned to +face the mob, and lifted an arm for attention. Then fell a hush full of +anxiety or terror, according to the degree of culpability in the +consciousness of her audience. + +"Summon every creature in the village," she cried, "and let no man or +woman dare to leave this place until ye hear my thoughts concerning this +day's work!" + +Men scattered eagerly through the huts, calling by name all who were not +present in the crowd, and presently more of the community came out, +their faces mostly reflecting the terror that was in their souls; for +none might ever foretell the moods of their queen. Inscrutable as night, +her eyes were like pools of violet shadow wherein lurked promise or +threat of unimaginable things; every line of her face and form was a +line of a riddle that could prove in the solution either magnificent +generosity, fearless justice, or implacable vengeance: like the +lightning, Dolores struck where she willed, and in what fashion she +chose; it was useless to attempt avoidance. + +Venner and his friends looked on curiously, a feeling akin to awe +pervading them at the increasing evidence before their eyes of the power +wielded by this splendid fury, they had yet to know. When all were +present, except those whose activities on the schooner had already +procured them a passport to another world, Dolores swept the crowd with +a penetrating glance and called for Milo, who appeared from the rear of +the council hall laden with chains and bilboes which he cast down at her +feet. Then the angry impatience of the disappointed sloop's crew proved +too intense, and Caliban bounded to the front, squealing shrilly: + +"The fiend may take you with your irons! Shall we, men who followed Red +Jabez through a sea of blood, cower to a woman of such soft mettle? +Dolores, queen or woman or wench, it is for you, not us, to explain. +Lads--" he shrieked, flashing about and haranguing his companions--"back +me in this. We will know why the sloop lacked powder; why to-day's work +has brought no reward!" + +The deformed little demon stepped back to the crowd, and paced to and +fro with feverish gestures, scowling blackly at every turn that brought +him face to face with Dolores. The packed mob milled and murmured, some +afraid, many of Caliban's mind yet not daring to openly support him. +Venner and his friends sensed the thrill of it, for their brief +experience of the pirate queen left them in slight doubt as to the +outcome of Caliban's speech. Dolores herself stood motionless for a full +minute after the hunchback ceased his defiance, and under her lowered, +heavily lashed eyelids the dark eyes seemed to slumber; only in her lips +was any trace of the alertness that governed her brain, and those +scarlet petals, which seemed to have been plucked from a love flower in +the garden of passion, slowly, almost imperceptibly parted, until the +dazzling teeth gleamed through in a smile that none might yet determine +whether soft or terrible. And as the seconds heaped suspense upon +suspense, the overbold Caliban was seized with a choking fear that he +was to pay the price. Then Dolores spoke, slowly, quietly, almost +soothingly; and those of her hardened ruffians who thought they knew her +best hung on her words in shivery uncertainty. + +"For those bold words, Caliban, my father had stripped thy poisonous +skin from thy putrid flesh. Yesterday thy queen might not have proved +more merciful. Yet do I know how thy disappointment chafes thy brave +soul, and because of that thy rash speech goes unpunished." The hush +intensified, for the leniency of Dolores was little less to be feared +than her fury. A smile of ineffable radiance broke over her beautiful +face, and she extended her right hand and said, still in the same slow, +even voice: "Come, Caliban. Thou art worthy of my mercy. Kneel, that I +may know thy heart is right." + +Now the suspense reached its climax. Somewhere behind those softly +spoken words surely lurked some awful, cunningly cloaked threat. +Caliban went white, ghastly; his brave tongue stuck to his palate, and +the thin lips slavered with growing panic. + +"Come, Caliban!" + +The girl's command was uttered no louder, her expression was unchanged; +in her glorious eyes gleamed no trace of anything other than benign +forgiveness; she remained motionless as before, with her rounded arm and +shapely hand extended in a manner that revealed their every perfection. + +"Come, Caliban!" + +Again the words fell from her smiling lips, and now the quivering +hunchback obeyed, drawn irresistibly by her magnetism, sick with dread +of the stroke he in common with all his mates expected to fall. + +"Kneel! See, I give thee my hand to kiss," Dolores said, and smiled upon +the cowering wretch with a tender brilliance that sent a tremendous +flutter through the hearts of the three yachtsmen. + +Caliban knelt and took the proffered hand, then at her word he stood +before her, scarcely certain yet that his head was solidly established +on his shoulders. She motioned him to stand on one side of her, then, +aglow with warm color, she addressed the puzzled throng: + +"My bold sea tigers, the ship that escaped thy sloop is but one ship. +The seas are full of such. Yet, until to-day, how many have ye been +forced to let go because of thy poor equipment in craft? Thy sloop, how +small, how old--yet what rich prey escaped thy guns since the Red +Chief's swift brig laid her bones here? None! Yet ye complain because I +prevented thee destroying the beautiful schooner the gods have this day +sent to us!" + +Now the purport of her speech struck home; the seemingly soft-brained +weakness that had forbidden the rape and pillage of the schooner stood +in part explained. And as the light filtered through thick skulls and +shone upon all but atrophied brains, a deep muttering swelled into the +embryo of a throaty cheer that needed but one look of encouragement from +Dolores to spring into noisy life. As for Venner, his expression was +reflected in Tomlin, and both in Pearse; and awakening or resurrected, +fear was the keynote of all. + +"The vampire means to suck us dry after all!" whispered Venner hoarsely. +His friends could only squeeze his arm in mute sympathy. They harbored +no doubts at all. + +Dolores went on: + +"With such a vessel as this"--pointing to the schooner--"that Indiaman +to-day had never shown heels. And more, how think ye my store is +replenished? Dost think I tap the rock for wine? Does Milo crush the +granite and bring forth meat for thy hungry bellies? Are my treasures +kept at high tide by snatching the colors from the sunset? Fools!" she +cried, and for a moment passion conquered her calm. "In that schooner +are wines that will make thy hot blood living flame; meats that will put +teeth into the throats of the toothless; treasures fit for thy queen's +treasury. And more to thy hand, my brave jackals, those pretty pieces of +ordnance, which the sun even now paints with liquid gold, will outrange +the guns of a king's ship." Pausing, she bent upon the murmuring crew a +look of blazing majesty; then concluded with a vibrant demand: "Now dost +know why thy queen withheld thy senseless hands from witless +destruction?" + +Her question was scarcely heard before the answer came. From a hundred +rusty throats pealed a huzzah that rolled out over the sea and sent the +sea-birds squawking with fright to more peaceful surroundings. + +"Dolores! Dolores! That's a queen for the tribe of Jolly Roger!" howled +Hanglip, and tumult rang again. + +The girl raised her hand, and silence fell once more. + +"Hear my judgment upon such of ye as are not of thy mind," she cried, +and now the smile had gone; her eyes flashed and the words fell red-hot +from her scornful lips. + +"I demand no tales from thy mouths. Hiding among these woods Yellow Rufe +and Sancho, he of the one eye and the mutilated hand, think to ward off +my vengeance. By meridian to-morrow I command those traitors to be +brought to me. Fail in this, and ye shall see that Dolores can be +terrible, too." + +The crowd took this as a dismissal, and broke into parties to scour the +woods. Only slaves and women remained, and Pascherette ran to her +mistress's side and whispered, with a sidelong look of coquettish +allurement at Venner and his friends. + +"Something about to happen!" Venner whispered, hoping that it might +prove something in recompense for his day of stress. Dolores cast a look +of cool indifference toward them and told Milo: + +"Put these strangers in separate chambers, Milo. Iron them securely and +look to it well. Thou art answerable for them." + +No more. She took Pascherette and departed. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE SULTANA DECIDES SEVERAL THINGS. + + +There was a moment of cruel amazement for Venner and the others when +Dolores had gone; then Milo, approaching with his irons and chains, +awoke the captives to resistance. + +"No chains for me, by God!" shouted Venner, crouching to ward off the +giant's approach. "Tomlin, Pearse, break for the schooner! I'll hold +this savage. We shall perhaps fail; but by the powers of justice we'll +go down fighting on our own ship!" + +He sprang at Milo as he spoke, and his friends hesitated. Milo, without +haste, without change of countenance, dropped his irons and reached +Venner with great deliberate strides. And in that momentary hesitation +Tomlin and Pearse were lost with their host; for the giant stretched out +one tremendous arm, seized Venner by the slack breast of his shirt, and +lifted him from the ground, flailing with both hands like some puny +child in the grip of his nurse. + +Milo spoke no word. He gave no more attention to Venner's futile blows +than to the whispering of the sands of the shore. But bearing ever +toward the other two men, now seemingly paralyzed out of all volition by +the awful exhibition of strength, he reached out with his free hand and +added Tomlin to his capture as he had taken Venner. + +Pearse might even now have made his bid for liberty; but he was no +coward to desert his companions. He uttered a choking cry of mingled +fear and defiance, and rushed in between his friends to swing a heavy +blow with his fist fair upon the giant's unprotected temple. Now Milo +gave sign of interest. He laughed: a deep, rumbling, pleasant laugh of +appreciation for the courage that prompted the blow; but he never +blinked at the impact, nor did he attempt to avoid another blow that +came swiftly. Simply putting forth a greater effort of muscle he swung +his two captives apart, held them at arm's length while the sinews of +his mighty chest and beamlike arms writhed and rippled like snakes, and +rushed upon Pearse with the terrible resistlessness of an avalanche. A +shower of blows pounded his face and breast as he closed, then he +laughed again; this time triumphantly; for Pearse was enfolded between +Venner and Tomlin in a hug that spelled suffocation did he persist in +his struggles. + +The swift conquest had taken but minutes; none but a few women of the +camp had seen it; and they, well used to such scenes, simply chattered +and smiled pityingly, not with pity for the men, but for the futility of +their resistance. Milo, scarcely breathing above normal, called loudly: +"Pascherette!" and gave his prisoners another quieting squeeze. + +Pascherette was with her mistress. She did not answer, and Milo called +again: "Pascherette!" + +The other women drew near, and on many a wickedly fair face shone a +light of hope that its wearer might serve in Pascherette's place, no +matter what the errand; for it was not the _petite_ golden octoroon +alone who had sighed for love of the giant. + +"Pascherette is with the Sultana, Milo. Let me answer for her," spoke +out a dark beauty whose sparkling eyes held the craft and wisdom of a +harpy. + +"I--" and "I--" came other voices, and the women gathered around. "What +do you need, good Milo?" + +"Open three chambers behind the council hall. In each must be a +fettering ring. Make speed. Go!" + +The women ran, and Milo made his capture more complete. Flinging the +three men down, breathless and numbed from his grasp, he swiftly +clapped leg-irons on them one after the other, then stood up, holding +the long chains together in one huge fist until the women cried out that +the chambers were ready. + +The bruised and subdued yachtsmen were placed in their separate cells, +fettered to great iron rings, and left to cogitate over their probable +fate. They were not even permitted the solace of intercourse; but as +each grew more accustomed to the gloom inside, he discerned that it was +no part of the plan to permit him to hunger or thirst, for a subtle +gleam of ruby light shot into each small room from an unseen source, +intensifying gradually and touched with its infernal radiance a small +tabouret on which stood a silver flagon and a dish of the same metal +containing meat. + +Milo went to the great chamber in the Cave of Terrible Things when the +doors had closed on his prisoners, and presented himself to Dolores. He +found Pascherette prostrate on the floor before the queen, whimpering +and sobbing with terror. Over her Dolores stood like Wrath in person, +her beautiful face distorted with passion, fire blazing in her eyes, her +breast heaving tumultuously. In her hand she held a cat-o'-nine-tails--a +dainty, vicious, splendid instrument of terror--formed of plaited human +hair of as many shades as thongs, studded with nuggets of gold instead +of lead--and none the less terrible for that--set in a cunningly carved +handle of ivory. And as Milo entered, she held the whip aloft in a +quivering hand, and cried to Pascherette: + +"Speak, or I flay thee, traitor! What wert telling the villain, Sancho?" + +Pascherette whined and cringed; she could not, or would not speak. The +whip quivered, was about to fall on those dainty bare shoulders, when +Milo, uttering a choking cry, flung himself forward and took the blow on +his face. Dolores started back, a thing of fury, as Milo cast himself at +her feet, his head on the ground, and said with submission: + +"Spare the child, Sultana. Let my back bear her penance. She is faithful +to thee." + +Dolores halted an instant between redoubled rage and mercy; then she +flung down the whip with a hard laugh, seated herself in the great +chair, and bade Milo and the girl rise and come to her. + +"Milo, thou'rt a fool!" she said. "Were thy brain as great as thy great +heart the world might well be thine. I tell thee, child or no child, +that chit is woman enough to have bound thee her slave. She is woman +enough, too, to hold secret converse with my foes. Do thou speak to her +now and learn for me what traffic she had with Sancho the morning after +I took her as my handmaid. I give thee scant time; if I learn it not +swiftly neither thou nor she shall leave this chamber alive!" + +With her giant beside her, Pascherette's fears subsided in part. She +peered up at him shyly and stepped closer to him, as if to seek actual +shelter from the storm that threatened her; but her frightened, +dependent demeanor was scarcely in accord with the new light that +glinted in her sharp eyes when she dropped them from his face again. +There was cunning and craft in them; the brazen assurance of a thief +whose conviction is prevented by a lucky mishap. + +She spoke rapidly, for his ears only, and her face drooped in an access +of confusion that, beautifully simulated, satisfied Milo and sent a warm +thrill into his honest breast. + +"Pascherette says she only gave Sancho his answer," Milo told Dolores. +"He had demanded her for his mate." + +"A pretty tale!" cried Dolores impatiently. "If that be all, why so +fearful of telling me, girl? Why did Sancho, who well knows the price, +join Rufe against me?" + +"I was afraid," murmured Pascherette with a pretty shiver. She summoned +a rosy blush to her piquant face and added in a still lower whisper: +"Thy anger terrified me, Sultana. My tongue was tied. And Sancho did +what he did in rage, in jealousy against Milo." + +The giant drew himself more erect, and his face became transfigured. If +in his great heart there remained any room after his devotion to his +mistress, cunning little Pascherette occupied it all when she uttered +the half-admission that Milo was her man. Dolores regarded the pair +silently; her expression changed slowly from irritation to query; from +unbelief to amusement, and after a moment's reflection she smiled +without softness and said: + +"Milo, I would do much for thee. For double dealing I have no mercy. If +thy love-bird would have me believe, if she is ought to thee, bid her +seek Sancho and bring him to me. Let her bring him at her own hands +before my hunters run him to earth, and I forgive thee both. She has +fooled thee; she can fool Sancho." + +Pascherette lighted up with something higher than hope: it was +certainty; and while it made Milo happy it did not escape Dolores, whose +dark-violet eyes once again became fathomless pools in which none might +read her thoughts. She waved them from her presence, and they went out +together, leaving her sitting motionless until the hangings fell behind +them. Then she sprang up, ran to a great mirror, and stood for many +moments regarding her lovely reflection. + +"Yes, thou art beautiful!" she apostrophised. "Beautiful as an artist's +dream. And for what? To queen it over these beasts! To be called +Sultana, and to be in truth a caged eagle. Of them all, who save loyal +Milo may I trust? Of them all, where is one whose blood mixed with mine +could produce aught but devils! Yet I must slink away in the night like +a whipped cur, or leave behind these treasures which alone can secure me +station in the outside world." She began to pace the great apartment, +oblivious of her surroundings, conscious only of a surging rebellion +against even the small necessity of biding her time. The day's +happenings on the schooner had shown her clearly the explosive condition +of her crew; she had no mistaken ideas that for her to load up the +schooner and sail away was simple. Further, she detected in recent +events a growing unrest among the band, the cause of which she had but +begun to fathom. Even now, through the tapestry sounding-stone, her +keenly attuned ears caught a note in the cries of returning woods +parties that told her how precarious was her sway over some of the more +turbulent spirits. + +"Before me they cringe like the dogs they are," she muttered, halting +again at the mirror. "Behind my back they snap like wolves. They shall +have their lesson quickly--such a one as the boldest of them shall +shriek mercy." She gazed intently into the mirror, as if she would read +therein an answer to her unspoken longing; then her eyes grew dark and +hard; her round, strong chin set stubbornly, and she whispered +intensely: "Pah! Cattle! They shall not alter my will to seek my +rightful place in the world of the white man! What avails it that in my +veins runs my mother's noble blood, the red chief's fiery courage, if +this nest of soulless brutes is to witness my life and my end? Among +those three white men is one who shall release me. They--ah, they are of +a whiter, cleaner mold! Theirs is the blood that matches mine! Let them +show me which is the stronger. He shall mate with me, and I will make +him a king indeed, even in his own land." + +Dolores stepped back panting. Then she controlled herself and began to +put on garment after garment, jewel after jewel, all of superlative +magnificence. Every moment she glided to the great mirror; as often she +tore off a garment or a jewel, flung it down impatiently, and seized +others from her boundless store. At last she stood clad like a fabled +daughter of old Bagdad; a robe of shimmering silk reached her ankles, +outlining every grace of her splendid figure; upon her head she had set +a tiara, priceless with gems whose fire dazzled even their wearer; on +arms and fingers, ankles and toes, lustrous rings and bracelets made +flashing lightning with her every movement; at her girdled waist was a +dagger whose sheath could have ransomed a prince. + +She stood like a statue, except for the rise and fall of her breast; her +eyes glittered at her gorgeous reflection in the mirror. Then suddenly +her expression changed, her lips parted in scorn, and with a savage, +tigerish gesture, she tore off her splendors. She stood once more in her +simple tunic of knee-length, sleeveless, beauty-revealing; and picking +up her dagger with the gold cord she knotted it about her waist and +again regarded herself closely. + +And where before she had looked upon a gorgeous woman, royally clad, +weighted with gems formed by man's art, now she gazed into the limpid, +fathomless eyes of a living goddess--royally clad in her own peerless +loveliness, crowned with a wealth of lustrous hair in which the gleams +of gold outshone the tiara she had discarded. And her face lighted; a +delicate flush overspread her cheeks; the full, luscious red lips parted +in a veritable Cupid's bow; and she laughed a rippling, heart-warming +laugh that brought the small, even teeth glistening into view. + +Dolores was satisfied at last. Without further hesitation she hurried +along to the rear of the chamber and emerged into the Grove of Mysteries +by way of a door known only to herself and Milo. From there she made her +way silently and darkly toward the council hall. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +A REED SHAKEN BY THE WINDS OF PASSION. + + +Rupert Venner sat on the floor of his prison, tugging at his chains with +an absent, aimless, all but perpetual motion; for he had long since +convinced himself that his fetters could not be broken or loosed. The +ruby light that had shown him the food and wine placed for him had faded +away to the faintest red glow which scarcely sufficed to reach the +tabouret. That mattered little; Venner had eaten when he was hungry, +drunk when dry, and knew the position of the flagon and dish to the +ultimate inch. He was not caring about the light. His mind was filled to +the exclusion of all else with his plight and the predicament of his +schooner. + +"Confound me for a fool!" he mused aloud, gritting his teeth savagely. +"Led by the nose by a saucy little chit who knows how to display her +charms as well as her pearls!" + +He pondered over his situation with growing irritation; for he knew only +too well that his release could never be obtained by bribery; his keen +sense of values told him that neither in the yacht or at home could he +match the treasures he had already seen on the persons of Dolores, and +Pascherette, and the other women of the camp. Yet he tried to console +himself that after all these things might be displayed for his +impression; might in fact be the entire store of the pirate queen, +displayed for one gaudy, overpowering effect. + +"That's it!" he cried, striking fist to palm. "Just a theatrical trick. +That little jade, Pascherette, will sell her dark little soul for +diamonds or pearls, I'll wager, and she shall sell me liberty. Then I'll +see the queen creature, gaining entry by the same medium, and we shall +see if cultivated wits are not a match for this wild beauty." + +With something very like a smile of resignation Venner stretched himself +on the floor and composed himself to rest. He was quite certain that +Pascherette could be reached through his jailer, whoever that might +be--Milo or somebody else--and the entire plan seemed to him beautifully +simple and infallible. He dozed, awoke, dozed again, and the ruby light +seemed to intensify each time his eyes opened. Gradually the shaft of +light grew so strong that, focused on his closed eyes, it forced him to +full wakefulness; and now he stared hard at it, blinking, hypnotized by +the trembling radiance that seemed to shoot out from the main shaft +until a great moving circle of light appeared before him. And out from +the midst of the light stepped Dolores, bewitching, irresistible, +smiling down upon him with a tenderness that filled him with awe. + +Amazed, dazzled, the man sat up, quivering with a sensation that rippled +at his hair-roots and sent the blood singing to finger and toe-tips. And +Dolores, with one forefinger at her scarlet lips to enjoin silence, +glided toward him with her inimitable grace, and knelt before him +shaking her head and starting him on the way to intoxication with the +touch of her wonderful hair. + +"My friend, I grieve that thou art here," she said, and her glowing eyes +thrilled him afresh. "Wilt thou believe that it is necessary for a +while?" + +"Necessary?" repeated Venner, dazedly. He strove hard to burst into +angry protest, but his tongue refused to utter the harsh words in the +face of such a creature of beauty. "I don't understand why it is +necessary at all, lady. It is no choice of mine, or my friends, that our +schooner is aground and we are your prisoners!" + +"Ah, my friend, thou shalt understand," she answered, and laid a hand on +his shoulder, making his senses swim with the fragrance of her breath. +"But this is for thy ears alone. Thou wilt respect my confidence?" +Venner nodded, wondering if, after all, the adventure might not turn out +well. With Dolores so close to him that he could hear her tunic rustling +to her deep, even breathing, that her loosened hair continually brushed +his face, he would have nodded assent had she offered him a piece of +charcoal for his immortal soul. "Then listen, man of my own people. A +longing gnaws at my heart--this heart that beats under thy hand"--she +took his hand with a swift movement and pressed it to her breast--"a +longing to go far from this place and these brutish people, to thy land +and the land to which I belong. + +"And now must I say why thy ship is here? It is because I have chosen +thee, my friend, to free me from this detestable bondage." She paused +for a breath, leaning closer to him, then asked with a sudden grip of +his hand at her breast: "Wilt take me out into thy world?" + +Venner shifted uneasily beneath her blazing eyes. His soul was in +torment with the touch of her; yet somewhere back of his trained brain +lingered a spark of wit not yet extinguished along with his other wits +by her spell. He lowered his gaze and said: + +"Was there need to murder my crew, wreck my vessel, and fling me and my +friends into these cells? Could not you, who are queen here, board my +schooner yourself and ask a passage?" + +"The murder of thy crew was not of my seeking. And thinkest thou I would +go from here leaving behind my treasures? Or dost fancy my rascals would +permit me to carry them away? No, friend, it is not so simple. The man +who aids me to attain my desire must be strong and wise and true. He +shall mate with me, and my treasures shall be his. That is why I have +chosen thee." + +"That requires thought, lady," returned Venner, half-heartedly. "I would +assist you in getting free from this, since you wish it; but as for +mating or marriage, why, there is a woman at home waiting for me." + +"Woman!" Dolores cried with scorn. "Woman! I am Dolores!" She swayed +toward him, her arms went about his neck, and slowly, slowly her +glorious eyes fastened on his, her moist, warm lips sought his in a kiss +that dragged at his soul's foundations. + +"Canst refuse me?" she laughed softly, drawing back her head and peering +at him from under lowered lids. "See, I trust thee utterly!" Snatching +her dagger from the sheath she placed it in his right hand; then, with a +key from her girdle, she unfastened his chains and swayed back, still +kneeling. She clutched the single shoulder-strap of her tunic, tore it +from her bosom, and flung both arms wide apart. "See!" she whispered, +and Rupert Venner flung away the dagger, stumbled to his feet, and swept +her into his crushing embrace while she abandoned herself to him with a +long, quivering sigh. + +"By the gods!" he swore hoarsely, "show me what I have to do. Wonderful, +wonderful Dolores!" + +"Patience," she smiled, resting her head on his breast. "First tell me +thy name. What shall thy Dolores call thee?" + +"I am Rupert. Call me slave!" + +"Rupert. It is a name to love. Slave? Nay, it is I who shall be slave to +thee. But patience again, Rupert. When we two go from here, there can be +no other to share our secret; none save the slaves that I shall place in +thy ship to replace thy dead crew. Thy friends may not go. They must not +live to see thee go!" + +Venner shivered, and drew back, holding her at arms' length and staring +at her in horror. + +"What are you saying, Dolores?" he gasped. "My friends are to die?" + +"Yes, and by thy hand, my Rupert. For how else may I know thou are +worthy to be mate to a queen?" + +"Now, by Heaven! Witch, siren, whatever you are, my madness has passed!" +he cried. "Not for the key to a paradise peopled with such as you would +I do this!" He stepped aside, picked up her dagger, and glared at her +with steely eyes. + +Dolores laughed at him: a low, throaty little laugh that went clear to +his brain and set it on fire again. Yet, nerving himself against her, he +stood erect, dagger in hand, and met the blaze of her dusky eyes +bravely. He shivered violently when her rich voice thrilled his tingling +ears. + +"Hah, my Rupert, thou'rt not yet tamed. Let me show thee thy master!" + +With the words she reached him with her subtle, tigerish glide, swiftly, +startlingly, and with the dart of a cobra her hand gripped his which +held the dagger. Her warm body again pressed closely to him, her red +lips, parted still, almost touched his cheek; her hair smothered him +with its fragrance; and while his senses swam her supple muscles tensed +to living steel wire, her grip tightened and twisted at his wrist, and +the dagger was wrenched from his fingers. Then leaping back, laughing +mockingly now, Dolores slipped the dagger into the sheath, snatched up +the chains from the floor, and flew upon him with a deadly pounce that +bore him back to the wall. + +Aroused from his numbness, Rupert Venner fought back furiously, +humiliated, and ashamed. Whether he would or not, he forgot all his +chivalry, and strove to meet this appalling woman with strength against +strength; but in Dolores he met a thing of wire and whipcord where +moments before had been a creature of warm softnesses; a being of feline +agility, and devilish skill that reflected the devilish skill of her +teacher, Milo. The chain-links tinkled and clashed against their swaying +bodies, but she never let them fall; they hung from her girdle; her +hands were free; and she had both his wrists in a grip that outrivaled +the irons. Laughing, ever laughing, her hot breath playing over his +face, she placed one foot behind one of his, surged toward him heavily, +and, when his arms would have involuntarily gone out to preserve his +footing, she subtly twisted them back and up from the elbows, until she +rested against his chest with her bare arms tightly about his body. + +Now her head, with the gold circlet about the brows, pressed hard +against his chin. Her hair was in his mouth, tendrils of it stung his +eyes, but the gold band numbed his flesh and bruised the bone. Upward, +ever upward, she forced his chin until his neck was cracking with the +strain and he choked for breath. Then she suddenly relaxed. Her arms +left him, her wickedly lovely face once more smiled into his starting +eyes, and she took the chain from her girdle with leisurely swiftness, +falling to her knees at his feet. + +"There, my friend, thou art back in thy place!" she said, snapping on +his ankle irons. "Spend the night in thought, good Rupert. To-morrow I +shall come to thee again for thy decision. Now, pleasant dreams, +my--lover!" she whispered, suddenly slipping her arms about his neck +again and pulling his head hard against her panting breast. She softly +kissed his hair, then pressed back his head and kissed his lips long and +passionately. + +"Good night, beloved!" she said, and passed out of the room, leaving +behind the echoes of a rippling little laugh that set Venner's blood to +leaping. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +PASCHERETTE UNVEILS HER PURPOSE. + + +Milo and Pascherette stood outside the rock portals of the great chamber +after their dismissal by Dolores, and the giant's face wore a look of +perplexity which was not reflected in the little octoroon. If her task +was difficult, Pascherette seemed not in the least disturbed; rather in +her sharp eyes lurked something of bravado at having escaped her +mistress's anger so easily. And this expression perplexed Milo. + +"Art sure of thyself, Pascherette?" asked the giant, ill at ease for his +little companion. + +"Why not?" she laughed, peering up at his troubled face impudently. +"Thinkest thou Pascherette is a fool?" + +"No, thou art not a fool," replied Milo slowly. He laid a heavy hand on +her shoulder, turned her around to face the faint light remaining, and +gazed hard into her bright eyes. "Thou art not a fool, little one. But +Sancho--is it so simple to find him?" + +"Big, childish Milo!" she cried with a laugh that had no joy in it. +"Dost think I feared that verdict of Dolores? No. I fear her whip only. +My flesh creeps even now at thought of my poor shoulders hadst thou not +appeared in time. Sancho? Pah! I can find him easily enough." + +"Then, child, was there nothing in thy traffic with him save what I +heard from thy lips?" + +Pascherette looked down, tapping the sand with her tiny foot, and her +breast fluttered in agitation. Then she slipped her hand into his, +looked up shyly yet ardently into his eyes, and replied swift and low: + +"Milo, my love for thee must be my defense. I did have traffic with +Sancho, to the end that we--thee and me--might use him to our advantage. +Wait!" she cried, when he would have spoken, "hear me. Canst not see +Dolores's cunning intention? She goes from here, carrying her treasure; +what will she do with thee, once safely away? Will she carry thee always +with her, to be marked because of thy great stature? No, Milo, thy life +will pay for her desertion of her people, and she will laugh at thy +passing. And why should it be? Here, thou and I can rule these cattle as +she never could. With Sancho's deserters, and Rufe's followers, I can +give thee a band that will force the treasure from her greedy grasp, and +make of her what she has made of thee and me--a slave!" + +"Girl!" Milo's deep voice vibrated with passionate horror. "Cease thy +treason, or I crush thy wicked heart in these two hands. Dolores is +mistress of my soul--my body is but the slave of that." + +"Pish!" retorted Pascherette, contemptuously. "She has thee dazzled, +Milo. Say, dost thou not love me?" she demanded, standing tiptoe and +thrusting her piquant little face under his gaze. "Look in my eyes, and +then tell me another woman owns thy soul!" + +"Yes, I love thee," replied Milo, with simple earnestness. "I love thee; +yet will I kill thee ere Dolores suffers ill through thy scheming. Have +done with this talk. I hate thee for it!" + +"Love--and hate!" she laughed metallically. "Loving me, still thou hast +room to love another better. Hate and love! Thou great fool, it cannot +be!" + +"Pascherette, I love thee. Thou'rt entangled in my heart-strings. When I +hate thee, it is because of that love, which will not brook treason in +thee. Again, I love thee, golden girl; but, forget it not, I worship +Dolores as I worship my gods!" + +"Then wilt thou not seek her power for thyself?" whispered the girl +subduedly, awed for the moment by his tremendous and solemn earnestness. + +"Little one, bring Sancho as she bade thee. He has merited punishment. +Yet tell him the Sultana will be just. His punishment will but fit the +fault. Afterward we two will talk together, and I shall teach thee +loyalty. Go now, bring thy man to the council hall. I shall await thee. +Stay, I shall come with thee, for the woods are dark, and a storm +threatens." + +"I go alone, Milo. He will fly from thee. Have no fear for me; the woods +are safe, and the storm is in thy great head only." + +The girl turned, kissed her hand airily, and ran into the gloom of the +forest. And as she went she laughed again harshly and muttered: "The +great clod! His worship overtops his love. But I shall make love overtop +worship yet, my giant! Such a man--a slave? Not for a thousand +Doloreses! Wait, Milo; wait, my mistress!" + +The evening breeze had strengthened as darkness fell, and its breath was +hot and sultry. As Pascherette plunged deeper into the woods, the heavy +boom of the seas along shore died away and gave place to the softer, +more vibrant hum and murmur of the great trees. The track, little more +than a line of flattened underbrush, vanished before she had gone fifty +yards; but the little octoroon was no stranger to nocturnal rambles, her +keen eyes, and, keener still, her sense of direction, led her unerringly +through the shades toward the rearward spur of the granite cliff. +Creepers and hanging mosses brushed her face and limbs; alone she might +have ignored them; but there was a quality in the sighing and rustling +about her that seemed to give voices to the ghostly fingers that +touched her, and to support her courage as well as to warn Sancho of +her coming, she thrilled forth a merry little snatch of song: + + "Ho! for the Jolly Roger lads; + Ho! for the decks red-streaming. + A pirate's lass is a well-lov'd lass, + And there's gold through the red a gleaming! + + "Ho! for a cask in the fire's red glow; + Ho! for the heaps of plunder. + There are showers of pearls for the pirates' girls-- + The rain from the corsair's thunder!" + +At the end of her song Pascherette halted, listened, then called softly: + +"Sancho! Thy Pascherette calls!" + +Silence prevailed for several moments, and she called again, fearing +that her voice had gone astray amid the increasing confusion of the +trees. Then came a lull in the wind, the lull that always punctuated the +gathering of such tropical storms as now threatened; and in the hush she +heard voices--uncertain, disputing. Then Sancho growled, close to her +ear: + +"Art alone, jade?" + +"Oh, Sancho!" she cried, darting into the gloom to the sound of his +voice and flinging her arms about him. "I have feared for thee, my +Sancho. Now I fear no more, for all is well." + +"Well?" the pirate growled suspiciously. "Hast left thy hot-blood +mistress, then?" + +"No, Sancho. It is better for thee even than that. I have made thy peace +with Dolores. She has forgiven thee, and wishes to tell thee so." + +A fervid curse burst from some one yet invisible, and Sancho leaned back +to catch some whispered words. Then he, too, ripped out an oath, and +gripped Pascherette tightly by the arm. + +"This is a trick, little devil! Don't you value that pretty little head +more than to trifle with me?" + +"I trifle with thee? Thou art mad, Sancho!" she cried. "Did I lie when I +said I loved thee, then?" + +"The fiend knows! I know 'tis plaguey risky for thee if thou didst!" + +"Unbeliever!" whispered Pascherette with thrilling emphasis. "Shall I +tell thee again, in language even thy stubborn soul must believe?" + +The girl suddenly glided inside his arms, flung up her hands, each +clutching a mass of her glossy, scented hair, and enmeshed his +disfigured face. Then, straining upward from her small height, her rosy, +false lips sought his and fastened there while he staggered as if drunk. + +"There, heart o' mine!" she panted. "Dost believe now? Or must I tell +thee again that with such love as mine proud Dolores cannot hurt thee. +Come! Such a chance will never come thy way again. Man! 'Tis her +confidence Dolores offers thee. Shall it go begging because of thy +madness?" + +"Pascherette!" returned Sancho hoarsely. "I will go with thee. But, +girl, thy heart's blood pours at first sign of treachery! Mark that +well. And tell me now, does Yellow Rufe share in this mercy?" + +"No, Sancho. It cannot be. Dolores has sworn to hunt him down; the woods +are full of men even now, seeking him and thee. Only by going with me +wilt thou escape them and have advantage from my pleading with the +queen." She drew his head down to her ear, and whispered rapidly. Doubt, +then admiration, crept into Sancho's voice as he said: "Dost think it +can be done? Can he gain the sloop unseen?" + +"I will make it easy, Sancho. Bid Rufe have no fear. The storm will be +upon us within an hour. It is dark; there is wind aplenty. With six men +he may win clear; and listen: If he is stout of heart, what is to stop +him taking tribute from the stranger's white vessel?" + +"Lack o' powder, girl," returned Sancho angrily. "Thy mistress keeps us +short of powder, as well thou dost know, lest we become too strong for +her. Who of us has ever seen the store? Not I, by Satan! Canst thou get +powder and shot for Rufe?" + +"Simpleton! Can he not get with steel all he wants from the schooner?" + +"By the heart of Portuguez, he can!" cried another voice, and Yellow +Rufe strode through the bushes. + +"Rufe!" exclaimed the girl, feigning astonishment. Her ears were too +keen not to have caught Rufe's voice in the whispering that had gone +on. + +"Yes, Rufe, and obliged to thee, Pascherette. Dost say thou wilt help me +win away?" + +"Gladly, Rufe, for I like well men of your mettle. Follow close behind +Sancho and me. Count ten score after we go in to Dolores with Milo, then +for an hour thou'lt have the sea to thyself. Luck go with thee, Rufe; +thou'lt think of little Pascherette sometimes, I'll warrant." + +A rumble of thunder rolled up from the sea, and lightning played in the +tree-tops. Pascherette turned back toward the camp, and giving no heed +to Sancho save to listen for his footsteps, she ran through the darkness +sure-footed, sure-eyed as a cat. Rain began to fall, and the heavy +foliage thrummed with the growing downpour which yet did not penetrate +to the earth. As they neared the shore, the forest resounded with the +solemn boom and crash of long-sweeping seas outside the bar; the wind +screamed among the huts; all the women and those men who had returned +from their portion of the search were snugly under cover. The place +seemed deserted. + +"Farewell, Rufe," Pascherette whispered at last, when the great black +mass of the council hall loomed against the sky in a lightning flash. +"Count ten score. Thy safety is in my hands." + +Then she took Sancho by the hand, and led him through the plashing rain +to the rear of the hall and called softly: "Milo!" + +"Here. Hast found him?" + +"Take us to the Sultana quickly, Milo. I have told Sancho to trust in +the justice of Dolores." + +"He may well do that," returned Milo. "The great Sultana is ever just." + +"Yes, have no fear, good Sancho. I am Justice itself!" rejoined the +mellow voice of Dolores in person, who had a few moments before left +Rupert Venner. "Milo, I am minded to give Sancho proof of my mercy, +since he already believes in my justice. Open the great chamber. Sancho, +canst guess the honor I propose to do thee?" + +"No, lady," replied Sancho, an awful dryness gripping his throat. + +"Hast ever hungered for sight of the great chamber?" She paused smiling +at the uneasy pirate, who could not answer. "Of course thou hast," she +replied for him. "Which of my rogues has not? I am minded to show thee +this mark of my love, since thy conscience permitted thee to return +here. Hast any fear of the saying the Red Chief uttered? That none might +enter the great chamber and live?" + +Sancho suddenly sprang to life. His face was distorted; when the +lightning flashed it revealed him a ghastly picture of apprehension. + +"I will not go there! I have no wish to see what my eyes are forbidden +to see. I never sought to enter, Sultana. It was the others!" + +"Yes, Sancho, the others. That is why I select thee for the honor, +because thou wert patient. Come. I promise thee thy life is safe." + +Dolores passed on toward the great stone, where Milo stood guard over +the opened portals. Sancho, trembling violently, was drawn irresistibly +after her, partly fascinated by her calm strength, partly influenced by +the soft fingers and whispered prattle of Pascherette, who strove to set +him aflame with mention of some of the wonders he was to see. + +He paused at the rock door, glancing around with a vague premonition of +evil; but now it was Dolores's hand that took his; Dolores's rich voice +that lured him on; and he stepped after her, smothering a sob of +resurging terror as the great stone fell into its place behind. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +SANCHO SETTLES HIS ACCOUNT. + + +In the rock passage the hush was complete. For the space of ten long +breaths Sancho stood quivering under the weird spell of the infernal red +radiance from the hidden lights, while almost invisible ahead of him +Dolores bent to listen to a last moment's communication from +Pascherette. With Milo behind him, and the great unknown ahead, the +pirate's usual fierce courage oozed out through his boots. Yet he was +hypnotized by the vague glitter that shone at the end of the tunnel--the +glitter, though he knew it not yet, of the great sliding door to the +inner mystery. + +Suddenly the mighty rock reverberated and shook to a Titanic volley of +thunder, and Sancho shrieked with nervous terror. His shriek was echoed +by a rippling laugh from Dolores, and she came back swiftly toward him, +pushing Pascherette before her. She handed the little octoroon on to +Milo, and said, with a kindly pat on the girl's head: "Open, Milo, and +let thy sweetheart complete her good works. Now I shall have none but +faithful friends about me. Pascherette, thou'rt more than forgiven: +thou'rt my good friend. I shall reward thee fittingly when"--she smiled +dazzlingly at Sancho--"I have rewarded Sancho." + +The rock door rolled aside, and Pascherette passed out into the storm. +Sancho's nerves gave way utterly now, and he rushed toward the opening, +screaming: "Let me out! I want air! I want none of the great chamber! +Let me pass!" + +Milo again let fall the rock, pressed a huge hand on Sancho's breast, +and pushed him back, saying: "Peace, fool! Go with thy mistress. Thine +eye will never again witness the like. Go, I tell thee. Dost fear the +Sultana's justice?" + +"Come, Sancho. Thou'lt be a marked man among thy fellows when I have +shown thee what they yearn to see." + +Dolores again took his hand, bent her glorious eyes full upon him, and +Sancho followed her like a sheep, straight to the great door under the +jeweled yellow lantern, where he stood, stupefied with awe at the +barbaric splendors revealed. + +His lips went dry, and he licked them feverishly; his single eye blazed +with avarice; the two fingers and mutilated thumb of his right hand +worked convulsively, as if he would tear the gems and plate from the +door. And Dolores watched him from under lowered lids, her rich red lips +curled scornfully, one hand half raised to warn Milo to open the great +door slowly. + +"Well, Sancho, art better prepared for the greater treasures yet to be +seen?" smiled Dolores. The pirate's blazing eye seemed to dart flames as +the door slowly rose to Milo's touch. + +"Sultana!" he gasped, and his speech would do no more for him. + +"Enter, friend. This is thy great hour!" + +The queen pushed him gently inside, following herself, and Milo let fall +the door again, standing mute and motionless on the inside while his +mistress led the pirate to the center of the great chamber and waited +until his dazzled eye adjusted itself to the subtle lighting effects. + +Pascherette's last whispered communication to Dolores had told her of +Yellow Rufe's intentions; and while Sancho stood in amaze, she bent her +ear to catch the expected sound of voices through the sounding-stone +behind the tapestry. For there the little octoroon was to play a part +for Sancho's especial benefit. The thunder had become all but incessant; +with every crash the great chamber rumbled and echoed eerily; yet +between the crashes, brief as the periods were, human voices could be +heard. + +"Art ready to see my treasures, Sancho?" + +Dolores waved a gleaming arm around the place, indicating with one wide +gesture the glories of the walls and roof. But the pirate's senses +responded more readily to the tangible riches represented by gold and +gems, tall flagons, and jewel-incrusted lamps, littered diamonds and +rubies that strewed the big table. + +"Hah!" cried Dolores, with a low, throaty laugh. "Ah! my friend, I know +thy mind. Milo!" + +Milo advanced with a deep obeisance. + +"Milo, open the great chests for Sancho. Let him plunge his arms to the +elbows in red gold. Then I shall show him that which lies nearest to his +deserts." + +The pirate watched with lips no longer dry, but dripping with the saliva +of greed, while Milo flung open chest after chest, full to overflowing +with minted gold of many nations; looted jewels of royal and noble +houses, sacred vessels and glittering orders, weapons whose hilts and +scabbards, if ever made for use, could only have been used to bewilder +the eye and senses. + +Again the thunder pealed; and in the tremendous hush succeeding, the +voices outside penetrated the sounding-stone in more than a whisper. +Sancho jerked up his head and fear once more shone in his single eye. + +"Come, good Sancho," purred Dolores, running her soft hand down his bare +forearm. "Art frightened by petty noises, then? Plunge thy hands deep, +man! All thou canst grasp is thine for so long as thy eye can enjoy or +thy hands fondle." + +Now Sancho's sordid soul surrendered. His greed conquered fear, and he +delved deep into a coffer, chattering the while with frenzy. And now +when the thunder rolled, his ears heard it not. He drew forth his hands, +and a glittering mass of wealth fell about his feet. He glared up at +Dolores, laughing ghoulishly. + +"That is well, Sancho," Dolores said, and took his hand. "Now I will +show thee the rest; and I know thou'lt never tell of it. I trust thee. +Come. Put thy ear to this tapestry, and tell me what thou canst hear." + +Sancho laid his ear to the cloth, and his eye gleamed brightly. Milo +stepped silently behind him. + +"I hear Hanglip!" he gasped. "Is he, too, here?" + +"He is outside the cliff. But whom else canst hear?" + +"I hear Caliban--Spotted Dog--Stumpy--I hear a score as if they stood by +my side! And Pascherette! By the fiend! She has played Rufe a trick! And +me--" He sprang from the wall like a tiger, snatching at his weaponless +belt with slavering fury, to be gathered at once into the remorseless +hug of Milo. And he glared full into the mocking face of Dolores--soft +and generous no more, but the embodiment of awful vengeance. + +For many seconds she stood regarding him contemptuously, until he +subsided helplessly in Milo's grasp; then, motioning the giant to +follow, she passed along and stopped before a life-size painting of "The +Sleeping Venus" in a massive, gilded frame. With one hand raised high at +the side, she turned a pulley-catch, and the great picture slowly fell +forward from the top until it rested slopingly on the floor, forming an +inclined entrance to a gloomy passage, dimly touched by a dark-red glow. + +This was the secret outlet to the great chamber by which Milo had access +to the altar in the grove at such times as his aid was needed to +support Dolores in some exhibition of black magic. She stepped swiftly +along the passage, giving no further heed to the panic-stricken pirate +until Milo had carried and dragged him to where she awaited him. This +was still another dark excavation, running deeper yet into the bowels of +the cliff; and the devilish red glare was here intensified until +surrounding objects were vividly revealed. + +"Now hear the doom of a traitor!" cried Dolores, with haughty mien. +"What! Not a traitor?" she mocked at the pirate's frantic howl of +denial. "Then Dolores has erred, perhaps. There is a test, good Sancho. +Let me see if I am wrong!" + +She signed to Milo, and the giant swung Sancho around until he faced the +deepest recess of the cave. There, swathed in mummy clothes, preserved +by the chemical miracle of the stratum of red earth that formed the core +of the rock, the body of Red Jabez stood erect against the wall, bathed +in the red glow, diamonds glittering where the dead eyes had been. And +on the rock ledge at his feet stood a tall flagon of gold, in which +Dolores had brewed an awful potion for this event. Beside this ledge +stood a low brazier full of glowing charcoal; on a tabouret near by lay +several terrible implements the use of which needed no explanation. + +"Look upon the face of the Red Chief, and drink this draft--'tis his +blood!" she cried, seizing the flagon and thrusting it into Sancho's +hands. "Then, if thy heart held no treachery toward me, thy life and +limbs are safe. But have a care! A lie in thy heart will surely undo +thee. Drink!" + +A splitting thunder-crash filled the place with uproar; a gust of the +tempest from the outer entrance sent the wind swirling in. It was as if +the breath of the storm snatched Sancho's senses back from the +terror-land they had fled to; he ceased his howling, glared defiantly up +at the dead chief, and cried in desperation: "Give me the drink! I fear +neither gods nor devils; why should I fear you, dead man?" + +"Wait!" Dolores laid a hand on his arm, and stayed the flagon at his +lips. "Wait, till I tell thee more. Then, if thou art guiltless, and go +from here with the treasure I gave thee, thou'lt know thy friends and +thy foes. + +"Didst think Yellow Rufe was free? Thou fool! Thy wits are powerless +before a woman's. Did my pretty Pascherette tell him he might go free, +taking my sloop, escaping my vengeance, as thou didst think to? Didst +hear those voices? Then I tell thee, Sancho, that ten-score count, that +Rufe doubtless made in fear and trembling, but sufficed to raise his +hopes. For ere he had gained the sloop and started her anchor, +Pascherette had done her work. The stranger's schooner is full of my +men, waiting for Rufe to come for his booty. Let him take alarm, then +how far may he win? Thou'lt never know, false Sancho, for I have no +doubt of thy treachery. Now drink, if thou darest!" + +"Then, by the fiend, I dare!" shouted the pirate. Something in the tang +of the gale sweeping in from the unseen entrance reassured him of the +existence of the outer world; persuaded him that by taking a desperate +chance he might yet throw dust in the eyes of this terrible woman and go +hence with the secret of the great chamber. "I dare, Dolores! Blood, d' +ye say? What fitter drink for a pirate?" + +He lifted the flagon, took a deep draft in great gulps, so that his +determination might carry him; then his eye sparkled, he took the flagon +from his lips, and grinned at Milo. "By the great Red Chief!" he cried. +"This is justice indeed! I drink to ye, Sultana, and to Milo, ye big +jester!" and finished the drink with a greedy swallow. + +Then the flagon clattered to the ground, Sancho's face went livid, and +his mouth opened wide and loosely, as his body and limbs were seized +with subtle pains. His brain, too, felt an awful numbness creeping upon +it; for the draft had done its work. The rarest of wine from her store, +Dolores had mingled with it a devilish powder that first sapped the +strength, then attacked the brain, and eventually snapped the cord of +intelligence, leaving the victim a driveling imbecile. But that point +had not yet been reached. It would come perhaps in one hour, two, three, +perhaps six--but inevitably it must come. For the present the pirate +was simply in the grip of the unknown, yet having full power to realize, +but not resist, the tangible terrors at hand. + +"Milo, hasten the rest. I shall await thee at the gate. Put forth this +traitor by the Grove outlet, and see to it that he takes with him +neither power to see beauty, to utter treason, or to ever feel again the +scalding touch of coveted gold. Make speed, I command thee, for I hear +my stout trusty ones clamoring for the chase!" + +Dolores disappeared through the secret outlet, sprang down behind the +altar, and ran through the Grove. Beside the cliff were huddled Hanglip +and Stumpy, Caliban, and Spotted Dog, drenched with the teeming rain, +restless with impatience, peering ever to seaward in the lightning +flashes that continually illumined the scene. + +Among them Dolores appeared, suddenly, mysteriously, as coming from the +skies, and after a choke of amazement Stumpy flung a hand seaward, and +shouted above the turmoil of wind and rain: + +"Queen o' Night, thou'lt need thy magic now! See, there flies the +villain!" + +Dolores looked, and smiled disdainfully. The torrential rain beat upon +her bare head and shoulders, causing her to glisten and shine like a +golden goddess; but she heeded it not at all; her eyes sought out what +Stumpy had indicated. And there, in the next lightning-flash, flying +seaward, was the sloop. Rufe had taken alarm, and had foregone his plan +of looting the schooner. + +"Let him go; he'll fly not far," she said calmly. "Come with me to the +great rock, my bold fellows; daylight shall show thee Rufe where I would +have him--paying the price, as Sancho has paid!" + +She glided around the rock, followed by her silent faithfuls, while from +the Grove rang a shriek of mortal agony that sent fierce hearts aquiver +with terror. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +DOLORES FLOATS THE FEU FOLLETTE. + + +"Hell's breath!" screamed Caliban, as the cry rang out. "Have ye devils +in the Grove, mistress?" Hanglip and Spotted Dog, too, cringed back in +fright. Stumpy concealed his uneasiness, yet his eyes searched Dolores's +face questingly. None truly believed in the queen's magic powers; yet +none was bold enough to openly avow his unbelief; and the added grimness +of the storm, assisted by the unearthliness of that howl of anguish, +brought the four godless pirates to the verge of superstitious terror. + +"Yes, I keep my devils there," replied Dolores; "and that is the traitor +Sancho answering to them for his perfidy. So watch, and obey me, lest +thy cries, too, go up from my altar!" + +She stood apart at the great stone, listening, and presently Milo rolled +up the rock barrier, and appeared in the gloom, calm and cool as if he +had no association with devils, imaginary or otherwise. A livid +lightning-flash played on his features, and the pirates drew back, +muttering at his black eyes which glowed with red points like rubies in +the heart of twin coals. + +"Milo, there flies Rufe," said Dolores, flinging an arm seaward. Beyond +the false point, in the midst of black seas dappled with rushing +white-horses, under a lowering black sky that seemed to lean down to the +verge of the ocean itself, Rufe's sloop was pictured in the next flash +of electric radiance a thing of desolation and panic. Fully a mile away, +the craft vanished in the pervading blackness between every flash. "I +need thy condor's vision now as never before. Take the swift, small +sailboat, and flares; follow the sloop as long as thy eyes can pick her +out; we shall follow thy flares in the schooner until we overtake thee. +Haste now; Rufe has grace enough!" + +Milo stayed only to get his flare-powder and tinder-box, then +disappeared down the cliff. + +Dolores despatched her four attendants to the schooner, prepared to +follow, then, with an afterthought, halted two of them. + +"Here, Hanglip, Spotted Dog, wait!" She swiftly entered the council +hall, went to the three small chambers, and released her captives from +the ring-bolts. Driving them before her, bewildered by the sudden +emergence from tranquillity to the turmoil of the storm, she gave the +two pirates each a chain, held the other herself, and led the way down +to the stranded schooner. Her motive was not only uncertainty about the +people left at the camp, who might prove susceptible to bribery if not +pity; she also felt a sort of whimsical desire to impress these +strangers with the utter inevitability of her power. + +The Feu Follette lay on the edge of the bar, as she had lain since +stranding, except that with tide after tide her keel had worn itself a +place in the sand, and she was less closely held than before. Of her +rightful crew but five survived the fight; one was the sailing-master, +Peters, and all were imprisoned under jailers in the forecastle. On the +schooner's sloping decks, when Dolores and her party climbed aboard, +were a score of nondescript pirates, besides the crew's custodians, at a +loss to account for the escape of the sloop, and worked up to a pitch of +nervousness where they were only fit for sudden, strenuous action with a +merciless taskmaster. And such they speedily had. + +Dolores ordered her three captives to be taken to the great cabin, and +their chains were fastened to the ornately paneled mainmast which ran +down through both decks and formed the support of a gorgeously furnished +sideboard. Then the companionway was locked on them, and the girl sprang +to tremendous life. + +"Aloft with thee, Stumpy!" she cried, selecting him because after Milo +his eyes were keenest of them all. "Keep thy eyes open for Milo's +flares, and mark well the direction. Hanglip, thou surly dog! Take ten +men and lay me out a good anchor astern, with a stout hawser. Be brisk! +Come aboard in ten minutes, or thy back shall smart." + +Sancho's boat had remained at the port quarter, and into this Hanglip +drove his crew while Spotted Dog with the rest of the men got ready an +anchor to lower to them. + +"Caliban, cast off the gaskets from fore and main!" cried Dolores next. +"Where are thy rascals? Plague take thee, hunchback! Couldst not say +there were not men enough? Below with ye, and bring up the schooner's +people. Have sail on this vessel before that anchor takes hold, or I'll +flay thy hump!" + +Cursing venomously, the deformed little demon sprang into the forecastle +and drove up Peters and his four men with kicks and blows. They, too, +were bewildered by the tremendous uproar of sea and wind, and went like +sheep to the fore and main masts at Caliban's bidding. + +"Ready for the anchor--lower away!" roared Hanglip in the boat, where +already was piled coil on coil a great hemp hawser. + +"Handsomely, ye dogs, handsomely!" shrieked Spotted Dog in turn. The +anchor sank into the boat to the screeching of tackles and the groaning +of boat-timbers, and was carried out astern. + +"Carry the end aft!" Dolores commanded; the hawser was taken along and +the end passed around the quarter-deck capstan. "Up with those sails!" +cried the girl now, and Caliban's gang sweated at the halyards, while +slackened sheets permitted the booms to swing and present the luffs to +the screaming gale, bearing no resistance. While the boat pulled away +into the darkness astern, carrying the anchor to the full scope of the +cable, Dolores kept her eyes ever aloft, and over the sea, and upon +every detail of the work. Her eyes fell upon Peters, standing in sullen +mood at the belaying-pin which held a turn of the main-throat halyards. +And as the croaking cry of Caliban ordered "Belay!" she called Peters to +her. + +"Thou'rt sailing-master, hey?" + +"I was." + +"Art still, if thy heart is as stubborn as thy face!" cried Dolores, +laughing at his scowl. "Canst sail thy ship now?" + +"I can sail any ship that floats, but neither I nor your sharks can sail +this schooner now," he replied surlily. "Your false marks did their work +well." + +"Then thou'd rather pull a rope than hold a wheel, hey? 'Tis but a +wooden sailor, after all. I hoped such a ship would boast a seaman as +master. I'll show thee seamanship, sheep-heart!" + +Out of the darkness astern came a roar: + +"Anchor's down! Heave away!" + +And from the darkness aloft Stumpy bawled: + +"There she flares! Mother o' me!" The prayer, curse, whatever the last +words might be, were called forth by a paralyzing flash of lightning +that shone over the raging sea like a gigantic calcium-light. The +schooner's deck resounded with superstitious howls, which rose to awed +cries from the weakest as from trucks and gaff-ends glowed and flickered +the blue brush of St. Elmo's fire. + +"Heave away, heave away!" Dolores's voice rang out on the hubbub, +forcing obedience even in face of terror. The capstan went round to the +urge of a dozen pair of fear-stimulated arms; and fathom by fathom the +great cable came in dripping and glistening; fathom after fathom was +heaped on the deck, and still the schooner remained fast. And ever from +aloft came Stumpy's hail, reporting Milo's flare fast fading in the +distance. + +"You can't do it! I knew it!" shouted Peters defiantly. + +"Peace, sheep!" answered Dolores, slapping him upon the mouth. She stood +at the wheel, and no part of the vessel's situation escaped her. She had +yet a trump to play: a hazardous one, truly, but the big one. The big +fore and main sails swung and crashed idly at their sheets, filling the +air with the thunder of their flinging blocks. At each boom a seaman +stood, and each held the double block of a boom-tackle, waiting the word +that now came. + +"Clap on those boom-tackles!" Dolores commanded, and four men flew to +each as it was hooked to the rigging. "Haul away! Boom the sails square +out!" The great sails filled with a crash as the gale took them on the +fore side, flinging them violently aback. + +"You'll pluck the spars out of her!" screamed Peters, in a frenzy now as +his cherished masts whipped and cracked to the tremendous backward +strain. Dolores ignored the crazed man, but a scornful smile wreathed +about her lips, and her dark eyes gleamed. "Out with them!" she cried. +"More hands there! And heave, ho, heave away on the capstan! Burst thy +arms, bullies! Here comes Hanglip and his bold lads to help ye! Round +with her! Out with them! Heave, good bullies!" + +The girl stood by the wheel, a splendid figure of matchless energy and +courage. Aloft the topmasts bent like whips; Stumpy's voice came down +in ever-increasing fear as his perch grew shakier; the great expanse of +canvas, which should have been treble-reefed even in a floating ship +going forward, tore at boom-tackles and earrings, tacks, and mast-hoops, +shaking the vessel to the keel and filling her with cataclysmic thunder. + +"By the bones of Red Jabez, she comes!" roared Spotted Dog, peering over +the side. "Heave, lads, and never doubt the girl again! Fiends o' +Topheth! See her slide!" + +The schooner shuddered from forefoot to sternpost; the big hawser +slipped in through the lead with gathering speed; the groaning masts +imparted an impulse to her that drove her astern like an arrow, and now, +triumphantly, Dolores cried: + +"An ax! Quickly--cut the hawser! Caliban, get a jib loosed! Hanglip, +open the companionway, and bring up my prisoners. I would have them +enjoy the sail." + +A curling sea poured over the taffrail, sweeping Dolores from her feet; +she met it with a ringing laugh, gripping the wheel as her safeguard, +and the moment the ax severed the hawser she gave the vessel a sheer +with the helm, and again her orders rang out: + +"Let go both boom-tackles! Hoist away the jib! Haul the jib-sheet to +starboard, and stand by fore and main sheets!" + +Out of the darkness ahead came the fluttering of canvas, and soon +Caliban's hoarse croak rang aft: "Hoist away th' jib!" The great booms +swung amidships again when the tackles were cast off, and now the +headsail flew up the stay, the restrained sheet to starboard causing the +canvas to fill aback as had the greater sails before. The pressure was +ahead and to one side; the schooner's head began to fall off, then +faster as she gained momentum, and the fore and main sails again began +to thunder at their blocks. + +"Let draw the jib! Bring in the fore sheet; bear a hand aft here, main +sheet, lads, smartly!" cried Dolores, twirling the wheel to meet the +vessel's swift leeward leap. And as the liberated Feu Follette heeled +dizzily to the gale, under full spread of sail, and her owner and his +guests appeared into the storm, Stumpy's cry rang out: + +"There's the flare--and she's burnin' steady!" + + +TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month. + + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +YELLOW RUFE'S FINISH. + + +"How bears the flare?" Dolores demanded, steadying the helm. + +"Three points on lee-bow!" came from aloft. + +"Sing out when we point for it!" Dolores gave the wheel a few spokes, +and at her command the main-sheet was rendered until the schooner fell +off from the wind, and Stumpy hailed: "Steady! She heads fair for it!" + +"Does it still burn?" + +"Aye, blazing bright! And low down, too, for the seas hide it every +moment!" + +"Keep thy eyes skinned, and seek for the sloop, too." + +The schooner came to a more even keel as she squared away from the gale, +and the splendid speed of the craft sent a thrill through Dolores, as +through the less impressionable pirate of the gang. Fast as Rufe's sloop +was, this dainty plaything of wealth and leisure sped over the snarling +seas at a gait that promised to overhaul the smaller vessel two fathoms +to one. + +Even Rupert Venner and his friends, shivering with the wet and sudden +change from the cabin to the deck though they were, found much to soothe +them in the glorious sweep and swing of the Feu Follette; much to admire +and envy in the perfect poise and _sang froid_ of the magnificent +creature at the wheel. + +Dolores stood on feet as steady as the great, deep eyes that were fixed +on the compass-card before her. Her heavy, lustrous hair streamed about +her from under the golden circlet; in each lightning flash she stood +out, a thing of wild, awful beauty; the rain glistened on her bare +shoulders and arms, rendering her golden skin a gleaming, fairylike +armor. And the blustering wind caught her wet tunic and wrapped it about +her closely and tightly, revealing every grace and glory of her perfect +body. + +"Saints! Was there ever such a creature?" said Tomlin hoarsely. + +Pearse's face was set and grim; he made no rejoinder. Venner, too, kept +silent; but his eyes held venom as he glared at the speaker. Dolores +suddenly raised her eyes from the binnacle, looked toward them as they +crouched shivering in the lee of the deck-house-companion, and she, warm +and glowing in a flimsy, wet garment, laughed mockingly, and called to +them. + +"I am forgetting what is due to my guests. Do ye feel cold? Will ye go +below?" + +And they, shivering and uneasy as they were, were content to shiver if +only they might not lose sight of her. Their reply was unintelligible; +neither would look at the others; yet their mumbled response was +understood, and the girl laughed again, loud, ringing, and full of +allure. + +"Such courage comes only of true sea stock, my friends! I shall not +forget this fortitude when I have done with the schooner." + +"Flare close aboard!" roared Stumpy; then: "Seize my soul if I see the +boat, though, mistress. Satan! Now the flare's gone out!" + +"Whereaway?" cried Dolores shrilly. Big Milo was out there in the +blackness. + +"Right under the bows!" bellowed the lookout. "Luff, or bear away; ye'll +run him down!" + +And from the raging seas off the lee-bow came the deep, calm voice of +Milo, unperturbed as if on dry land, though no boat was to be seen in +the murk. "Hold the course, Sultana, I am here!" + +And on the heels of the words came a flash from the skies, blazing full +upon the dripping figure of the giant as he reached a great arm up, +gripped the lee-rail, and swung himself on board with the unconscious +ease of a perfect athlete. + +"Thy boat, Milo?" inquired Dolores. + +"Sailed under, Sultana. I have held the flare aloft in my hand while +swimming until a moment ago, when the powder burned out." + +"And Rufe?" + +"The sloop is close by. Thou art sailing fair at his stern if thy course +was not changed to avoid me. His topmast is gone; he sails slowly." + +Then without more ado the splendid human animal clutched a backstay and +swarmed aloft with the agility of an ape, showing not a whit of strain +after his battle with the roaring seas. He reached Stumpy, sent that +numbed mariner down, and searched the waters with his keen vision, +waiting for another lightning flash. And when it came, fainter now as +the thunderstorm receded, his resonant voice boomed down: + +"Broad abeam the sloop lies! She runs before the wind!" + +"Slack away the main-sheet!" cried Dolores, heaving the helm up. "Hail +every minute, Milo!" + +"Shall I send him a shot immediately, lady?" roared Hanglip, at the +schooner's foremost gun. + +"Hold with thy shots, villain! Does Rufe deserve no sport? Stand by with +the grappling-hooks. I'll run him down!" + +"The sloop is dead ahead!" hailed Milo, though none on deck could detect +anything of her in the blackness. Dolores listened intently; then +twirled the wheel, and cried: "I hear her! Ready the grapnels?" + +"Aye, ready!" + +"Then watch--and heave!" she commanded; and with the suddenness of light +the schooner swept around in a swift arc, the black shape of the flying +sloop stood out against the angry sea crests, and the two vessels came +together with a crash of timbers and a rattling of gear. + +A distant rumbling of thunder succeeded a faint flash, and wind and rain +came down with increased fury as if to balance the defection of the +electric element. The darkness of Erebus fell upon the surging vessels, +and men groped at the rails in a blind effort to make out a footing for +boarding the sloop. + +"Follow me; I want Yellow Rufe alive!" cried Dolores, leaving the wheel +and springing to the bulwarks. Instinctively Peters stepped to the +wheel, and as he passed his employer he leaned to whisper in his ear: + +"Let them once leave these decks, sir, and we'll up hellum and away!" + +Venner's eyes glittered at the prospect; but he could not see the faces +of his friends; he could only hear Pearse's low tones beside him, and +the mumbled words indicated no great agreement in the scheme. Uncertain, +his mind confused between desire to escape and desire to see more of +Dolores and her hidden cave of wonders, Rupert Venner hesitated in his +decision; and in the next moment it was out of his power to decide. For +Rufe, in desperation now, met the boarders at the rail, backed by his +half-dozen crazed adherents, and murderous steel glittered dully against +the inky sky. + +"Beat down his cringing curs, but leave me Rufe!" cried Dolores, +opposing her own dagger to the sweep of the pirate's cutlas. And as the +schooner's crew roared at Hanglip's heels, storming over to the pitching +sloop's decks to pursue mercilessly the panic-stricken runaways, the +girl pitted agility and splendid knife-craft against the terror-driven +strength and wolfish fury of the trapped traitor. + +"Hah! Thy black heart fails thee!" taunted Dolores, leaping down from +the rail to the schooner's streaming deck and thus avoiding a whistling +stroke of Rufe's cutlas. The pirate fell forward with the impetus of his +blow, and stumbled in a heap at the girl's nimble feet. "Up, man!" she +cried, leaping back to permit him to rise. "What, art afraid of a woman? +Here, then, I prick thee! Now wilt fight?" She darted her dagger swiftly +downward, and the partially healed cross on Rufe's cheek blazed red +again. + +"Woman or devil, I'll see thy heart for that!" swore the pirate, and +rose with a bound and hurled himself at the girl. She stepped aside +agilely and laughed mockingly at him, while as he again stumbled with +the swing of his avoided blow she darted close, and her knife ripped his +sword-arm from wrist to elbow. + +Mouthing crazily with fury, Rufe leaped backward until his shoulders +struck the rigging, and, seizing his cutlas in his left hand, he poised +it by the blade for a deadly javelin cast. + +Now upon the scene flared a great blaze, and Stumpy's scowling face +appeared at the back of it. He, with readier wit than his fellows, had +sought out a tar-pot and lamp; and at the moment his mistress stood +defenseless before the impeding steel, the club-footed pirate poured +lamp-oil into the tar, and cast the flaring wick on top of all. + +A circle of light spread from wheel to foremast, with Yellow Rufe at the +main rigging in the center of it. The light dazzled him for a second, +and his throw was stayed. The three yachtsmen, huddled in their chains +aft, stared in helpless amazement at the tableau; for such it became, +when the fight stopped for a breath and every man's passion-filled face +was lighted by the red glare. + +"Shoot him down!" shouted Pearse in horror. + +And Venner and Tomlin strove for words without success. Venner was dumb +and sick in face of Dolores's peril. Yellow Rufe uttered a grim, +Satanic growl of laughter, and drew back his arm for the cast. His +plight was utterly desperate; he knew death waited for him with +clutching talons, and with his last breath he would reap toll that +should make his name a thing to recall with dread afterward. + +"This for thy witch's heart!" he howled, and his arm quivered. Then out +of the shadows aloft, above the smoky flare, came down the tremendous +shape of Milo, forgotten in his post at the masthead, but never taking +his eyes from his Sultana. + +Like a gorilla he slipped down the backstay with one hand; with the +other hand he reached downward with a swift, sure clutch, and as Rufe's +wrist flexed to cast his javelin Milo's hand gripped him by the neck +from behind and swung him bodily off his feet, while the wide-flung +cutlas flashed through the air and plunged with a hiss over the side. + +"I thank thee again, Milo," said Dolores, slipping her dagger into the +sheath and looking on at Rufe's struggles with the unconcern of one far +apart from the actual conflict. "I wished to take him alive; yet had +almost been forced to cut too deeply. Bring the villain to me. And, +Caliban, get more flares, lanterns, lights, and make us a theater of +justice here." + +She stepped aft, saw Peters at the wheel, and smiled as she realized how +her boarding of the sloop might have resulted. + +"Hah, but it would have availed thee nothing!" she smiled at Venner. "I +read thy heart as I read the stars, friend. Watch how completely Yellow +Rufe pays his debt to me. He has fled me through forest and mountain; +through a sea of howling storm; yet he pays. And thus all men pay who +think to flout Dolores. Keep thy eyes wide, friends, and watch." + +Yellow Rufe was brought before her, and his swarthy face was pallid in +the red light. There was something of the splendid beast about this +fellow, too; a quality that showed even when he faced certain death and +no merciful one. He had run, and when overtaken he had fought; and now +he must pay. + +"Hanglip, to the wheel here!" Dolores commanded. "Six of you bring back +the sloop. The rest attend me! Bring the schooner to her course, +northwest, Hanglip; and, Spotted Dog, rig me a whip at the foregaff-end. +Yellow Rufe, pray or curse while ye may. Thy course is run. There is +nothing left to say. Ten minutes remain to thee." + +The doomed pirate stood in silence while the preparations were being +made; but when Spotted Dog brought down the end of the rope he had rove +through the block at the end of the gaff, and stood grinning +anticipatively before Dolores, Rufe's tongue came loose, and he burst +into a torrent of futile, raving blasphemy. + +"Take the rope end forward, and pass it around the bows, so that the +rope passes beneath the keel," Dolores ordered, and every eager villain +in the band knew now what fate awaited Rufe. The schooner, not being +square-rigged, was badly fitted for the operation of keel-hauling; but +Dolores's inventive brain had devised a refinement of even that +refinement of torture. She waited for the rope end, and when Spotted Dog +brought it aft, on the weather side, passing clear from the gaff to +leeward, under the keel and up to windward, she stood aside so that the +yachtsmen could witness all. + +"Tie his hands, Milo!" she said. It was carried out, in spite of Rufe's +fierce fight against it. "Now place the noose about his throat tightly." +That, too, was done, and now the rope led from Rufe's neck, over the +weather rail, under the schooner, and up to the gaff. Three men stood by +the hauling part of the rope, and at a gesture from the girl six others +joined them. On every face was a little doubt, for none saw exactly what +was coming, least of all Rufe. + +"Now release him!" said Dolores quietly, and Rufe was left standing +alone, his hands tied, but his feet unfettered. He glared around as if +he saw a slim chance yet for life; the hope died the next moment, for +Dolores signed to the men at the rope, they began hauling, and the +terror leaped into Rufe's eyes afresh. + +For a moment Venner and his friends saw what they imagined to be a piece +of grim jesting; but they, as well as Rufe, speedily saw there was no +jest in this. For as the rope tightened, and other roaring ruffians ran +joyously to take a pull at it, Rufe was drawn irresistibly toward the +weather rail with a choking drag on his throat. He seized the rail, and +strained with his every sinew to fight that deadly peril; the rope only +tightened more; it was either go or strangle for him; fight as he might, +he was forced to climb on the rail, to aid in his own funeral. + +The yachtsmen turned dizzy with the awfulness of the man's end; but they +could not take their fascinated eyes from the scene. They saw Rufe +topple over the rail with a choking curse, and saw the rope pull him +under the vessel; they saw the rope quiver to the pirates' lusty pull as +the victim was battered against the keel. And they saw the terrible +figure leap from the sea to leeward and fly to the gaff-end as the men +ran away with the rope to a roaring chorus. But they saw no more. Their +eyes refused to look at a repetition of that horror. And Dolores, +watching them keenly, came to them, after giving final orders regarding +Yellow Rufe's body, took their chains in her hand, and said: + +"When again the thought comes to leave me, gentlemen, think well upon +what I have showed thee. Now come below. I owe thee some refreshment +after a night of storm. 'Twill be approaching dawn ere the schooner can +beat back to my haven. Come. I will serve thee with supper." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE FIRES OF THE FLESH. + + +In the schooner's saloon the atmosphere was peaceful by contrast with +the hurly-burly outside; yet even here the steep slant of the deck, the +shrill, protesting squeal of working frames and beams, the sullen thud +and swish of racing seas along the vessel's skin, kept the storm ever in +mind: the dizzy plunge of the bows into great gray seas, with its +accompanying rise of the stern and the hollow jar and thump of the +rudder-post in its port, kept the interior humming with sound as from a +distant organ. + +Again chained to the mainmast, the three yachtsmen stood gloomily +regarding Dolores, whose capable, battle-wise fingers now performed a +task more in keeping with her sex and charm. Under the great swing-lamp +in the skylight she leaned over the table, mixing wine in low, stout +cups, spreading a silver salver with food from the pantry. And a +thrilling picture she made in the soft glow of the lamp. The beautiful +face was warm with color; the scarlet lips were slightly opened in a +brilliant smile; intent upon her task, she swayed with superb grace to +the tremendous lurches of the driving schooner, ignoring all outside +affairs. + +Her preparations completed, she placed tray and cups at the end of the +table nearest the mainmast, turned around the deep armchair which had +been the owner's own, and sat down, offering a cup and the tray with a +little laugh of satisfaction. + +"Come, friend Rupert," she said, thrilling Venner again with her vibrant +voice, "thou shalt be first. Eat--and drink. See, for thee I do this." +She raised the cup to her lips, and kissed the brim, fixing her +fathomless eyes full on Venner as she did so. + +He struggled with his feelings for a moment, and hated himself heartily +for even debating his attitude. But he fell, as he had done before, +dazzled by her witchery. His eyes blazed, his blood leaped, and he took +the cup with a mumbled attempt at thanks. Dolores smiled at his +confusion, and in that smile was the allure of a Circe. + +Venner's expression became less tense as he noted the faces of his +fellows; for in their eyes he read jealousy, rank and stark, and it +warmed him to the marrow. In the next instant his warmth rose to fever +heat, and malice twisted his features; Dolores had taken another cup, +and now she offered it to Pearse, with a smile yet more gracious than +before. + +"My silent friend, here's to thee, too," she murmured. His cup she +kissed twice, and presented it carefully so that the place she kissed +was against his lips. "Drink. I have sweetened it." + +As Venner's brows darkened, so did John Pearse conquer his first flush +of self-contempt and put on a smile that irradiated his usually serious +face. And Tomlin brightened, too, waiting in what patience he could +muster for his turn, which must come next. To him Dolores turned, cup in +hand, and rising at the same time gave him his wine with a brief: "Here, +drink, too. I must leave thee a while." + +She forced the cup into Tomlin's trembling fingers, gave him never a +glance, but went out of the saloon on her errand. + +When he realized she was gone, Craik Tomlin dashed down the wine like a +petulant boy, and cursed deeply and fiercely. And not until then did +Venner and Pearse awake to the true artistry of the woman; for here, +instead of making of Tomlin a raging foe, willing to plot with all the +power of his alert brain for their ultimate release, she had aroused a +demon of black jealousy in him which promised to set all three by the +ears. + +Restricted as their movements were, they were forced to nurse whatever +feelings Dolores had implanted in them in full sight of each other. And +Tomlin left no doubt as to his feelings. At the farthest scope of his +chain he flung himself down on the slanting floor and crouched there +with dull-glowing eyes bent loweringly upon his friends. Venner laughed +awkwardly, and glanced at Pearse; the laugh died away and left a silence +between them that was vividly accentuated by the manifold voices of the +laboring vessel. For in the swift meeting of eyes, John Pearse and +Venner, host and guest, friends to that moment, saw in each other an +established rival, a potential foe. Involuntarily they drew apart; and +when Dolores returned from the deck she found them spread out like star +rays, having nothing in common except a common center. + +She gave no sign that she noticed them; but her heavy, fringed lids +drooped over eyes brimming with gratification. As she stepped from the +stairs the schooner swung upright, the deck overhead thundered to the +slamming of booms as she came about, and then the cabin sloped the other +way, rolling the scattered wine-cups noisily across the floor. Neither +man looked up; but Tomlin's cup rolled so that it struck his foot, and +he gave voice to a deep oath, terrible in its uncalled-for savagery. +Then Dolores gave them outward notice for the first time. + +With a low, pleasant laugh, she stepped quickly to Tomlin's side, laid a +hand on his sullen head, and forced him to look up at her. + +"I owe thee something, friend," she smiled, and Tomlin flushed hotly +under her close regard. "I treated thee badly in my haste. Come"--she +went to the sideboard, filled another cup with wine, and came back, +kneeling before Tomlin in the attitude of a slave while her big eyes +blazed full into his. + +"Drink, for I like thee best," she whispered, sipping the wine and +putting the brim, warm from her lips, to his. + +And Tomlin drank deeply, greedily, trembling under her close proximity. +He felt her hand take his chain, heard the tinkle of links, and knew, +without seeing, that she had unlocked his fetters and he was free. + +"Now sit here with me, and thou shalt tell me about thy world, my +friend, the world thou shalt take me to." + +Her soft, thrilling voice set Tomlin's blood leaping; and as she spoke +she led him to Venner's great chair and sat him down in it. Then, facing +at the length of the table her other two captives, she stood behind the +big chair, her arms on the top, leaning low to Tomlin's ear, her lips +almost brushing his cheek. + +And she whispered to him musically, seductively; her jeweled fingers +played with his hair; the soft, warm skin of her arms slid over his neck +and face; when, in a frenzy, he reached impulsively for her hand and +gripped it, she laughed yet more deliciously and permitted him to hold +it. + +"Why must you seek another world, Dolores?" Tomlin said hoarsely. "Here +you are queen. Out in the greater world you can be no more. Stay, and +let me stay with you." + +"And would my paltry possessions pay thee for renouncing thy people, thy +home?" she asked. + +"Home? People? God! I renounce Heaven itself if you say yes!" + +"We shall see, my friend," Dolores sighed, and Tomlin felt her tremble +slightly. "My chief desire is to leave behind me this life of herder to +human beasts. To go into the world whence comes such as thee, Tomlin; to +live among the people who can make such as these"--she indicated the +rich furnishing of the saloon, the sideboard silver and plate, the +stained glass of the skylight. + +"All these things I have, and more--nay, but thy treasures are nothing +compared with what I shall show thee in the great chamber--yet must I +keep them hidden because of the beasts that call me Sultana! Where they +came from, these treasures, must be men like thee, Tomlin, women like +the painted women of my gallery, people with the art to make these +things instead of the brute power to steal them. And there I will go, +and thou art to be my guide." + +"Then, in Heaven's name, let us go now!" cried Tomlin, trying to rise. +She laughed in his ear again, and her soft, warm arms pressed him back +in the chair with a power that amazed him. "We shall go, in good +season," she whispered. "But--" The rest was murmured so faintly, yet so +tremendously audible to his superheated brain, that he drew back and +stared up at her with an awful expression of mingled unbelief and horror +distorting his face. + +"Do you know what you say?" he gasped, and shot an apprehensive glance +toward Venner and Pearse. + +"Surely, my friend," she crooned. "Thyself alone, of those who came in +this ship, may return. If I am desirable, see to it that I can be +pleased with thee." Dolores stood up, bent upon him a dazzling smile, +leaned as if to kiss his lips, then with a tinkling little ripple of +mirth blew a kiss instead and ran up the companion-stairs to the deck. + +Tomlin stood glaring after her as if fascinated. His face, deeply +flushed a moment before, had gone deathly white; his profile, turned +under the lamp toward his companions, showed deeply puckered brows over +stony eyes, lips parted as if to utter a cry of horror. And Venner, +fuming inwardly, had seen enough to recall some of his badly scattered +wits. He called Tomlin by name hoarsely, softly, and exclaimed when he +looked around: + +"Tomlin, shall we three be ruined body and soul by that sorceress? Come, +help us out of these chains, and we will make a bid for liberty. We can +reach Peters and such men as are left, by way of the alleyway to the +forecastle; I know where weapons are to be got, and we'll put our fate +on the cast. Come. Pearse is of a like mind, eh, Pearse?" + +Pearse did not reply at once, and Tomlin saved him the trouble; for, +recovering himself with a shudder, he put a hand on the companion-rail +and started up the stairs with a laugh of contempt. + +"I have no concern with your troubles, Venner," he said. "As for +liberty, I am free as air. I believe patience is the medicine you need." + +Tomlin reached the deck with tingling ears, for even Pearse came out of +his reverie to curse him. But curses or benedictions counted nothing at +that moment. In every patch of light he saw Dolores's devilishly lovely +face; in every swing of the vessel he saw her consummate grace; he was a +thirsty man seeking a spring, knowing full well that a draft must kill +him. He stood alone outside the companionway, wondering at the absence +of people, at the absence of Dolores. A solitary man stood at the wheel; +and, looking around for others, Tomlin noticed vaguely that the black +storm was broken, that watery stars were winking down, and that almost +in the zenith a gibbous moon leaned like a brimming dipper of +quicksilver, ready to drop from the inky cloud that had but just +uncovered it. + +Then voices reached his ears from forward, voices full of wondering +anger, and he stepped out clear of the deck-house and peered ahead on +the windward side. There, two miles away, the land loomed black and +forbidding; and high up, on a crest, a great red blaze leaped and +swirled against the flying clouds. + +As he stood, Dolores ran aft, ignoring him utterly in her haste. Her men +grouped themselves along the waist of the schooner, waiting for +commands. The Feu Follette was already doing her best; that is, the best +under such sail as was safe to carry. But there, to windward, and yet +two miles distant, some part of the pirate village was burning, and none +might say yet what part it was. + +The one thing certain was that it could not be the great chamber. That +was of rock; it might be destroyed by an explosion; never by fire. So +there was a ring of exultation in Dolores's tone when she sent the hail +along: + +"Loose both topsails and set them! Caliban, thou small villain, out and +loose the outer jib. Main-sheet here! Oh, haul, bullies! Flat--more +yet--so, belay!" + +Then the girl flung the man from the wheel, seized the spokes herself, +and began to nurse the schooner to windward with truly superhuman art. +Closer yet she brought the graceful craft; closer, until the luffs +trembled and the seas burst fair upon the stem and volleyed stinging +spray the full length of her. And as she drew nearer, the blaze seemed +to diminish and blaze afresh as if fire-fighters were there indeed, but +lacking weapons to fight with. + +"Is it the treasure-house?" Tomlin asked anxiously, stepping beside the +girl. She stood in deep shadow; the dim radiance from the lighted +binnacle touched her face, breast, and arms with soft light, and her +eyes, as they flashed swiftly toward the man, glittered with some subtle +quality that sent a shiver running down his spine. + +"Treasure-house?" she repeated, and her voice was no longer soft and +alluring; it was metallic and menacing. For the second time, first in +Venner, now in Tomlin, she had seen the true source of their +fascination. "No, it is not the treasure-house. It is the council hall, +where thou wert lodged." She snatched her gaze from the compass and +fixed him with the cold, unwinking stare of a snake. "Where thou wert +lodged, my friend who would renounce all for me. Where, had I cared to, +I might have left two of ye, taking with me to safety only the one whose +brains are not afire with soulless gold and jewels." + +Tomlin grew hot and uneasy. "My brain is on fire with your beauty, +Dolores," he returned, trying to force her gaze to meet his again. + +"Prove it to me, then," she replied shortly, and waved him away, +devoting her attention now to making the anchorage, already close to. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +PEARSE ENTERS THE CAVE OF ALADDIN. + + +Lucky it proved that Pascherette had been left behind when the schooner +sailed after Yellow Rufe. Even Dolores, with all her consummate wisdom, +had forgotten the existence of the old woman she had degraded to kitchen +drudge; still more utterly had she forgotten the relationship existing +between the old woman and the late victim of her terrible vengeance. + +Sancho had called the old crone mother, whether with blood reasons or +not none knew. And at bottom, much of Sancho's rebellion had come of +anger at the treatment meted out to her. And it was Sancho's despairing +cry, when Milo cast him out into the Grove, that brought the old woman +from her concealment in the forest. The awful plight of the unlucky +wretch had aroused in the woman's withered breast a demon of revenge +that knew no limits; and the departing schooner, then barely visible to +her, filled her brain with the knowledge that the strangers who came in +that vessel had been the indirect cause of her Sancho's fate. + +She knew they had been placed in the cells behind the council hall; she +knew nothing of Dolores's last-minute decision that had taken them with +her. She knew nothing as to who or how many were left in the camp; but +she knew, she had terrible and ever-present proof in that moaning, +groping, brainless thing that was Sancho, that her mistress had shown a +leaning toward the strangers at the expense of her own people, and that +she herself might expect no mercy if ever caught. And with the low +animal cunning that served her for intellect she knew her penalty could +be no greater if she struck one blow in revenge before taking to the +woods in final flight. + +Her plan was simple. Watching Sancho for a while, so that she might not +lose him, she searched for dry wood among the drenched underbrush, piled +it against the rear of the council hall, and set fire to it, fanning the +faint flame and feeding it, guarding it with her scanty garments, until +the red tongues shot up in a powerful, self-supporting conflagration. + +Then she had darted back to the forest fringe, found Sancho, and turned +his sightless, blank face toward the blaze so that he might feel the +warmth and guess the cause. But she knew nothing of his cracked brain; +she knew only of his physical agonies; the utter absence of interest in +him when she would have shown him what she had done shook her to the +foundations of her own reason; and her eldritch scream pealed up among +the trees as she flung her arms aloft and cursed the place. + +It was the scream that brought Pascherette out of the hut, where she +sheltered from the storm, to see the council hall in flames. It was the +scream that told the little octoroon where the fire had birth. And +Pascherette, too, believed that the three strangers were still within +the cells. She had plans of her own that required the safety of those +men, at least for a while. And her active brain gave her the solution +before the old woman had ceased to curse. + +Like a small, sleek panther Pascherette ran toward the old woman; she +saw Sancho, too, but instinctively knew that after Milo's treatment of +him he could not be dangerous; ignoring the man, she drew her knife as +she ran, and with a brief, panting, "That for thee, witch!" struck the +old woman down at Sancho's stumbling feet. + +Now she gave all her energies to subduing the fire; and, swiftly +rallying every man or woman in the camp she drove them with blows and +shrill invective to beating the blaze with sodden boughs and wet sand. +She set men with poles to batter down the doors to the cells; but the +doors had been built to oppose that kind of entry. Frantically she drove +the fire-fighters to another place, while she heaped up fresh fire +against the doors in the hope of burning down what could not be burst. +And it was the last up-blazing shaft of fire as the doors fell that +Dolores saw in the moment she brought the schooner to anchor. +Pascherette was emerging, singed and blackened, with dark rage in her +glittering eyes at having found the cells empty, when Dolores and her +crew arrived on the scene with Venner and Tomlin and Pearse in their +midst. + +"What! Pascherette again?" cried Dolores, glaring at the girl with red +suspicion in her face. "Is this thy work? Speak!" + +Pascherette stared in surprise at the three strangers, and her painfully +scorched lips strove to answer. Her throat was dry, and at first words +refused to come. But in the pause, when fifty faces glowered at the +girl, something stumbled across the open in the firelight, and Milo's +sharp vision distinguished it. He went up to Pascherette, with deep +concern in his devoted eyes, and laid a strong arm about her trembling +shoulders. She relaxed toward him, and managed to whisper to him. He +flung out his free hand toward the open space, and cried to Dolores: + +"There is the traitor, Sultana! This is the avenger." + +Dolores looked; every eye was turned where Milo pointed; and the brutal +laughter of some of the hardiest pirates mingled with the groans of the +three yachtsmen, whose escape from a horrible death by fire could not +reconcile them to the staggering vengeance that had overtaken the wretch +who had attempted that death. Bathed in an infernal glow, grotesque as a +creature of a diseased brain, the unhuman Sancho staggered across the +glade and into the darkness of the forest, bearing in his handless arms +a ghastly burden in which the hilt of Pascherette's dagger glittered and +flashed as the firelight touched it. + +"Back! Let him go!" cried Dolores; and a score of shouting ruffians +returned from swift pursuit, leaving Sancho and his burden to pass into +the oblivion of the great forest. + +Milo examined the damage, and reported. The cells were useless now, +except merely to confine captives. They did not fit in with Dolores's +plans thus, and she sent Milo to a distance with John Pearse while she +carried into effect a new fancy. Her crew had gone to their own places, +to soothe the fatigues of their night's work in carousal; Pascherette +stood near by, gazing at her mistress with mute appeal that she, too, be +permitted to seek alleviation of her own sore burns. + +"Wait, child," said Dolores, seeing the girl's trouble. "I'll cure thy +hurts soon." + +Then she separated Venner and Tomlin, taking each in turn to a vacant +hut. And to each she whispered patience and faith; to each her voice +imparted a renewed thrill. To Venner she said: + +"Thy anger with me was foolish, good Rupert. I did but smile at thy +friends to make thy task easier. Now see; I leave thee unfettered, and +thus." She drew his head down and lightly kissed his hair, laughing with +a little tremor: "Think of what I asked of thee, Rupert. To-morrow I +shall ask thy decision." + +In turn to Tomlin she whispered: + +"The night has been arduous for thee. I was impatient with thee. Thy vow +of devotion to me rang true, though I doubted it at the moment. +To-morrow I will hear what thy heart speaks. To-night, see, I free thee. +For thy own safety, though, do not venture beyond these doors save with +me. My rascals are fierce creatures of jealousy and suspicion. Good +night, friend." Him, too, she left tingling with her kiss, and whatever +others in the camp did that night, two men found sleep elusive and vain. + +Milo brought Pearse to her at her call, and together they went to the +great stone before the chamber. Milo rolled back the rock, while his +expression showed uneasiness. But he had learned his lesson when +protesting against Pascherette's admission to the cave of mystery, and +uttered no warning now. + +Pascherette, in spite of her burns, bent a roguish face upon Pearse as +that puzzled gentleman waited for some word or motion that should give +him the reason for this unexpected favor. + +Still Dolores said nothing. The rock rolled away, and Milo stood aside, +she entered, touching Pearse on the arm as she passed him, and he +followed meekly, Pascherette bringing up the rear with Milo after the +giant replaced the great stone. Then Dolores turned back to Pearse, +under the soft, red glow of the unseen lamps, and flashed a bewildering +smile upon him. + +"Wilt believe now that I love thee?" she whispered, and her lids drooped +over swimming eyes. "Beyond that great door lies the chamber to enter +which costs death. Art afraid?" + +"Lead on," replied Pearse hoarsely. There was no trace of fear in his +voice or in his eyes; but Dolores warmed gladly to the knowledge that +here at last was a man whose thoughts were bent upon her and not on her +chamber of treasures. + +They stood before the massive sliding door of plate and jewels, and here +the human side in John Pearse showed through for an instant. Under the +great, yellow lantern the gold and silver plates, the glowing rubies, +the glinting emeralds, made a picture of fabulous riches that even he +could not ignore. But at the upward slide of the door his eyes left the +richness of it without a flicker; he waited for the heavy velvet +hangings to be drawn, and when Dolores's eyes sought his they surprised +his deep, ardent gaze fastened full on herself and not upon what might +next be revealed. + +"Enter, man of my heart," she smiled, and stood aside to permit him to +pass. + +In the first steps over the threshold John Pearse saw little save a dim, +cool hall, vast and full of vagrant shadows; then, when Milo had +arranged the lights so that they gradually grew in power, flooding the +chamber with mellow radiance, his soul seemed to burst from his throat +in one choking, stupefied gasp. + +"The Cave of Aladdin!" he choked, and stood open-mouthed while Dolores +laughed softly at his shoulder. + +"Nay," she reproved. "'Tis the Cave of Dolores. 'Tis mine, and"--she +turned her face up toward his alluringly--"may be thine, if thou'rt a +true man!" + +With shrewd artistry she twisted away as he strove to clasp her, and +there she left him standing, in the midst of untold treasures that every +moment were increasingly revealed to him. Without another glance for +him, or apparently another thought, she took Pascherette by the hand and +led her down the chamber to the great chair. Here she busied herself +with salves and lotions to assuage the scald of the girl's fresh burns, +which were more painful than serious. And every moment she was thus +charitably employed her gleaming eyes were fixed upon Pearse from under +concealing lashes; every moment Milo's dusky face was bent upon her from +the end of the chamber with an expression of absolute adoration and +gratitude. For tiny Pascherette was custodian of the giant's green +heart; and honest Milo never sought very deeply for motives. It was +enough for him that Dolores, his Sultana, the being he worshiped as he +worshiped his gods, was ministering with woman's infinite tenderness to +her maid, a creature as humble as himself. + +Pearse, too, even in his intoxication of senses, saw and warmed to this +evidence of real womanliness in one he had small cause to think anything +other than a bewilderingly alluring fury. He could not hide his +thoughts, and Dolores saw them betrayed on his face; Pascherette +surprised the look on her mistress's lovely face that told her the +imperious beauty possessed a heart of living flesh and blood. And +Pascherette shuddered nervously at the fear of what must happen should +that heart ever feel humiliated. + +"Keep still, child," Dolores laughed happily, mistaking the reason for +the girl's shudder. "It is finished now. Thy hurts will pass in thy +sleep. Go to thy big man there, and have him pet thee. I have no need of +thee until I call. Go, take him away. I would be alone with my guest." + +The girl ran to Milo, and together they went down to the gallery beyond +the picture door. Then Dolores set out with her own fair hands wine and +sweetmeats, the confections taken from the yacht, strange and new to +her, but in her mind something desirable to such men as Pearse, else why +had they brought such things? And again using her innate witchery, she +set a chair for Pearse at a distance from her own, where she could look +straight into his face or hide her own, as her fancy dictated. + +"Hast seen the like before?" she smiled, looking at him over the brim of +a chased gold flagon. + +"Never, never, Dolores!" he said, and his eyes blazed into hers. He +moved his chair close to her, and reached for her free hand. + +"What! Hast thou no eyes for these things?" she exclaimed in simulated +surprise, taking her hand away and indicating the wealth around the +walls. "Man, thy eyes are idle; look at those gems, those paintings; +hast ever seen the like of those 'Three Graces,' then, that they have no +interest for thee?" + +"Yes, I have seen the like, wonderful, wonderful being," he returned +hoarsely. "You I have seen; you, you, I see nothing else but you, +Dolores!" + +She dazzled him with a seductive smile, full of fire-specked softnesses, +and offered him her flagon. + +"Drink, comrade. Drink here, and we shall talk of thee and me, and what +concerns us both nearly. Art sure thy eyes are not blinded by the nearer +beauty?" + +"I am not blind! I never saw with clearer vision!" Pearse cried, taking +the flagon with tremorless hand. "I care nothing for these tawdry +gauds." + +"Ah! Then thou'rt the man. Come, thy faithful soul deserves reward. +Come, I will show thee treasures thou hast not dreamed of yet; and all +shall be thine, with me--at a price." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE TREASURE TEST. + + +Dolores gaily took John Pearse by the hand and led him down the chamber +to the dais on which stood the vacant chair of state of the dead Red +Jabez. The great canopied bed still stood there; but it was curtained +in, out of sight, and unused; Dolores preferred her own low couch, with +its strangely beautiful composite furnishings of silk and tiger-skins, +velvet and snowy polar-bear rugs, heaped high with luxurious cushions +that made it a restful lounge by day as well as a sleep-inviting couch +by night. + +Beside the couch, between it and the dais, Milo had set the +treasure-chests, leaving the lids wide-flung, the contents but thinly +concealed by silken shawls. The end of a rope of matchless pearls hung +over the edge of one chest carelessly, without apparent motive; yet when +she guided Pearse to the couch and seated him, Dolores scanned his face +with glinting eyes that peeped out through narrow slits. She saw his +look of interest; then his mouth turned upward in a smile that said +plainly: "Here is a theatrical trick to impress me!" + +"Now thy reward is come," whispered Dolores, leaving him with an arch +smile and kneeling before the big chests. She tore away the shawls and +plunged her hands into the glittering hoard to the wrists, flinging out +upon the couch and the floor, upon Pearse's knees and into his hands, +rubies and emeralds, diamonds and pearls, golden chains and ornaments +for the hair in a bewildering, stupendous litter. And, her face turned +from him, her narrowed eyes were fixed upon him, and in their gleaming +depths burned a smoldering anxiety that was nearing impatience. + +For John Pearse cloaked his feelings better than his fellows; he smiled +at the shower of riches, met her questing glance with a smile, and +smiled again with shaking head when she stood before him, aglow with +yearning for his decision, and asked simply: + +"Well?" + +"Baubles, playthings, Dolores!" he laughed up at her. He seized her +hands, stroked the satin-skinned forearm, and said softly: "These are +not worthy of such a woman as Dolores. These are but the gauds of a +beautiful woman. To fit you, they should be the adornments of a +goddess!" + +"Oh, then thy lips uttered truth!" she cried delightedly. She stooped +swiftly to him, twined her arms about his neck, and laid her warm cheek +to his. "Now I shall show thee treasures indeed, my John!" + +She ran to the one chest yet unopened, and flung away the silk covering. +Here were the gems of the craftsman's art. Stones of unparalleled color +and size were in this chest; but their chief merit lay in their cunning +settings, their consummate delicacy of workmanship. Here the art +collector might find his El Dorado; in all the world such a collection +could scarcely be found in one place. Here were shrines and temples, +carved from single immense stones or pieces of jade; here was a woven +thing of gold and silver, in which the warp and woof lay close as +tapestry, portraying as no tapestry could portray it the fabled valley +of "Sinbad," in which the sands were gold, the sky silver, and the gems +were gems indeed. + +"Is this to thy mind?" Dolores cried, tossing to him a golden ball which +by some amazing internal mechanism played fairy chimes as it whirled +through the air. + +Her lips parted in flushed pleasure at the result of her display, for +John Pearse was smitten with the collector's fever. He missed her ball +through sheer inability to tear his eyes from the other treasures. And +as his brain began to grasp the stupendous truth, to more readily +estimate values, his eyes turned from the more gaudy works of art, and +noticed, for the first time clearly, the pricelessness of many greater +things of canvas and wood, ivory and glass, with which the apartment +abounded. + +"Now thy heart craves my treasures, too, eh?" she chided, gliding to him +and laying a hand on his head. Yet she felt glad of his awakened +interest. It was merely another card she might yet have to play. + +"Astounding!" he gasped. His gaze fastened upon a boule bric-a-brac +stand, on which stood an Aretine vase two feet high, of peerless form +and glaze. The ticking of the great Peter Hele clock drew his attention +to a work of ebony and ivory as scarcely could be believed as coming +from man's hands. + +"Now thou'rt of a kind with thy fellows!" she cried in anger. "Look at +me! No, thy eyes will not deign to seek me now!" + +Pearse snatched his eyes away, and answered her with a laugh that sent +her blood leaping again. + +"My Dolores forgets she demanded my admiration for her treasures," he +said. "What would you have, splendid one? Shall I say these treasures +are still paltry, when I see their countless worth? Still I say you are +the treasure beyond price. These are but a little more fitting for you. +That is all. Am I forgiven?" + +He leaped to his feet, seized her hand, and attempted to slip an arm +about her waist. She, lithe as a leopard, slipped from his grasp with a +glad laugh that rippled in a low murmur to his hot ears, and intensified +the glare that had come into his eyes. She failed to see that glare. It +was the glare of greed; stark and utter greed, that counted no cost and +brooked no opposition in driving for its ends. + +"Thou art forgiven indeed!" she replied, panting and disheveled, a thing +of wondrous loveliness. "So far art thou forgiven that I shall put thy +heart to the grand test at once. Of thy fellows none can compare with +thee for scorn of wealth and desire of me. Sit down again, my man; let +us reveal our inmost hearts to each other." + +She told him, keeping him at provoking distance, of her heart-hunger for +the outside world, the world of art and things of beauty. She thrilled +him with her vibrant voice, mesmerized him with her distant, caressing +touch and glorious, limpid eyes. She made his blood pulse hotly with +desire with her soft-spoken offer of self-surrender to the man who +should lead her from her sovereignty over human beasts and set her feet +in the high places of the earth. + +"And with these my treasures, I shall make my man a king in truth," she +said, slipping along the couch toward him and laying both hands clasped +on his arm. She threw back her head, shaking loose her great masses of +lustrous hair, and poured her soul at him from half-closed, moist eyes +that gleamed like midnight pools in starlight. "Yet must my chosen man +assure me of his love for me, and his contempt for my riches. For, +though my treasures shall be his, yet will I be first in his heart or +forget him." + +"And first you are, and shall be, Dolores," whispered Pearse, leaning +his chin on her forehead and glaring covetously at the littered wealth +of the chests. "What man of warm blood can see any other being or thing +when Dolores is by?" + +"Then come. I believe thee," she said, rising slowly. "Come with me, my +man above price. See here." + +She swept back a piece of tapestry at the rear of the chamber, and +disclosed a dark and gloomy cavern, hewn out of the solid rock, as was +the greater cavern. From a brazier she took a pine splinter, lighted it, +and beckoned Pearse into the cave. And as soon as his eyes adjusted +themselves to the gloom, he saw the place stowed tightly from floor to +ceiling with kegs and half-casks, hooped and marked with black +characters. + +"Gold?" he gasped, perspiration starting to his brows. + +"Gold!" Her rejoinder was tense, almost savage; she glared at him from +under the torch, a quivering shape of disgust. + +"Why, Dolores, don't look like that," he laughed. "I did but wonder. If +this were all gold, it could not enhance your worth in my eyes." + +"Then the proof will be easy. This is not gold. It is gunpowder. Our +whole store. My rascals are not to be trusted with more powder than they +can use at once. From this store I dole them out their rounds; thus are +all safe. But at this moment I have other use for this powder. Stay +here; or no, help me. It will be finished the sooner." + +Dolores ran out into the great chamber again, Pearse following her +wonderingly. She left him in wonder but a short time; for, gathering up +a great armful of treasure she started back to the cave, crying: "Come, +fill thy arms, too." He paused, and she took up his hesitation swiftly, +feeling again a surge of doubt and disgust rise in her breast. She +called to him, scornfully: "What, art afraid? Come, faint one; beyond +here is my secret outlet from this place. Now art satisfied?" + +And John Pearse followed into the cave, a-tingle with the hope that he +was indeed the elect. He saw her fling her riches down on the tops of +the kegs; she bade him do likewise, and then led the way back for more. +And so she went, and so he followed; journey after journey was +completed, until the gunpowder-kegs were almost buried beneath the +wealth of an empire. Then the girl stepped outside, and called Milo. The +giant appeared with silent speed. + +"Milo, burst me one of these kegs," she ordered, and her voice forced +Pearse's attention; it was so cold, passionless, utterly controlled. The +keg was burst, and a trickle of coarse cannon powder ran on the floor. + +"Lay a damp train out to the ledge over the grove, Milo!" + +Milo disappeared through the gallery, trickling moistened powder from +his fingers as he went. Then, when his voice sounded back along the +passage, Dolores again took Pearse by the arm and said, looking him full +in the eyes: "Thy test, friend. Here am I. Out there is the grove, and +beyond it the sea. Take this torch. Put light to the powder train, and +thou and I will depart in the white schooner. We shall leave nothing for +these vultures to fight over. But together we will go far away into thy +world, thee and me." + +"And leave my friends here?" he asked, huskily. + +"Ay, my man, but not alive!" she whispered, thrusting her dark, flushed +face close to his, and letting her lips breathe their fragrance upon +him. "They, thy friends, are not as my beasts. They have the brains of +the white kings of the earth; they have the cunning which makes of all +other races slaves and dependents. Leave them here, living, and in a day +they will rule these rabble and together they will hunt us down. Come, +haste. Put thy fire to the train." + +"Not yet! Tell me what deviltry is to be worked upon my companions." + +"Hah! Then thou'rt but lukewarm in thy love. Am I not Dolores? Am I not +worth thy two friends? Listen, I'll tell thee my price, friend. If thy +friends are to live, then destroy this trash ere we go, so that they get +it not. If thy heart is bent upon saving this treasure, then thy hand +must first put thy friends into their long sleep. Nay, peace! There is +no alternative. The man who mates with me shall be a man indeed; no +petty, squeamish lover whose weak heart sickens at removing a rival." + +"Give me until morning," he replied, dry of throat, and pallid of face. +"It is a terrible thing you ask, Dolores. Yet I dare not say the cost is +too high. As for destroying these treasures, that I know is but a trick +to try me. You could never go out into a new world and take a low +station. That you would have to do if I set fire to that train." He +suddenly darted a look of fierce challenge at her, "There!" he cried. +"The trial is yours!" + +He flung down his torch, and the powder-train began to splutter and +fizz. Dolores flashed a look of approval at him, and burst into a +ringing, happy laugh. She kicked aside the torch, and trampled out and +relaid the train; then ran to Pearse impulsively, and said with simple +earnestness that utterly deceived him: + +"Now I believe in thee again, and for ever. 'Twas but to try thee, John. +We will leave nothing of worth when we go. But that makes it the more +imperative that thy friends have no power to harm us afterward. Think +not that Dolores will take a lower station. I shall be queen wherever I +go, and my man shall be made a king by my power. + +"I give thee until noon to think over thy answer. Go, and the gods +protect thee and make thee faithful to me." + +Calling Milo back, she bade him conduct Pearse from the great chamber, +and as they passed out, little Pascherette peered up at Pearse with an +impudent smile, and with her head on one side like a bird she chattered: + +"White stranger, thou'rt a fool! What Dolores wills, will surely come to +pass. If thy heart fails thee, and thy friends are safe at thy hands, +dost think they will have like scruples? Fool again! One of them will +kill thee and the other, and that man will gain a peerless mate. And, +bend down thy tall head, thou imitation giant--already thy two friends +are liberated, each seeking the life of the other, though neither knows +of the other's freedom!" + +"What?" stammered Pearse, gripping the girl's slim shoulder fiercely. +"If you lie--" + +"Pshaw! One need not lie to befool thee!" Pascherette retorted +scornfully. "Sleep, and if thy throat is not yet slit on thy awakening, +make thy decision quickly, and tell it to Dolores." + +Pearse would have answered her with more questioning, but she laughed at +him, and bade Milo shut him out. So the great rock fell, and Pearse +wandered into the camp, not knowing where he went, and caring little. He +had no place to sleep, so far as he knew; yet he felt no wonder. He +walked through the sleeping-camp, across the grove, and into the forest, +his brain on fire and seething with the problem before him. + +"The treasure, with or without the woman!" he muttered, clenching his +hands savagely. "The treasure! Ye gods! There must be the wealth of +_Monte Cristo_ there!" He broke off into a harsh laugh at thought of his +challenge with the torch. "The witch!" he chuckled. "She was clever, but +John Pearse overreached her. Now I know her heart. But--" + +He wandered on, and his mind was centered upon Venner and Tomlin. The +more he thought over the situation, the more he found his ideas forming +themselves after Dolores's. + +"Why should I share it?" he asked of the winking stars. + +And while he communed with himself regarding her and her demands, +Dolores overlooked Milo in a task that brought a sparkle to her eyes and +a gleaming smile to her lips. They were repacking the great treasure +chests. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +PASCHERETTE DEALS AGAIN. + + +Dolores spent her night in slumber as peaceful as a babe's. When Milo +had completed his task with the treasure chests he went to his own +couch. John Pearse wandered deep into the eery forest, his brain filled +with tumultuous fancies, while Craik Tomlin and Rupert Venner lay in the +dark before the open doors of their separate cells, struggling for a +decision with their own good and evil natures. But Dolores, before +retiring called Pascherette to dress her hair and gave the little +octoroon some secret instructions against the morning. + +"Now to thy bed, girl, and wake with bright eyes," said Dolores, her +toilet completed. "Let thy busy tongue wag its liveliest then; see to it +that the strangers hear whispers and rumors, yet keep them apart and +from harm a while. Thy task with the other rabble is easy. I care not +how they are divided. But divided they must be; to the point of mutiny. +Go, and sweet dreams to thee." + +It was then that a subtle happiness stole into Dolores's face; then her +great luminous eyes closed slowly in utter peace; then that she lay down +with a gentle sigh on her couch of furs and slept care-free and smiling. + +Dreams not of the brightest might have ruffled her calm had she seen the +night watch of her maid. For the moment Pascherette was dismissed, and +gave a second thought to her orders, a light of dawning hope, +prospective triumph, broke over the small, gold-tinted face and +sleepiness fled for the night. + +"Divided they shall be!" she whispered, and hugged herself rapturously. +"Divided to her disaster and--Milo's triumph!" + +Then the maid wrapped herself in a robe, and went out to the camp. + +Like a fantom she appeared to Venner, and as swiftly vanished; but in +the moment that she bent over him she whispered in his ear that Tomlin +was the chosen of Dolores; that he and Pearse were doomed at the hands +of their friend. + +"I tell thee, watch," she said. "By noon to-morrow the truth shall be +shown to thee." And in leaving him she placed in his hands the rapier +that had been taken from him by Dolores. + +To Tomlin next she appeared, and his rapier also she returned; but in +his ear was breathed the name of John Pearse. To find Pearse himself was +harder; but she waited, and shortly before the dawn he emerged from the +forest and walked dully toward his own charred cell. + +"Hah, my friend," she said to him, suddenly appearing from the shades. +"I fear thy tardiness has defeated thee. Now thou'lt need to look to +thyself, for the man Venner has vowed thy life to Dolores, and that of +Tomlin." + +"What! Venner?" + +"Surely. Why not? Is not Dolores worthy such a sacrifice then? Hah, but +Venner is a man of decision. Thy eyes saw the treasure? It's lost to +thee--unless--" she whispered, peering up into his angry face. + +"Unless?" + +"Unless thou prove the better man. Dolores would have thee before all +the rest, friend; but she despises a waverer. I tell thee thy fortune is +yet in thy hands." + +"How?" + +"Here, I have thy sword. Take it, and keep aloof and watch. When thou +canst see men carrying the treasure chests out to the white vessel, then +will be the time to strike. Join thyself with the men who seem faithful +to my mistress. There will be fighting; and the spoils are for the +victor." + +Pearse would have stayed her, but she ran from him with a tantalizing +laugh and vanished into the women's quarters. + +In the morning, when the men had breakfasted, a hum of activity pervaded +the place which was attributable to the octoroon's subtle influence. As +if by prearrangement, men drew apart into little knots, each gathering +about a leader and showing indecision until each man ascertained exactly +where his fellows were going. Then Dolores appeared with Milo, and she +faced four distinct parties before the great stone. + +The sun was metallic in its redness, rising from behind a group of +low-hanging, hazy clouds, casting its fierce beams on the point and the +low shores of the anchorage. A brazen sky overtopped the scene, giving +to green foliage and yellow sands alike, a glare as of terrific +artificial light. + +As Dolores appeared, the party headed by Caliban stepped forward, +muttering angrily, and every man kept hand on knife or cutlass. Caliban +himself, nervous and yet determined, glared at the formidable giant and +suddenly sprang out alone, shaking his first at Milo, and working +himself into greater fury. A frown darkened the face of Dolores; she had +commanded Pascherette to bring about a condition of unrest, but nothing +like this; for in all four parties was an attitude of suspicion of +herself, not of each other. She spoke in a low voice to Milo, then +raised her hand and advanced toward Caliban. + +"Well, whelp of a deformed dog!" she cried. "What do ye seek with me? Is +this the way I've taught thee to beg?" + +"I beg nothing!" screamed Caliban, pacing to and fro restlessly. "We +demand, not beg!" + +"Demand? Have a care for thy loose tongue!" + +"My tongue's my own! We are tired of thy trumpery state. Tired of thy +mystery and falsity. We know thy plot--know thy cunning scheme to carry +thy favorites away from here--to carry away the treasure that is ours, +not thine! Think ye we men will let ye go, to set the dogs of war-ships +upon us? Here and now we demand a settlement." + +"Demand, again? Good Caliban"--she said softly, and smiled upon +him--"thy training has been faulty. Come, I will answer thee." + +"Ye answer us all, or none. I know thee too well to trust thee. Answer +these men, who ask thy reason for keeping these three strangers to the +detriment of thine own people. Sancho paid dearly for his sight of thy +great chamber. Did the stranger who was in there with thee last night +suffer, too?" + +"That's the talk; answer!" shouted the crew, led by Caliban's band and +supported less vociferously by the rest. + +"Silence, then; I will answer!" cried Dolores, quivering with suppressed +rage. She spoke again to Milo, then turned to face the mob, her head +erect, her eyes ablaze. + +She flashed a keen glance toward Pearse, who had sidled over to the band +led by Stumpy, who seemed less accusative than the others; she nodded +faintly, approvingly, and sought the others. Venner stood aloof, on the +fringe of Hanglip's crowd; Tomlin stood almost by the side of Spotted +Dog. + +"I will answer. I see among ye men of troubled minds, who are not yet +disposed to flout my authority. Thee, Caliban, I have forgiven before; +yet here thou art, venturing again to confront me with demands. I will +not reply to thee, nor to any one man or party. To ye all, my people, I +have my answer. In one hour, in the grove, ye shall hear and be +satisfied. That is my answer now. Come Milo." + +She walked slowly and steadily straight through the midst of the +muttering, grumbling mob, Milo at her back like a gargantuan shadow. And +looking neither to one way or the other, meeting eyes that glared in her +path with cold, dignified disdain, she proceeded through the camp, +across the grove, and to the ledge behind the altar. Savage curses +followed her; men jostled at her heels and dared Milo to prevent them; +the giant, calm and cold as his mistress, moved forward like a human +Juggernaut, laying a resistless hand upon a presuming shoulder here, +flinging aside a leering ruffian there. + +And as the mob thinned, and Dolores entered the cool glade, something in +the situation which she had failed to realize before now struck her with +force; she started at the thought, then uttered a low, rippling laugh of +satisfaction. For Pascherette, in her cunning scheme of double-dealing, +had played into her lady's hands to an extent unhoped for by Dolores. + +"Milo, the wolves are ready to tear," she said. "And they shall +tear--not me, but themselves! Didst note the three strangers? Even they +shall help more than I had hoped." She stepped up behind the altar, and +as she waited for Milo's assistance in climbing to the secret entrance +to the great chamber she asked: + +"Thy blow-pipe, hast forgotten its use." + +"As soon forget the use of my fingers, Sultana!" replied the giant, +permitting a grim smile to wrinkle his face for an instant. + +"Then get thy darts. Have thy pipe ready here, thyself concealed, and +watch thy time to strike. But first light the altar fires. The rogues +believe in my magic no longer; I shall teach them anew, and such magic +as shall convince some of them." + +From the camp arose a babel of uproar, men shouting against each other, +curses and threats alike aimed broadcast. And impatient of the delay, +small groups straggled into the grove to wait, Stumpy's party first, +their leader striving fiercely to quiet their noise. Dolores reappeared +soon, dressed in her altar robe, and her flashing eyes told her quickly +that John Pearse wavered between staying with his chosen party and going +in search of his companions. She caught his eye, and smiled brightly at +him, beckoning him to her. + +He went up to the altar slowly, his face dark and sullen. She waited for +him, ignoring the mutterings of the pirates, and as he approached her +she gave him her hand. + +"My friend, it pleases me to see thee among my faithful ones. Hast made +thy decision?" + +"Decision! False woman, the decision was made while yet I was with you. +The decision was yours, not mine." + +"False? Why, good John, what does that mean?" she asked, frank surprise +on her face. + +"Have you not taken Venner for your man? Is he not your chosen mate, at +the price of my life and Tomlin's?" + +"Fool!" she cried, fiercely. "Thy dreams have mixed thy brains. What +nonsense is this? I told thee thou wert my man, at a price. But thy +decision! Time is short. Say quickly what thou wilt do." + +"Prove to me that I have heard that which is untrue, and I give you my +answer at the hour you demanded it--at noon." + +"If thou remain here, the proof shall be shown thee," she replied, dark +with passion. Not yet had she quite seen through the cunning of +Pascherette. And a growing tumult beyond the trees warned her of greater +stress at hand, she had no more time to spare in argument with Pearse. +She waved him back, and with fire in her eyes commanded Stumpy to take +his men to one side. + +"Stand there! Thy rascals will not dare to flout me!" + +"We don't want to, lady," growled Stumpy, sullenly. He motioned his men +to follow, and took up a position at the right of the altar. But he +glared fearlessly at Dolores as he went, and added: "Ye have none more +faithful than Stumpy, if thy heart is still with us and for us. But +things begin to look plaguey rough, Dolores, since ye spared the white +schooner and her owner." + +Swiftly Dolores stepped down and glided to Stumpy's side, his men +drawing back involuntarily, not in sufficient numbers to be able to +cast off their old awe of her. + +"Thy ear, good Stumpy," she whispered. "Art for thy fellow pirates, or +for me? Speak quickly." + +"I'm for you, lady," he replied, shifting awkwardly on his mutilated +foot. "For you, but not if what we heard is true." + +"I tell thee it was false. Now art for me?" She bent upon him a smile of +dazzling beauty, soft-eyed and almost tender, and the pirate's face grew +ashamed; he knelt at her feet in humble obeisance, and the girl laid her +hand on his head, and bade him rise. + +"Then remain faithful, Stumpy, and thou and thy men shall share in my +fortunes. Look well to the stranger there. Keep him with thee. I hear +the vultures coming." + +She returned to the altar, took her place behind the swirling smoke, and +stood motionless, awaiting the arrival of the crowd whose noisy progress +could be traced step by step. And presently they broke into the grove, +unawed and uproarious, Caliban leading. Still the parties kept apart. +Hanglip and Spotted Dog ranged themselves on either side of Caliban's +gang, and every eye glared redly at the statuesque figure at the altar. + +"Answer! Give us yer answer!" cried Caliban. + +"Hear, my people!" Dolores cried, raising her arms for silence. "My +answer is this. Among ye is a traitor. That traitor has spread lies +among ye. Ye are my people, and none other. Did I not save the white +ship for ye? What if I preserved her people. They are here, and here +they shall remain. Had I thought to desert ye, could I not have gone in +the night? Who should say no? Am I not queen of ye all? Then why this +childish talk of leaving ye?" + +Dolores was carefully fighting for time; she wished to dissect the +feeling of the crowd before her, and while she spoke her irrelevant +nothings, her keen eyes roved over every face. And Spotted Dog drew and +held her gaze as no other did; his face was awork with savage unbelief, +his loose lips wreathed and curled in his impatience to speak. At last +his fury could not be longer restrained; he sprang to the front, and +howled: + +"Lies, all lies! Thy chit of a maid--" + +The words were choked in his throat with terrible suddenness. Like +something unearthly, reaching from the unknown, the hand of death +gripped Spotted Dog and he stumbled and fell forward, gnashing his teeth +and clawing futilely at his breast. Dolores did not move. Her expression +did not change. Milo had again proved faithful. + +But others of Spotted Dog's band, the greatest malcontents, stood +forward and peered down at their fallen leader; then with a shout of +rage they leaped up, faced the altar, and urged their fellows on. + +"More infernal witchcraft!" they cried. "Tear the black witch and her +altar down!" + +A moment of frightful silence followed, for the speakers felt the same +mysterious hand that had reached for and grasped their leader. One by +one they dropped in their tracks, smitten none knew how or whence; and +even Pearse, with Stumpy's band, shivered at the terrible uncanniness of +it. Then Caliban shook off his terror, sensed human agency in the silent +death, and looked around for the hand that sped it. As he glared, a dart +entered his own breast; but this one, ill-sped, failed in its mission. +The pirate staggered, his eyes widened, then he seized the protruding +dart. For an instant he hesitated; then taking the direction indicated +by the slanting missile, he flung an arm toward Stumpy's crew and +howled: + +"There's the dog! There's the sudden death! Tear 'em up, bullies! Pull +Stumpy down!" + +In an instant the grove seethed with a terrific conflict, in which +Stumpy's party was set upon by three times the number. And John Pearse +was carried into the thick of the fight; unwilling or not, his skilled +rapier began to take toll of the roaring furies about him. And while the +battle raged, and Dolores stood calmly looking on, one of the pirates +whose duties had kept him at the anchorage of the schooner appeared with +a rush upon the scene and shouted: + +"Lads, ye're being fooled! The slaves are even now taking the treasure +down to the schooner!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +WHILE VICTORY HANGS IN THE BALANCE. + + +The cry rang through the Grove like a trumpet call, and the fight was +stayed instantly. Every eye flashed upon the bringer of the news, and +behind him stood Pascherette, partly hidden by the trees, her small, +eager face peering from behind a trunk. And as she took in the scene, a +great terror stole into her eyes and her lips opened in a gasp. + +The octoroon had played her great coup. She had carried a lie to the +pirate, hoping that his telling of the treasure to his fellows would +precipitate such an assault upon Dolores that nothing could survive it. +Now she saw the attack already launched without her connivance; she saw +the pirate, dead, and saw Stumpy and one of the strangers stoutly +defending the queen. + +As she stared, at a loss, Caliban staggered out in front again, +clutching at his wound, and screamed: + +"Satan seize ye if that witch escapes ye now! Tear her down! Tear her +down! Then none can keep the treasure from ye." + +His last word ended in a sob. From the hidden giant another dart was +sped truer, and Caliban pitched headlong on the steps of the altar. And +Pascherette, terrified now that they would leave their work incomplete, +swarm after the false treasure report, and thus leave her at the mercy +of the enraged Dolores, frantically sought for Milo among the press. She +knew nothing of his secret duty with the blow-pipe: seeing nothing of +him among the defenders, she surmised he was inside on other duty bent. +In desperation she placed all upon a single hazard, and, running out +into the Grove she screamed: + +"The man lies! It is a lie, to make ye forego thy vengeance. There is no +treasure taken away. Make thy work complete!" + +A medley of conflicting cries arose as the pirates again separated into +three parties. Hanglip's crew, with those of the fallen Caliban, +detached themselves from the rest and from two sides threatened the +altar, where Dolores stood like a statue, glaring at her maid with +deadly fury. Hanglip himself seemed irresolute in the face of the maid's +denial; he stood with cutlas raised, not yet sure whether to attack or +first see to the treasure story. The decision was made for him; for the +pirate bringing the news, seized Pascherette in a fierce grip, and with +knife at her breast shouted: + +"This little snake told me the loot was going, lads! Get the job over, +as I do this!" + +Pascherette squirmed in the pirate's grasp, but all her cunning now +could not avail her. The knife flashed downward, and she fell to her +knees, her tiny golden hands pressed to her side, blood trickling +through her fingers. And her face froze in a mask of horror when from +behind Dolores stepped Milo, armed with a great broad-ax, and bent his +deep black eyes full upon her with terrible accusation in them. + +The giant saw the coming storm, and knew the futility of trying to stem +it with his blow-pipe. He emerged, armed with his ax, at the moment when +the pirates, answering their mate's cry with a shout, surged up the +altar steps with blood in their eyes. + +Dolores now shook off her seeming unconcern, and with alert vision took +in the tremendous crisis. Stumpy's band, with Pearse at their leader's +side, had been driven back in the first attack to the rock itself; and +now stood with their backs to it grimly waiting for the second onset. +They had fought hitherto for her; she saw to it that they did not change +their allegiance. Leaping up to the ledge behind the altar, she cried: + +"Stumpy! Thou'rt my man. Bring thy fellows up here; one man may hold a +score here. Milo! Make way for my faithful ones!" + +With Stumpy on the ledge, and his score of men, the battle became dead +for the moment. Few of the pirates had firearms, except on forays, and +then their ammunition was doled out to them. By this means they had ever +been kept in subjection; and now the plan was to prove their undoing; +for they could not reach their prey, whose cutlas points presented an +insurmountable barrier to their storming the rock. And with John Pearse +up there among the defenders, Tomlin and Venner found themselves +wondering just what their own position was. They, unblinded by the rage +of the pirates, saw the futility of storming that rocky wall with steel, +and in the momentary hush and indecision they withdrew from the mob and +stood apart, thinking over what was to come. + +To Dolores, the hesitation of her foes was something she could not +brook, for her great hope now was to set her rascals at each other's +throats to their ultimate annihilation. She whispered into Milo's ear. + +"Get thy blow-pipe again. Send a dart into Hanglip's black throat, and +let every man see how 'tis done." + +The giant obeyed. The slender, six-inch dart sped fair to its mark, and +Hanglip dropped. But as he fell his eyes saw, as did his men, whence had +come the mysterious death that had already taken heavy toll among them. +And Dolores saw her plan work to amazing effect; for Hanglip, with his +last wheezing breath, raised himself on his elbow, and barked: + +"Now ye see the magic! 'Tis but a man's breath. Up, lads, and take pay +for me!" + +The assault started in grim, silent fury. In waves the attackers mounted +the altar; men gave comrades backs, flung them upward, only to catch +them again as they recoiled from the steel of the defense like broken +seas at a rock base. + +But as the fight advanced, and stricken men were piled high on the great +altar, attacking steel reached higher and began to reap results. +Stumpy's men, now fully persuaded of their queen's regard for them, +fought like paladins, roaring out their rough sea-cries as they cut and +stabbed with increasing gusto. Even Pearse fell under the spell of +fierce action; his rapier played among the heavier strokes of cutlas and +broad-knife like summer lightning. And did a hardy pirate gain the ledge +in spite of all, there stood Milo, like a bronze Fate, with deadly ax +poised to turn success into death. Yet Stumpy's little band grew less; +and Dolores, standing over all like an Angel of Doom, saw that something +must be done speedily unless she was to be left with too great a number +of survivors from this lucky conflict. + +"Make a swift assault, Stumpy. Milo, swing that great ax of thine for +only five minutes," she said. Then when the fight raged higher yet, she +drew Pearse by the arm into the secret entrance. + +"Here, friend, are muskets and pistols. Load them while I pass them out. +We shall see how hungry for our blood these wolves are." + +She showed him the store of arms, in a small cave next to the powder +store, and musket powder and bullets were also there. As he loaded the +weapons, she passed them out in armfuls, then gave Stumpy a flask of +powder for priming, and told him to hold out until Milo could bring up +other resources as yet unknown. + +"And," she said, leading Stumpy inside for a moment, "here you see a +powder-train. There, on the floor. Now hear me, my faithful one, should +thy foes still beat thee back, bring all thy men along this passage, but +before ye come, touch a fire to this train. I shall await thee at the +end, Stumpy, and together we shall see these dogs destroyed." + +She called Milo, gave him a command, and then took Pearse with her into +the great chamber. Here she answered his questioning glance with a soft +smile, and seated him in the great chair. + +"Thy sword has done nobly, good John," she said, laying her hand on his +head. "The peril is over now. Rest. In a little while Milo will have +that which will fill these hungry dogs to the gullet. Rest here. I'll +soon be with thee." She leaned down, laid her lips lightly on his face, +and whispered: "And be of good cheer; the end is in sight for thee and +me." + +She left him sitting there, wrapped in his confused thoughts. Then she +flew to help Milo with his new engine of war which was to decide the +day. From a corner of the apartment the giant dragged a brass culverin, +mounted on a swivel, stolen from the poop-rail of some tall Indiaman in +years gone by. This was charged with powder, and Milo searched for +effective missiles for it. He brought a handful of musket balls to +Dolores; she shook her head decidedly after a moment's thought and +objected: "Those round pellets are too merciful for such cattle. What do +they want? Treasure! Give them treasure, good Milo--their fill of it." +As she spoke she ran swiftly into the treasure chamber and seized +handfuls of gold chains, while at her command Milo followed her with +great gold coins in his huge hands. These they rammed into the cannon, +until links of gold fell from the muzzle; then Dolores regarded the +terrible thing with a mirthless laugh and bade Milo get to work with it. + +"Bid thy men fall back into the gallery as if beaten," she said. "And +when the vile bodies of those howling wolves fill the opening, deliver +the treasure to them, and may their souls be shattered with their +bodies! And that none may remain to repeat this day's mischief, when +they break and fly loose, Stumpy and his dogs shall harry them and +pursue them into the depths of the forest. Let the maroons finish what +we so well begin. See thy gun does not harm the-- Wait," she cried, +"hold thy artillery until ye see me across the Grove! I shall give thee +a sign, then loose thy hell-blast." + +Leaving Milo, she ran again through the great chamber and out by the +rock door, which was rolled aside and standing open. Then around the +mass of the mountain and skirting the grove, past the prostrate +Pascherette she sped, casting a glance of bitter hate at the sorely +wounded octoroon, but never halting until she reached a point of the +underbrush immediately behind the spot where Venner and Tomlin still +ranged back and forth uneasily watching the fight. + +She rustled the foliage noisily, and the two men swung around in alarm. +She thrust her head through the leafy screen, and showed them her face +full of tender solicitude. Her great dark eyes were very soft; her +scarlet lips were parted in a rosy smile. Venner glared at her, then +flashed a glance of reawakening distrust at Tomlin, who returned it +tenfold. + +"Peace, good friends," she said, softly, laying a finger on her lips and +nodding toward the raging battle. "Come with me. Both of ye. The day +goes badly with me, and I would undo much that I have done toward ye. +Come quickly, and with caution." + +A momentary distrust for her made them hesitate; then she whispered +intensely: "Haste. This is your opportunity." + +Venner first shook off his moodiness and followed her into the brush; +and Tomlin was close behind him. When she had them in covert, she +stepped out once more, waited to catch Milo's eye at the ledge, then +gave him the sign. And the defenders fell back as if suddenly broken and +beaten. She waited still, until the attackers swarmed over their own +dead, stamping over her altar, and gained the entrance, where they +crowded in a milling, roaring mass. Then she glided back to the +underbrush and said tersely: + +"Come!" + +Venner and Tomlin walked on either side of her, not caring to meet each +other's eye, for their subjection to Dolores's spell was complete +whenever in close proximity to her. Hurriedly she led them around the +cliff to the great entrance, beyond which they had never stepped. And +they went full of tremendous hopes and suspicions, in which the hope +predominated; they failed even to cast a look at their schooner, then +lying free at anchor, with a few men visible on her decks. Three of the +pirates' long boats lay on the shore abreast of her. + +They stood in the entrance to the great chamber, sensing some of the awe +that filled the mysterious place, peering into the gloom where the ruby +lights now failed to cast their glow in the broader light of day +entering the open aperture. Dolores led them in with a gesture and a +smile, and they reached the massive plated sliding door and stood +beneath the yellow lantern, gazing in speechless wonder at the richness +of that barrier. And while they waited, mystified and uneasy, from +beyond the mountain came the crash of Milo's gun, and the tremendous +discharge reverberated through and through the rock, making the passage +where they stood rumble and quake as if the mountain were about to fall. + +Their faces went white, and Dolores gave them a reassuring clasp of the +hand while she pressed the side-post of the door and started the pulley +and weight mechanism that would give them entry. + +"Welcome, friends. Enter," she smiled, standing aside to permit them to +pass. And Rupert Vernier and Craik Tomlin, forgetting their gloomy +thoughts regarding each other, entered the great chamber, and were +brought to a sudden halt at the sight of John Pearse sitting at his ease +through the strife in the high chair of state. + + +TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month. + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +DOLORES DEMANDS A DECISION. + + +Milo let loose his infernal blast, and the smashing report was followed +by a hush as of death. Then through the blinding and choking powder-reek +came the groans and shrieks of the mutilated wretches whose evil fate +had placed them in the path of the horribly despatched treasure. The eye +could not penetrate the smoke that filled the narrow rock passage; +Stumpy and his men were blackened and smeared with smoke and sweat, +demoniacal to the ultimate degree; and these were the men Milo hurled +forth now to make the _debacle_ complete. + +"Out upon them!" he cried, urging Stumpy to the ledge. "Leave not one of +these dogs alive, Stumpy, and thy fortune is made. Thy Sultana will +reward thee magnificently. Out with ye!" + +Stumpy hitched his poor clubfoot along in brave haste, and flourished +his cutlas in a hand that dripped red. For once in his stormy life the +crippled pirate felt something of the glow that pervaded the heart of +devoted Milo: for a moment he felt he was redeeming himself by enlisting +his undoubted courage in a worthy cause. + +"At 'em, lads!" he roared, leaping down through the smoke. "Dolores, +Dolores! Give 'em hell, bullies!" + +He stumbled and fell, his crippled foot playing him false. He sprang up +with a curse of pain, bit hard on his lip, and plunged into the huddled +remnants of the attackers, his roaring bullies at his heels. His +onslaught was the one thing needed to put terror into the hearts of the +survivors of Milo's blast. Coming through the leek like so many devils, +Stumpy and his crew put their foes to flight and followed eagerly, +hungrily; the forest rang and echoed with the clash of action and the +smashing of underbrush in panicky flight. + +Now Milo, his duty to his Sultana performed, thought of Pascherette. The +little octoroon lay where she had fallen, a pitiful little huddled heap; +never once had her pain-dulled eyes left the giant, or the place where +he might appear. And now she saw him coming toward her, not as a +ministering angel, but like a figure of wrath, swinging his great +broad-ax in one hand as easily as another man might swing a cutlas. She +shivered as he stood over her, accusing. + +"Milo!" she panted, gazing up at his magnificent height in plaintive +supplication. + +"Serpent!" he replied, and the utter contempt in his voice went to her +heart like a sword-thrust. "Hast a God to pray to before I send thy +false soul adrift?" + +"I have but one God, Milo; to Him I should not pray." + +She fixed her burning gaze upon him, and in her pained eyes blazed all +the tremendous love that actuated her small being. + +"A God thou canst not pray to, traitor? Art afraid, then?" + +"Not afraid, Milo," she whispered, and her eyelids drooped. "I cannot +pray to one who looks down upon me as thou dost." + +"I?" The giant's expression changed to frowning displeasure rather than +anger. "I?" he repeated. + +"Thee, my heart. Thou'rt my god, my all. For thee I have done this +thing. For thee, who even now canst not see where lies the falsity. +Milo"--her weak voice sank to a low murmur--"I beg thy forgiveness. My +love for thee caused me to sin. My life is to pay the supreme price. Let +me die at least in thy forgiveness." + +"Forgive? Forgive thee, who worked for the destruction of the being I +worship? Rather shall I speed thy soul!" + +Pascherette struggled to a kneeling position, crossed her tiny hands on +her panting breast, and looked full into his eyes as a wounded hart +looks at the hunter. Her lip quivered, her small, gold-tinted face, once +so piquant and full of allure, had taken on a gray hue from her pain, +but there was no hiding the great, overwhelming love for the giant that +gleamed in her eyes. + +"Milo," she said, and the word was a caress, "Milo, if thou must, strike +swiftly. Yet again I ask, forgive." + +The giant slowly lowered his great ax, and his honest heart answered the +pitiful plea. His deep chest swelled and throbbed; into his face crept +the look that had been there on that day when he told Pascherette he +loved her--loved her, yet worshiped Dolores as his gods. Letting the ax +fall to his elbow by the thong at the haft, he stooped and tenderly +picked up the girl, carrying her as a child carries a doll; yet his face +was averted from Pascherette's passionate lips that sought to kiss him. + +"Not yet can I forgive thee," he said. "Be content that I shall not kill +thee, girl. Perhaps, if thy acts have failed in their end, I may forgive +thee; not yet." + +He carried her around to the great rock, and through the passage into +the great chamber, bursting in upon a situation of growing intensity. +Dolores sat on a corner of the table, with all her seductive lures in +her beautiful face, smiling invitingly at Rupert Venner. Craik Tomlin +glared at both, yet his gaze seemed hard to restrain from wandering +around the gorgeous chamber, whose wealth he saw now for the first time. +Venner, too, had been seized by the jewel-hunger, although neither he, +nor Tomlin, guessed at the immensely greater wealth that had been +revealed to Pearse. As for Pearse, he sat glowering in his chair, +nervous and smoldering; ready at a hint to draw steel without caring +what the object. He simply saw rivalry where fifteen minutes before he +had thought his own course clear. + +Milo appeared to them; carrying his sobbing burden, and the interruption +brought a blaze of fury to Dolores's face. She went pale, and her hands +clenched and opened nervously. + +"Well, slave?" she cried, and Milo started. Never had she used that tone +to him. + +"Sultana, I thought thou wert alone," he replied, haltingly. "I have +brought Pascherette to thee for forgiveness." + +"I forgive? Pish! What care I for thy chit? Take her where ye will, and +trouble me not with such trash. Out, now! Let me not see her face again, +and I care not what ye do with her. But haste. I have work for thee and +a score of slaves. Bring them here quickly!" + +Silently Milo bore Pascherette to the small room beyond the great +chamber, which had been her resting-place while not in attendance on +Dolores. And there, still shaking his head to her plea, though with +deepening trouble in his eyes, he left her, crying herself into a fitful +slumber. + +Then with slaves dragged from the corners where they had cowered during +the fight, he entered the great chamber, and at Dolores's command set +them to carrying out the closed treasure-chests that stood in their old +places around the walls. + +And the sight of the great chests actually going out brought fiery +jealousy back to the eyes of the three yachtsmen. Now Dolores +half-closed her own inscrutable eyes, and watched them, catlike, +cunning. Pearse sprang from the great chair and began pacing the floor +in a heat. Venner alone seemed to retain any vestige of control over +his feelings; and he rapidly lost his color and began to peer about him. + +One chest went out, and the cries of the slaves could be heard as they +lowered it over the cliff. They returned for another, and now Dolores +leaped to her feet and followed them, flinging over her shoulder a smile +of invitation. Pearse answered instantly; the others paused. Then she +laughed like a siren and held out her hands to the hesitant ones, and +said softly and pleasantly: + +"Have no fears, timid ones. Thy minds are indeed hard to fathom. I but +want to show thee how I am repaying thee for thy sufferings here. Come." + +They followed her, and together they entered the rocky tunnel. At the +end of it the yellow sunlight blazed like a fire, in the circular +aperture was framed a picture of wonderful beauty. The blue sky, flecked +with fleecy cloudlets, filled the upper half of the circle; then the +sparkling sea of deeper blue lifted its dazzling whitecaps to the kiss +of the trades and formed a gem-like background for the brazen sands, the +glowing green-and-purple of the Point, and the dainty ivory-and-gold of +the white schooner. + +It was all mellowed and diminished as seen through a glass at great +distance; and on the shore the men toiling to load a great +treasure-chest into a long-boat looked like tiny manikins posed about a +delicate model of marine life. The second chest yet stood on the +cliff-edge, slaves about it lashing double slings and tackles that led +from a boulder for lowering it down. + +Dolores stepped back, permitting the three men to take in the view +without restriction. And she watched them again, her face enigmatic if +they glanced at her, breaking into an expression of nearing triumph when +they looked away, and left her free to scrutinize them. She saw John +Pearse step a pace behind the others, and his fingers clutched absently +at his rapier-hilt while the veins on his neck stood out and throbbed +like live things. + +"One more chest, perhaps two, and I shall see who will be my man!" she +whispered to herself. + +Then she left them without a word, and returned to the great chamber, +where she snatched up an immense rope of pearls and resumed her seat on +the edge of the table. There she sat, giving them no glance, when the +three men came back, hastily, uneasily, one behind the other, with +Tomlin bringing up the rear, scowling at Venner's back malevolently. + +Idly now Dolores rolled her pearls on the table, and one by one she +crushed them with her dagger-hilt--crushed in one moment the wealth of +many a petty princeling, and still crushed gem after gem without so much +as a flicker of interest on her cool face. The three men glared at her, +and at each other, and the stress they were under could be felt like an +impending electric storm. Tomlin's teeth gritted together harshly, his +lips were dripping saliva, and he could stand it no longer. He stepped +suddenly before Dolores, seized her hands, and cried: + +"Woman, you are mad! Do you know what those things are? They are pearls, +woman, pearls! Stop this crazy destruction, and in God's name let us go +before you madden us." + +Dolores turned her cool gaze upon him, drew her hand away easily yet +without apparent effort, and crushed another pearl between her gleaming +teeth. + +"Pearls?" she repeated, tossing away the shattered gem. "Pearls, yes, +friend. What of it? Do ye value these trifles, then? Pish! I have such +things as these, aye, one for every hair on thy hot head. But let ye +go--ha! That is in thy hands, my friend, thine and thy companions." + +"Yes, we know your price!" gasped Venner hoarsely, staring full into her +eyes. "But what is to prevent us now, when we have you alone, and that +great giant is away, from binding you fast and sailing away with the +treasure you have already put in my vessel?" + +"What can prevent?" she echoed, simulating surprise that such a question +should occur to any one. "Nothing shall prevent, my friend, if any of ye +think to try it. Have I not said my treasure is for the man who wins it. +Am I not waiting for the man able to take it, that I may go with him, +too? Here--" She suddenly flung down the pearls at Tomlin's feet, +glided close to Venner, and thrust her red lips up to him, her violet +eyes like brimming pools behind her drooping lashes. "Here, tie me, my +Rupert. Here are my hands; there my feet. Bind me well, and go if thou +canst. What, wilt thou not? There, I knew thee better than thou knowest +thyself." + +She stepped back with a low laugh, and her arm brushed his cheek, +sending the hot blood surging to his temples. John Pearse crouched +toward Venner, as if waiting for him to lay a finger on Dolores at his +peril. She smiled at all three, and stepped over to the side of the +chamber, where she carelessly pointed out sacred vessels and altar +furnishings, gems of art and jewel-crusted lamps. + +"Here, also, is a reason why ye will not go, my friends. Your eyes, +accustomed to these things in the great world outside, dare not ignore +their worth. And I tell ye that all the treasure now going to the vessel +could not purchase the thousandth part of my real treasure, which I will +not show, until I know my man." She glanced at Pearse as she spoke, and +saw rising greed in his eyes. He had seen the real treasure; he was ripe +for her hand. Milo and his slaves returned for another chest, and +Dolores waited until they had gone; then she glided swiftly toward the +passage, and turned at the door. + +"I shall return in fifteen minutes, gentlemen," she said. "Then my man +must be ready, or I will drop the great rock at the entrance, and leave +ye all three caged here until ye die. For go I will, mated or mateless, +with all my treasure, ere the sun sinks into the western sea." And as +she left them she flashed a look of appeal at John Pearse. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +THE SLUMBERING SAVAGE. + + +Pearse followed her with his eyes until she vanished into the passage; +then with muttering lips and harshly working features he strode down the +chamber to the great tapestry behind which lay the powder store. The +suspicion had come to him that Dolores was fooling them all regarding +her real treasure; for he believed she had shown him everything, and if +those heavy chests contained but a tithe of the whole, life was certain +that the gems around the walls were not what she meant when she said she +had still a thousand times greater riches than the chests contained. + +He tore aside the tapestry, and tried to see through the gloom of the +cavern. His eyes could not pierce the blackness, and he looked around +for a light, while Venner and Tomlin walked toward him with sudden +interest in their faces. Over the tall Hele clock a lantern hung; a +gaudy thing of beaten gold, in which an oil wick burned, gleaming out in +multicolored light through openings glazed with turquoise and sapphire, +ruby, and emerald. He took this down, and impatiently tore away the side +of it to secure a stronger light. Again he went to the powder store, and +now Venner and Tomlin were at his back, peering over his shoulder or +under his arms in curiosity as to his quest. + +And, sensing their presence, he swung around upon them savagely, +muffling the cry that answered the message of his eyes. Flinging the +lantern down, he trampled it out, and with snarling teeth he faced them, +his rapier flickering from the sheath like a dart of lightning. + +"Back!" he barked, and advanced one foot, falling into a guard. "This is +no concern of yours, Venner, nor yours, Tomlin. Back, I say!" + +Tomlin stared into his furious face and laughed greedily. His keen eyes +had seen a vague, shadowy something in the cavern, that filled him with +the same passion which consumed Pearse. + +"So you are the lucky one, eh, Pearse?" he chuckled, and his hand went +to his own rapier. He stepped back a pace, and, never taking his eyes +from Pearse, cried: "Venner, it's you and me against the devil and +Pearse! A pretty plot to fool us, indeed; but Pearse was too eager. Peep +into that hole, man, and see!" + +Venner glared from one to the other, not yet inflamed as they were. But +what he saw in their faces convinced him that great stakes were up to +be played for, and he edged forward bent upon seeing for himself. + +"Back!" screamed Pearse, presenting his rapier at Venner's breast. +Venner persisted, and the steel pricked him. Then, as Tomlin's weapon +rasped out, Venner's blood leaped to fighting-heat with his slight +wound, and in the next instant the three-sided duel was hotly in +progress. + +Three-sided it became after the first exchanges. For Pearse, the most +skilled in fence, applied himself to Venner as his most dangerous foe, +and with the cunning of the serpent Craik Tomlin saw and seized his own +opportunity. Let Pearse and Venner kill each other, or let that end be +accomplished with his outside help, and there was the solution that +Dolores had demanded them to work out; one of them left, to be master of +the wealth of Croesus; to be the mate of a magnificent creature, who +could be goddess or she-devil at will. + +With a satanic chuckle Tomlin drew back, leaving his friends to fight +themselves weary, his own rapier ever presented toward them, urging them +on with lashing tongue. And Venner flashed a look at him as Caesar did at +Brutus, and suffered for his lapse in vigilance. For with the pounce of +a leopard Pearse was upon him, and his rapier grated over Venner's guard +and darted straight at his throat. But Venner's time had not come yet; +Tomlin flashed his own weapon in and parried the stroke for him, backing +away again with a murderous snarl. + +"Not yet, my friends!" he cried. "You're too strong yet, Pearse. At him, +Venner; let me see you draw blood as he has, that I may see my own way +clearer." + +From the other end of the great chamber Dolores watched the conflict +from the concealment of the velvet hangings over the door; and her hands +were clasped in ecstasy, her lips parted to the swift breathing that +agitated her breast; in her blazing eyes her wicked soul lurked, sending +out its evil aura to envelop the combatants and instil deeper hatred +into them. + +The fight raged back and forth around the powder store; once a sudden +onslaught by Pearse forced Venner back to the great chair; Tomlin's +swift rush to keep close brought all three into a tumbled crash at the +dais, and the chair was overturned in a heap of flying draperies that +entangled their feet. And while Pearse and Venner struggled vainly to +maintain their footing, Tomlin began to accomplish his own dire ends. +Crouching, with his dark face full of evil passions, he drove his point +first at one, then at the other, stabbing through the involved silk and +skins. + +In his furious haste to complete his murderous work, he sprang forward +carelessly, his foot became entangled, and he pitched face downward upon +his victims. Now Pearse seized the opening; but when he arose, +stumblingly, there was a different expression on his face, a +horror-stricken realization of Tomlin's treachery. Venner lay, still +unable to disentangle himself, but slightly hurt, and he, too, regarded +Tomlin with a look of sorrow and reawakening sanity. + +"Up, murderer, and fight!" rasped Pearse, stepping astride Venner and +glaring down at Tomlin. "Venner, draw aside. Let me punish this +scoundrel we have called friend; then meet me if you wish." + +Tomlin looked up with a snarl of baffled rage, expecting swift reprisal +for his treacherous attempt. Gone was the last vestige of civilization +from his face; greed of gold, jewel-hunger, blood-lust, all played about +his reddened eyes and cruel, down-drawn mouth. The primitive came +through the veneer of culture and showed him the man he really was. And +evil though his spirit had proved, in this final test his courage showed +up like that of the tiger. He leaned on one elbow, watching Pearse like +a cat, then slowly knelt and stood, keeping his point down. With the +bestial cunning that had overwhelmed him, he circled away from the +trappings and draperies of the chair that had brought him down, and +responded to Pearse's chivalrous waiting with a sneer. + +"You had better have made sure while you had the chance, Pearse," he +grinned, showing his teeth wolfishly. "Venner can wait. There is no +treasure for three; Dolores is mine! Guard!" + +With the word Tomlin made a savage attack without waiting for Pearse to +fall into guard. And Dolores came from her concealment, advanced +half-way down the chamber, and watched with a new intensity that was +not apparent while Venner was in the fight. + +Pearse avoided his opponent's thrust at the expense of a pierced left +hand, which caught the other's point a hand-breadth from his breast. +Then the duel dropped to equality. Swift and silent they fought, silent +save for the rasp and screech of steel on steel, their feet padding +noiselessly on the deep-piled carpet. Venner drew aside and watched, his +eyes losing their hard glare, and some of his old expression returned to +his face. It was as if his resurging emotions were bringing back to him +the shame and remorse of a gentleman inveigled into performing a +despicable action. He, too, saw Dolores approaching; saw the tensity of +her expression; sensed some of the tremendous hopes that actuated her, +now that she saw the rapid culmination of all her plots and seductions. + +She stood quite near to him now, leaning forward in an attitude of utter +anxiety. She saw nothing of Venner; her great, violet eyes were dusky +and full of yearning, her hands clutched at her breast. And all the +intensity of her gaze was fixed upon Tomlin. She responded to his +momentary success when he drove Pearse back with a savage assault, with +a panting little cry of joy; she fell back with widened eyes when a +counter-attack forced Tomlin almost upon her. And her lips opened in a +gasp when a vicious clash of steel told of a pressed onslaught, and +Pearse lunged heavily forward. + +In the instant when Pearse followed his first plunge, Dolores stood in +uncertainty through which dawned jubilation. Then her face went white, +she seemed to lose all her splendid vitality; for her astounded eyes +fastened upon Pearse's rapier-point, protruding a foot from Tomlin's +back, and slowly the stricken man sagged away and fell at her feet, +clutching at the steel at his breast and snarling like a beast. + +A hush fell over the great chamber. Then from a distance came the sound +of voices, voices of men down at the shore, ringing clear and sharp on +the still air, accentuating the deathly hush that clung around the +actors in the scene like a heavy mantle. It startled Dolores into +renewed life. She ran with feverish eagerness toward Tomlin, hurling +aside the others, and crouching upon the body in dry-eyed rage. + +Venner sought to catch the eye of the victor, and saw in Pearse a +reflection of the feelings that had possessed himself. John Pearse +showed every sign of horror and awakened sanity that had marked his own +expression before the fatal fight had started. Their eyes met, and there +was no challenge in them. Both dropped their gaze involuntarily upon the +huddled figures at their feet; and it was Pearse, the man who had +precipitated the conflict at first, who nodded with his head a silent +invitation to withdraw. Venner stepped after him, softly and with bowed +shoulders, shuddering violently as he passed the expiring Tomlin. + +They reached the door together, and with the rocky tunnel open before +them, once more holding up to their eyes the picture of absolute beauty +of sea and sky and shore, they filled their lungs with fresh, wholesome +air, and shook off the last of the evil spell that had held them. + +"In God's name, Pearse, let us fly from this hellish place!" whispered +Venner, dropping his rapier to the rocky floor with a clatter, and +thrusting his hand out in reconciliation. + +"Yes, Venner, and pray Heaven we may forget!" replied Pearse fervently. +"But how shall we get away? The giant and his crew are yet at the +schooner." + +"We must wait. They will return soon for more booty. Then we must seize +the chance. Is that somebody coming now?" + +Milo's great shoulders reared above the cliff, and behind him came the +slaves. They came directly toward the great rock, and Pearse flattened +himself against the wall in the shadow of the portals, pressing Venner +back also with a hand across his chest. + +"Hush! Hide here. Let them enter, and we'll make one leap for the +shore." + +The giant swung into the passage, his black eyes blazing with some +emotion that the hidden pair could not fathom. It was something on the +border of fear, but of what? Fear and Milo was a combination hard of +reconciliation. The slaves at his heels followed dumbly, slaves in +thought and action; if their dulled brains ever awoke, it was but to +the call of animal appetites; they were incapable of devotion such as +Milo's, and as incapable of shock should their obedience fail reward. +They passed into the great chamber, and a throaty cry of alarm burst +from the giant at the sight of his Sultana prone on the floor. + +"Now!" whispered Pearse, taking the lead. "Swift and silent!" + +Like ghosts they ran from the tunnel, glanced around once as they +reached the cliff path, then leaped down the declivity. That swift +glance showed them the camp deserted except for the wondering women, who +wandered idly among the empty huts, ever looking toward the forest +wherein had vanished all their men, waiting with bovine patience for any +one to settle their uncertainty for them. + +And the forest was yet very still. The Feu Follette lay at a single +anchor, heading in the light breeze fair to seaward; a few heads showed +above her rail, and the stops had been cast off from her snowy sails. At +her gangway a single boat lay, the painter made fast on deck; on the +foreshore the other two long-boats were drawn up on the sand, planks +running up to their sides in readiness for the embarkation of yet more +treasure. + +Venner and Pearse raced down the steep path, using little precaution, +sending showers of stones and clods flying before them. And Peters, the +schooner's sailing-master, saw them coming, and his voice rang out +calling for hands to man the boat. Two men answered and entered the boat +as the two fugitives reached the shore and ran along the Point. Pearse +counted the minutes at their disposal, and saw the futility of waiting +for that boat. He clutched eagerly at Venner's arm, and panted in his +ear: + +"Tell them to hold on! Let them get the schooner ready for swift +departure. Come, we must swim for it." + +Venner hesitated but a second. Then his hail went hurtling over the +still haven, and the two seamen scrambled out of the boat again. + +"Swim it is, Pearse," he said, leading the way down to deep water. "Swim +it is, and may the ever-cleansing sea wash out of us the last traces of +insanity." + +Together they plunged into the blue sea and swam swiftly out to the +schooner. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +THE FLIGHT OF THE FEU FOLLETTE. + + +Dolores, flinging herself down upon Craik Tomlin, seized his face +between her hands and raised his head, placing her knee beneath it. She +panted like an exhausted doe, yet the fire that leaped from her eyes +gave the lie to her attitude of sorrowing humility. Her lips moved +feverishly, but she could not or would not speak aloud. Tomlin's eyes +were closed in agony, his teeth were clenched tightly upon his under +lip; he gave no sign that he knew of her presence. And a sudden fury +seized her at his irresponsiveness. She shook his head between her hands +savagely. + +"Wake! Speak!" she cried hoarsely. "Art indeed dead, at the moment of my +triumph?" + +Tomlin's eyelids flickered, and his lips strove to speak. One hand went +weakly to his face, to grasp her fingers. And into her anxious ear he +managed to whisper: + +"Evil luck fought with me, Dolores. Yet I die content if you care." + +"Care!" she echoed, shaking his fingers loose impatiently. "Care? Yes, +this I care, bungler: I care because of all three of thee, thou alone +wert covetous enough to obey my conditions. With thee alive, there was +hope of thy friends' speedy death. With thee dead, which of the others +will wipe his fellow from his path for me? Why, think ye, did I fawn on +John Pearse? But to arouse in thee the demon of jealousy; why did I +smile on Venner, and call him my Rupert? To steel thy arm against him. +And for what?" + +She suddenly laid his head down on the floor, leaned over him with her +lips almost brushing his cheek, and whispered fiercely: "Speak! Canst +live?" + +Tomlin's face lost some of its pain. The thin lips straightened into the +semblance of a faint smile. His glazing eyes opened slightly. + +"I am done for," he whispered. "Dolores, kiss me again. I die for you." + +The beautiful fury sprang to her feet, spurning him. She glared down at +his chalky face in utter scorn. + +"Kiss thee? Thou die for me? Pah! I kiss no carrion. A half-hundred men +have died for me this day, I hope. I kiss him who lives for me and +conquers, not the weakling who dies!" + +Without deigning another glance at her victim, she turned away and went +to meet Milo. He now entered with his slaves. + +"Where are the two strangers?" she demanded harshly. + +Milo returned her stare with a look of simple surprise. He had seen +nothing of them, and had thought of them being yet with his mistress. + +"I saw them not, Sultana," he replied. + +"Saw them not, great clod!" she blazed at him, clenching her hands in +rage. "Are they here, then?" + +Milo looked around in bewilderment. In all her life Dolores had been his +especial care; in her many moments of temper she had perhaps pained his +devoted heart, but never had she used to him the tone she now used. It +seemed to his simple soul that the foundations of his faith were being +wrenched loose. + +"I will find them, Sultana," he said quietly, and turned to leave by the +tunnel. + +"Stay here, thou blind fool!" she commanded him. "I will find them +myself. Here is work more fitting for a slave. How many chests are going +to the ship?" + +"Three." + +"And how many have ye yet empty here?" + +"Three, lady." + +"Then get them quickly. Until I return, bid thy fellows replace the +treasure that is still in the powder store. And haste, for I will leave +this place this day, though all the fiends say no." + +She ran along the tunnel, and Milo set his men to their task. As he +passed along to the powder chamber, a low moan arrested him, and he +halted in sudden remorse for Pascherette, whom he now felt he had judged +harshly. He left his fellows and went to the tiny alcove where the +little octoroon lay, and his great heart leaped in response to the +worship that shone in her dark eyes. He saw the dry and cracked lips, +the flushed face, and fetched water and wine before he would speak to +her. Then, with her small head and slender shoulders against his immense +chest, he gave her drink, soothing her pain with soft speech and +caressing hand. + +Pascherette's wound was deep, and bleeding internally; a fever already +burned in the tiny maid's veins. She peered up at him wistfully, all of +her mischief, all her piquancy gone and replaced by a softened, humbled +expression that wrung Milo's heart-strings. + +"Will ye not kiss me now, Milo?" she whispered, with a pearly drop +brimming from each eye, where laughter had so lately dwelt. + +"Pascherette, thy fault was great," he answered, yet in his face was a +look so forgiving, so excusing, that the girl shivered expectantly and +closed her eyes with a happy sigh. + +Yet the kiss was not given. From the great chamber the angry voice of +Dolores rang out. + +"Milo! Where art thou, slave!" + +And the giant tenderly laid Pascherette down again, and ran in answer. + +"Sultana?" + +"Blind, idle dolt! While thou art fondling that serpent of thine, thy +mistress's affairs may go hang! Haste with the treasure, or feel my +anger. While thy useless eyes were mooning on nothing, the strangers +have escaped. They are even now getting sail on the white vessel. Carry +the chests down to the Point as soon as ye may. I will stay them yet, +and they shall learn the cost of flouting Dolores! Hasten, I tell ye!" + +Milo winced at her address; his black eyes, usually holding the utter +devotion of a noble dog, glittered with tiny sparks of resentment; yet +the habit of years could not be lightly cast off, and he bowed low, even +while Dolores had turned her back on him, and picked up a great empty +chest to carry it to the powder store. Here in the flickering light of a +pine splinter the slaves worked feverishly, their abject eyes sparkling +with borrowed radiance from the riches they handled. + +And while they worked, Dolores emerged from the tunnel, flashed one long +glance of derision at the moving schooner, and sped down the cliff to +stop her flight. + +The Feu Follette was poorly enough manned with Peters and his four men. +With the ready help of Venner and Pearse the getting of the anchor and +the hoisting of the heavy fore and main sails was an arduous job, but it +was accomplished under the tremendous urge of remembrance. None wished +to have the experiences of the past days repeated; Peters was anxious to +get his beautiful vessel into safer waters; the Feu Follette's owner and +his guest were doubly anxious to drop those blue hills of ominous memory +below the horizon forever. They gave scant attention to the three great +iron-bound chests that stood between the guns along the waist; getting +clear occupied every faculty. + +The tide setting directly on the Point, with a breeze dead in from +seaward, forced the schooner perilously close to the bar that had been +her undoing before; but, with the lead going, Peters speedily found that +his previous mishap must undoubtedly have been due to clever misleading. +After touching lightly once, and getting deeper water at the next cast +over the lee side, he understood the trick of the extended false Point +and stood boldly along shore. + +And as the schooner gathered steerage-way, hugging the Point closely, +Dolores ran out along the sandy beach and plunged into the sea abreast +the moving vessel. + +"Here's that vixen woman, sir!" cried Peters angrily, looking toward +Venner for instructions. Peters had the helm, and owner and guest stood +against the companion, ready to lend a hand at the sheets, forward or +aft. + +Venner and Pearse stared at the swimmer, then turned and gazed +searchingly at each other. In the face of each lingered a trace of the +subjection they had fallen under; neither could quite so quickly forget +the allurements of this woman. Her kisses had been as sweet as her fury +had been terrible; and the absence of Craik Tomlin was an additional +incentive to memory. + +"Shall we take her away?" asked Venner, avoiding Pearse's eye as he put +the question. + +"Can't you make more sail, Peters?" was Pearse's reply. + +Venner laughed softly, agreeably; and the next moment Dolores hailed +them. She swam swiftly, with effortless ease, slipping through the sea +like a sparkling nymph in her native element. But the schooner traveled +fast, and, though she lost no ground, she gained but slowly. She hailed +again. + +"Rupert, my Rupert!" and finished the cry with a rippling laugh. "Art +stealing my treasure and leaving me?" + +"By Heavens, Pearse, I had forgotten these chests," said Venner +uneasily. Pearse regarded him closely, fearing that Dolores's spell was +yet powerful. He gripped Venner tightly by the arm, leaned nearer, and +said: + +"Venner, so long as that blood-polluted treasure is on your deck, so +long will you be unable to settle your mind. Bid the hands pitch it into +the sea, for God's sake!" + +A lull in the wind slowed the schooner down, and Dolores gained a +fathom. Her fair face was set toward them in a bewitching smile, and she +waved a gleaming arm at them. Venner fought with himself in silence for +a brief while, then with a shudder stepped to the wheel. + +"Get the hands, Peters," he told the sailing-master, "and heave those +chests overboard. Quickly! You shall lose nothing by this, but don't +delay a moment!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +STUMPY FIRES THE MAGAZINE. + + +Milo and his slaves worked frenziedly at their task, his suddenly bitter +spirit flogging them to unremitting haste. In the giant's troubled face +the smoldering spark of resentment had grown to an incipient blaze that +required but a breath to burst into angry flame. + +One great chest was filled with the choicest of the gems in the powder +store; it was set aside in the entrance beside the tapestry, and another +box was opened before the powder-kegs. Little Pascherette had ceased +moaning, but from time to time a choking sob sounded from her alcove +that increased the hard brilliancy of the light in Milo's eyes. The +great chamber was silent as a mausoleum in the intervals between the +clashing and tinkling of gold and stones in the chest; from the outside, +by way of the rock tunnel, came only the sigh and murmur of the crooning +breeze, the softened plash of the tide on the shore, the scream of +wheeling seabirds. All sound of the schooner had departed; there was no +human note in the whole region. + +Then, as the second chest was almost full, and Milo pulled the third and +last along in readiness, from the secret gallery behind the Grove came +the shouts and oaths of men, weary, footsore men, but men with animal +appetites whetted by the day of bloody conflict. They could be heard at +the great door in the painting of the "Sleeping Venus"; not knowing its +secret their way was barred. But Stumpy's hoarse roar could be heard +calling them back to the ledge, and there was a note of menace in his +tired tones. And mingling with his voice was the voice of a woman of the +camp, raised in shrill complaint. Milo stepped to the picture and +listened. + +"I tell ye the fiend has tricked ye, Stumpy!" the woman cried. + +"Tricked me? Have a care how ye talk that way, woman!" Stumpy's voice +replied warningly. + +"Aye, tricked ye and me and all of us! Even now--come to the cliff, and +I'll show ye." + +The scrambling of heavy feet could be heard in the gallery as men rushed +out in answer. How many men Milo could not determine; but fewer than had +followed Stumpy into the forest in chase of their broken foes. The +slaves at the treasure-chests paused in their work, alarm on their +shining faces, looking ever toward Milo for instructions. + +Milo ran back through the great chamber and out by the tunnel to the +cliff, peering around for Stumpy and hoping to see the schooner putting +back. + +Without Dolores he was at a loss; yet he was not ready to leave his +charge to be gazed upon by untried eyes. His breast swelled nigh to +bursting at sight of the schooner. The Feu Follette was but half a mile +away in a straight line from the cliff; she had been tacking against a +light breeze and flood tide around the Point, and while she had sailed +several miles through the water, she had but just gained past the face +of the cliff. And far from returning, she sailed farther and farther +away as he watched, nursed with such skill of sheet and helm as proved +to Milo's seamanly eye that her people would never return of their free +will. And what of Dolores? His condor's vision picked her out as soon as +the schooner. Her gleaming arms and shoulders swept rhythmically over +and over, cleaving the sea easily and smoothly, her lustrous hair +streaming behind her, and the sun glinting brightly from the gold +circlet around her head. She was gaining foot by foot, and Milo keenly +scrutinized the schooner for signs of surrender. There were none. At the +schooner's rail three heads were visible; but Milo knew neither belonged +to Venner nor Pearse. That persuaded him that the schooner was unlikely +to come back. And the even, tireless manner in which Dolores swam +convinced him that she would follow to the end. Yet he would not utterly +believe she had deserted him. He glared around for the men whose voices +he heard now, raised in anger in chorus with the voices of the woman and +her companions. Stumpy stepped out from the grove path with but four men +behind him; and they were in sore plight. Stumpy himself dangled an idly +swinging sleeve that was stained dark-red to the shoulder. A red sear +across his nose and cheek rendered him a demoniacal figure through the +powder, smoke and sweat. And his mates were tattered and cut, their +shirts bore red splashes to a man; their grimed faces and fiery eyes +held the passions of blooded men who see their reward flying from them. + +"I tell ye she's gone for good!" cried the woman who had brought the +news to Stumpy. "See, she's almost there, and three chests of treasure +have gone in that vessel! Her swimming after it is but a part of her +cuteness. Now d'ye believe, fools!" + +The crippled, battle-scarred pirate glared to seaward with red-rimmed +eyes in which flames of revenge started into life. His twisted, warped +life had been spent in fighting and trickery; to-day his work had +culminated in a brave stand for what he thought to be straight and +right; reward he expected, but he had earned it with blood and sweat, +hoping at the last that some of his earlier transgressions might be +atoned for in his loyalty to his mistress. + +He hurled aside the persistent women, who sought some reassuring word +from him, and mouthing rather than speaking a call to his men to follow, +he plunged again into the grove path and stumbled toward the ledge +entrance. Here he clambered painfully to the gallery, cursing to himself +bitterly, never looking back to see if his men followed, intent only +upon one absorbing thing. Revenge was beyond him, since there were left +no subjects for his revenge. He had never seen the great stone at the +chamber portals left rolled aside; could not even now imagine such a +situation. No, if Dolores were gone in truth, and with her the strangers +and the treasure, then it was certain, he thought, that the great +chamber was sealed forever. And he would see into its mysteries, even +though they proved barren now. He knew the way; Dolores had shown him. + +Feverishly hunting for a flint, he tore some threads from his shirt and +frayed them into tow. Then with his cutlas he struck a spark and ignited +his threads, carefully nursing the tiny flame until he could find a dry +stick. This lasted him until a pine torch was found, and then he crawled +along the gallery in search of the powder train. That, he knew, for she +had told him, would burst the rock asunder anyhow; and that would be +enough, for he had guessed shrewdly that the gallery was connected with +the great chamber by some secret egress. + +And who knew? Might not Dolores have taken in her haste but part of her +vast store? Stumpy knew as well as Red Jabez the tremendous wealth that +had been deposited in that chamber of mysteries; for he had been with +the red chief from the beginning; he had seen with his own eyes the +riches of a hundred ships taken in there, and never a thing come out. + +"She can't have bagged the lot," he muttered, fanning his torch into a +red flare. "But she'll pay for deserting Stumpy, or Stumpy's a liar!" + +He found the powder train, and the moisture had dried from it, leaving +only a little line of dry, quick-igniting powder. He was not sure just +where the magazine was; not sure how long the train would burn before +the explosion. So down he clambered again, searching at the great altar +for the water-vessels he knew should be there. Then, with a jar of +water, he returned to his train, and swiftly swept up the dry powder and +moistened it a little, making a rough slow match of it. + +"Now we'll see the sights!" he growled, and went to the end of the +gallery and flung his torch into the train. + +He watched it for a moment, to be sure that it would burn, then stepped +down from the ledge and drew back a safe distance to watch the upheaval. +To what extent the mine was intended to destroy he had no idea. He +simply knew that Dolores had pointed it out to him as a means of defense +should the gallery be carried in the attack. He supposed, therefore, +that it would shatter the gallery. Doing that, it must surely dislodge +or loosen rock enough for him to break into the great chamber with aid. + +The thought recalled his men to his mind, and he saw for the first time +that they had not followed him. He started down the path toward the +camp, shouting to them by name, eager to give them an inkling of the +treat in store. But his hail was answered by another, and down the path +a woman appeared running, her hair flying, and tremendous excitement in +every line of her face. + +"Stumpy! Stumpy!" she sobbed and cried in hysterical intoxication. "Oh, +Stumpy, the great chamber is open, and it's full of gold and treasure!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +MILO CROSSES THE BAR. + + +Milo watched Stumpy disappear down the grove path, and heard him call to +his men to follow. Then he regarded the receding yacht intently for a +moment, and the last vestige of noble devotion went from his face and +gave place to a great and absorbing bitterness. In that instant, the +foundations, pillars, and capitals of his soul shook and tottered; his +universe changed from a thing of golden beauty and heavenly splendor to +a shameful mockery of truth and faith. + +In that moment his thoughts flew back to little Pascherette, and his +great heart yearned toward her. False she had proved, but to what? To +whom? He asked himself these things as he slowly walked back along the +tunnel, not yet knowing what he would do. He answered his own question. +Pascherette had proven false to falsity; she had schemed against the +schemer; and, in the other tray of the balance she had done these things +for love of him, out of a deep and all-powerful ambition to place him, +Milo the slave, in the high place of the wanton ingrate who had deserted +her people. And the thought hurt him now; he had not yet yielded her the +kiss she craved. Even now the little gold-tinted one might be cold in +death, denied that small consolation because of his obstinate heart. + +He ran along the tunnel and burst through the great chamber, cursing the +idle slaves into silence when they cried their helpless queries at him. +And straight to Pascherette he sped, to fling himself down by her side +and seize her tiny, moist hand in frantic appeal. + +"Pascherette!" he whispered with a dry sob. "Little golden one, speak to +thy Milo. Speak, and forgive!" + +The octoroon gave no sign of life, and the giant dropped her hand and +gently raised her pallid face. His lips sought hers in a passionate +kiss, long and yearning; and slowly her eyelids fluttered and opened. +The dark eyes were misty, yet that longed-for kiss had brought back her +fleeting spirit to recognize her man. She closed her tired eyes again, +with a little sign, and the small, pale lips formed the words: "I am +content, Milo, my god." + +The giant bowed his head over her silent face, and his black eyes +searched for a returning flicker of vitality. It was gone forever. +Pascherette was dead; and Milo laid her head down gently, and drew back +to stare at her with growing rebellion and horror. What gods could there +be to use him thus? He leaped to his feet with arms flung upward. + +"Hah, gods of earth and sea, witness Milo's penitence!" he said +hoarsely. "To Dolores I have given the worship that belonged to ye and +ye have taken terrible atonement. Pity me!" + +He paced the small alcove nervously, seeking light where no light was. +Then the harsh shouts of Stumpy's men resounded through the chamber, and +he stepped outside in alarm. For it was not yet possible for him to +discard the usage of years which forbade intrusion in that secret place. +He saw Stumpy's four men standing open-mouthed in the doorway beneath +the yellow lantern, gazing ludicrously at the magnificence of the +furnishings. The slaves at the powder store stood where he had left +them, idle and aimless, but with an open chest at their feet. This now +attracted the pirates' attention, and with a stamp and a shout they +roared through the great chamber, their faces awork with newly aroused +avarice. + +Just for one second Milo pondered staying them. But his soul had soured; +he uttered a grunt of scornful disgust, and waved a hand at them, +muttering: + +"Revel, ye dogs! Plunge thy hands deep. 'Tis all thine, and the fiend's +blessing go with it!" + +He returned to his dead Pascherette and knelt beside her, patting her +cold hands and speaking to her softly and tenderly. Out in the chamber +the pirates had hurled aside the slaves, and, flinging open the chests, +were glaring with wolfish eyes and dripping jaws at the bewildering mass +of treasure revealed. + +Their noise irritated Milo. He went out again to stop them. And he saw a +pirate snatch up a glittering tiara and place it on his head with a +roaring oath. He saw another snatch the bauble off; and in a breath the +pirates were at each other's throats; cutlases flashed and a savage +fight began at the moment the women stole in to see the mysterious +place, and one of their number ran to bring Stumpy. + +The giant glowered at the snarling men as at some repulsive beasts, +horrified that they should thus desecrate the quiet of his Pascherette's +death-bed. He was not the Milo of old now. His memory had flown back +through the years to the time when he was a youth of position and great +promise in his own land; when, instead of being the cast-off servant of +a beautiful ingrate, he numbered his own servants by hundreds. And a +great dignity stole into his ennobled face. He softly picked up the dead +girl, and advanced toward the rock tunnel. + +Stumpy met him at the door, and the crippled pirate's eyes burned with +the newborn lust of loot. Stumpy made as if to stay the giant with +questions; but he saw the snarling fight at the end of the chamber and +caught the glitter of jewels. With the stumbling speed of a charging, +wounded bull, he rushed in to join battle. + +Running women brushed against Milo in the passage; all the camp's living +people had caught the fever. The giant strode on, until he stood in the +rugged rock portals and gazed once more over the sea. The schooner had +moved but slightly since he last looked at her; he could see Dolores's +head still advancing, and very near to the vessel now. The breeze had +lulled, perhaps preceding a shift of wind; and the visible people on the +deck of the Feu Follette appeared to be running back and forth in +indecision. + +At Milo's right hand the great rock sat on its ledge, ready to fall at a +touch, and his brooding eyes flashed to it with terrible meaning. +Inside, the great chamber resounded with the clash of steel, the shouts +of furious human beasts, and the shrill cries of women urging them on; +for there must be victors, even to such a sordid fight, and to the +victors, spoils. Where victors and spoils are, there harpy women await +them. + +Milo gazed long and passionately into the face of his dead; then he laid +her softly down outside the rock and arose with a fierce light +irradiating his face. + +"Dogs, who would thus break the sleep of my beloved, I give ye good for +evil!" he muttered. "Treasure ye crave: treasure I give ye, and none may +take it from ye!" + +He turned, put his hand upon the great rock and started it from its bed. +And as he moved the mass, the mountain rocked and crashed with the +thunder of the bursting powder-magazine. + +Down came the great rock, pinning Milo beneath it, threatening in its +final fall to crush him and the body of his love. His great arms shot +out and up, every muscle on his colossal frame stood out like ropes, his +back cracked with the tremendous strain. He stiffened his knees, bit +into his lip until the blood gushed; and a groan burst from his breast +as he felt his stout knees stagger. + +His bulging eyes glared ahead over the sea; into the air flew a thousand +fragments of shattered rock; they fell and thrashed the sea into foam a +mile from shore. Rocks fell upon his already overwhelming burden; his +knees bent, and the blood trickled from his nostrils. And with his fast +ebbing breath he breathed his valedictory, fixing his stony eyes upon +Pascherette as upon his deity. + +"Gods of my fathers, receive my spirit into thy halls. Let thy swift +justice overtake the cause of this upheaval; and receive with my spirit +the spirit of the one who loved me." He fell to one knee, and a great +sob shook him. The rock was falling in a shower about him; it rang and +crashed on the gigantic stone that was crushing him. He bent his gaze in +anguish afresh on the dead girl, now almost buried under stone and +earth, and murmured: "Pascherette, I come! I see beyond the blue ocean +and the golden horizon the throne of my gods. Come, golden one, let us +go. There will our faithfulness meet just reward!" + +He pitched forward upon the dead girl, and the great rock crashed down, +building them a tomb grand as the eternal hills. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE TOLL OF THE GODS. + + +Venner's order to heave the treasure-chests overboard was not given +without a pang of regret. It was scarcely obeyed without threats; for +the sailing master had been bitten by the treasure fever before his +owner and guest came on board. Had they not appeared when they did, the +schooner had gone without them, and Peters had already seen a golden +vista ahead of him. He hesitated now, and Venner left the wheel vacant +to urge him. + +"Over with it, I say! At once! Here, Pearse, lend a hand here, man, +before that witch's great eyes mesmerize us again. See, she smiles yet, +and comes nearer." + +Reluctantly the seamen raised one iron-bound chest to the rail and +poised it there. From the water astern rang Dolores's throaty laugh, +even and full breathing, as if she had not swam a fraction of the +half-mile she had covered. + +"Foolish Rupert!" she cried, never relaxing her stroke. "Why waste the +fruits of thy pains? Hast looked inside then? Nay, take me on board, and +let us look together. Thou wilt not see Dolores drown, I swear. Then +look once more into my eyes, my Rupert!" + +She laughed again mockingly, alluringly, and Pearse turned away with a +shudder, not daring to cast a glance in the direction of Venner. + +"Throw the stuff over, I say!" cried Venner hoarsely, and gave the chest +a push that sent it into the rippling sea with a thunderous splash. And +again that mocking laugh rang out astern; it was nearer, and Dolores's +beautiful face was turned up to them with triumph in every feature. She +had seen the struggle going on in her two intended victims; if she could +but gain to within whispering distance of either of them, surely she +would never let them escape her. + +"Come, take me on board, my Rupert. I have a secret to tell thee, but +thee alone!" she cried, and spurted swiftly, gaining abreast of the +main-chains. + +But the eyes of Venner and Pearse were fixed in astonishment upon the +tall cliff they had left; their eyes stared amazedly, and they stood +like statues, hearing none of her seductive words. + +"What do ye see?" she demanded, frowning up at them. + +A score of sharp splashes in the water around the schooner startled her. +She suspected they were hurling missiles at her, and one struck her +arm. She turned swiftly and her face darkened with fury. Then more small +objects fell about her, and one struck her arm. She turned swiftly on +her side to seek the source, and in her ears boomed the tremendous crash +of Stumpy's explosion, rolling far over the sea, reverberating from the +shores and making the air quiver like a solid thing. + +A great mass of rock hurtled overhead, missed the schooner by scant +feet, and Venner shouted in horror: + +"Throw her a line, Pearse! Here, quickly, before she is crushed by such +a rock as that one!" + +The sea was shattered into foam for fathoms around, and every face on +the Feu Follette stared over the rail in helpless astonishment. But on +the face of Dolores glowed a smile of triumph. She feared nothing of +earth or heaven; among the flying rocks she swam on toward the schooner, +smiling up at them, waiting for the rope that meant victory to her. + +And in the brief space before the rope hurtled out, down from the +heavens plunged a high-flung piece of granite fair upon Dolores. She +seemed to sense its shadow, and in the moment it struck her she half +sank, breaking its force. But it followed her down. The mass struck +between her gleaming shoulders, and she flung up her arms in despair, +turning over and over with the impact, then floating unconscious close +by the side of the white schooner that had been her goal. + +"God! Get her aboard!" gasped Pearse. "She's done for. Yet we cannot +leave her there for the sharks, like a beast!" + +Venner and Peters were already trying with boat-hooks to catch Dolores's +tunic. Pearse threw a line over the girl and drew her nearer and the +hooks took hold. They drew her up the side with a care that amounted to +reverence, for in her unconsciousness she was more beautiful than ever, +her fine features molded in dead white, traced with fine blue veins; the +grace of her form was that of a lovely sculpture now, lacking vitality, +but possessing every line of perfection. The blow that had overtaken her +had failed in its terrible threat to crush her. + +"Lay her in the companionway on the lounge," said Venner. He ran to the +saloon and brought up wine. He bathed her temples and wrists with the +liquor, and forced some between her blue lips. And Pearse chafed her +hands and patted them, gazing down at her in silent awe. + +"Venner," he whispered, when her eyes refused to open, "we must let this +settle the score against her. It's a terrible end for such a creature." + +"For my part, Pearse, I would give all I have just to see those great +violet eyes laugh at me again; to hear that mocking laugh from her +maddening lips. God, will she never awake?" + +Astern of the schooner the sun was slowly descending to the western +sea-rim, and as the course was resumed after picking up Dolores, the +Point and the cliff gradually drew out across the path of the sun, until +the outlines of the rock and trees stood out black and sharp. On the +cliff-top a heavy pall of greasy smoke hung low about the shattered +pirates' camp; from fissures high up the frowning side spirals of smoke +testified to the wide-spread destruction that followed the blast. + +They looked at the terrific devastation, and again at its nearer victim. +And as they gazed down at her, Dolores's lips trembled in a faint smile, +her great eyes opened wide, looking directly and fearlessly back at +them. + +"I thank ye, my friends; I knew you would take me," she whispered, and +the two men turned away with a shudder. As she had lived, Dolores was +now meeting her inevitable end, bold and indomitable. + +"Where are you hurt?" inquired Venner lamely. "Let me do something to +ease you." + +"Ease?" she laughed as of old, but her teeth clenched upon her lower lip +immediately, with the pain it caused. "I shall ask ye to ease me +presently, good friends. Grim Death has me by the throat already. But +carry me outside. I am stifling in here. Let me see the ocean and the +sky at least in my passage. And I have something to tell ye also." + +On the gratings around the stern, abaft the wheel, they laid her on soft +cushions. She drank greedily of the wine and water they offered her; +she quivered with eagerness to unburden her mind before her thirst was +quenched forever. She motioned them, to bend over her, and began to +speak in, husky whispers. + +"That chest, thou cast it overboard. Dost know what was in it?" + +Both shook their heads. None had seen inside the chests after they came +from the great chamber. + +"I'll tell ye, then, for the peace of your souls and the tranquillity of +your voyage. Lest thy men be seized with a desire for treasure that +shall work ye mischief, have them open the other two chests. Quickly, +for I am faint." + +Venner went to the chests himself and flung back the lids, which were +bolted on the outside and not locked. He stared for a moment, +unbelievingly, then nodded to Pearse. Pearse stared, too, in amazement, +and one after the other the sailors were called to see. They saw two +great strong-boxes filled to the brim with iron chains, broken cutlases, +rusty bilboes, and rock; a fool's treasure in truth. + +"'Twas a trick to set my rascals at odds," Dolores told them when they +returned to her. "To thee, Pearse, I showed my treasure, and I fear that +blast has buried it beneath a mountain. Milo was to take it out. I +cannot believe it can have been taken away ere that powder blew it to +fragments. It was still in the powder store." + +"Yes, I know," said Pearse quietly. "It was that which precipitated the +fight between us three that killed poor Tomlin." + +"Well, if thou still art hungry for treasure, my friends, there is my +store buried where thou knowest, and I shrewdly fear but few of my +people are left. But I am slipping. Stand aside, that I may close my +eyes on the place I called home." + +Dolores ceased speaking and lay, scarcely stirred by her faint +respiration, gazing over the schooner's stern at the sinking sun. The +golden disk was turning to red and across its darkened face the cliff +and Point stood out in sharp silhouette, which grew larger as the great +glowing sun was distorted and enlarged by the refraction near the +horizon. The breeze had changed, and now blew with gentle strength out +of the west, a fair wind for their homeward course, and the strands of +Dolores's glorious hair blew about her face like tendrils about an +orchid of unearthly beauty. + +Presently she stirred again, and now she summoned all her remaining +vitality to raise herself on an elbow. Pearse and Venner leaned closer, +sensing the end in the tremendous brilliancy of her wide, dry eyes. + +She spoke softly, yet with a thrilling note of yearning that choked her +hearers with harsh sobs. + +"Father, I come," she whispered. "If I have failed in obeying thy +commands, I ask forgiveness, for I am but a woman. A woman with +instincts and yearnings, born of the mother I never knew. Thy very +treasures that were to appease me put the yearning more strongly in my +brain. Thy teachings showed me a world of beasts and savagery; thy +treasures gave me dreams of a world peopled by such as I would be. My +mother's blood forced me to seek this other, better world; thy blood +forced me to seek it wrongfully." + +She paused, and gathered her fleeting breath. + +Then, sitting suddenly upright, she flung both arms out to the setting +sun now lipping the sea, and cried: + +"Gods I know not. Yet must there be such, else had I never known the +devotion of a Milo! Wherever ye be, brave Milo, living or dead, commend +me to thy own gods and forgive me for my ingratitude." She seized Venner +and Pearse by the arms as she fell back, and whispered: "In pity, +friends, set my feet toward the west, and launch my poor body down the +sun path as it sinks into the blue Caribbean that was my only home." + +She relaxed with a little shivering sigh, the glorious eyes closed with +a tired tremor, and the spirit of Dolores the beautiful, the wicked, the +tempestuous, winged its way down the mysterious paths of the dark +unknown. + +"Come," said Venner, suddenly shaking off his abstraction, "time is all +too short if we are to render her this last small service." + +"How shall we do it?" asked Pearse doubtfully. + +"We shall send her down her chosen path in a boat. Peters will load the +dingey with ballast, while you and I will lay Dolores out as well as we +may. Bring me that grating, Pearse. We will speed her in the dress she +loved. Her soul would sicken at a suffocating winding sheet. Hurry, for +the sun is half gone!" + +Swiftly they worked, these men who had cause to remember the departed +siren without great love, and they placed her, secured to a grating, +across the thwarts of the dingey, to which the grating was in turn +secured. Then, all prepared, Peters sprang into the boat, bored a score +of auger-holes in the bottom, and as the great red sun set fierce and +blazing behind the black profile of the cliff, the filling boat was set +adrift, straight down the path of the luminary, bound ever westward, +until the sea gods claimed it and its passenger for their own. + +"Farewell, place of ill-luck!" cried Pearce, as the schooner bore away +before the rising evening breeze. "May I never set my eyes on such evil +shores again." + +"Then you will not come back to seek the treasure?" asked Venner, with a +shadowy flicker of a smile. + +"Not for a thousand times the treasure that lies there!" cried Pearse +vehemently. "And I have seen it! The horror of this will haunt me until +my dying day. I only hope God will look kindly upon that poor woman, +that's all." + +"I hope so, too," rejoined Venner thoughtfully. "With a white woman's +opportunities, what a woman she could have been." + +But the gods are inscrutable. Only the warm mantle of the setting sun +gave a hint that Dolores might be even now entering into a place of +eternal rest, where her sins of ignorance and untutored instincts would +not count too heavily against her. The sea is very benign to its elect; +a calm sea in the setting sun received Dolores in arms of infinite +benignity. + + +(The end.) + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original edition have been corrected. In Chapter V, "inscrutaable" was +changed to "inscrutable"; in Chapter X, "Let me show thee they master" +was changed to "Let me show thee thy master"; in Chapter XVII, "could +not enchance your worth" was changed to "could not enhance your worth"; +in Chapter XVIII, "shaking his first at Milo" was changed to "shaking +his fist at Milo"; and in Chapter XXI, "protruding a foot for Tomlin's +back" was changed to "protruding a foot from Tomlin's back".] + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following summary originally appeared at the +beginning of the serial's second installment.] + + +PRECEDING CHAPTERS BRIEFLY RETOLD + +Within his mysterious stronghold, "The Cave of Terrible Things," on the +Maroon coast of Jamaica, washed by the waters of the Caribbean Sea, Red +Jabez, Sultan of Pirates, had just died. + +Dolores, his daughter, "a splendidly lithe, glowing creature of beauty +and passion," "a royal woman conscious of mental and physical +perfection," succeeded her father as tyrant over the motley crew of +Spaniard and Briton, Creole and mulatto, Carib and octoroon, and +coal-black negroes. + +Milo, the giant Abyssinian, who knew no fear and no law save the will of +this capricious creature, served Dolores as body-guard and chief. + +Pascherette, "a gleaming, gold-tinted creature, a miniature model of +Aphrodite," beloved of Milo, was her maid and attendant. + +Moved to mutiny by Rufe, the Spaniard, the pirates had risen in revolt +to loot the rich treasure of the dead Sultan's cave; but supported by +Milo, Dolores had cowed them, no less by her dagger than her threats. + +But discontent rode the soul of the Sultana. She longed for other lands, +other people. With Milo's aid she determined to capture the first sail +that passed her shore, and escape. + +When Rupert Venner and his guests, Craik Tomlin and John Pearce, aboard +the Venner yacht, Feu Follette, passed that way, they were easily +induced to go ashore. + +In the midst of a reception accorded them by Dolores, the party beheld +Yellow Rufe and a band of mulattoes and blacks making for the schooner, +from whose rail shots crackled. + +Venner raised a cry of treachery and called, "Come, fellows!" But the +woman held him as much by her eyes as by her promise: "I shall preserve +thy ship, and give thee back an eye for an eye, if thy men are harmed." + +Then she sprang down the cliff like a deer. + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following summary originally appeared at the +beginning of the serial's third installment. The summary at the +beginning of the serial's fourth installment, if one was present, was +not available when preparing this electronic edition.] + + +PRECEDING CHAPTERS BRIEFLY RETOLD + +On the death of Red Jabez, Dolores, "a glowing creature of beauty and +passion," took over her father's rule of the pirates of the Maroon coast +of Jamaica. + +With the help of her faithful slave, Milo, the Abyssinian giant, she +crushed a rising insurrection among her riffraff subjects, whose +cupidity had been played upon by Rufe, the Spaniard. + +But Dolores was herself the victim of discontent. Loathing her outlaw +subjects and the island, she determined to seize the first boat that +passed her way, and escape with her jewels and her gold. + +When the pleasure yacht, Feu Follette, came that way, she sent Milo and +her maid, Pascherette, to decoy Rupert Venner and his guests, Craik +Tomlin and John Pearse, to the island. + +In the midst of her reception to her captive-guests, she beheld Rufe and +a band of insurgent blacks and mulattoes attacking the crew of the +schooner, while Sancho, whom she had despatched to care for the vessel +while in the harbor, was joining in the attack. + +Then she rushed over the cliff and into the water, and boarded the boat, +followed by her loyal Milo. + +After a long and bloody struggle, the woman's ruse of firing the ship +with a keg of powder won the day, and Rufe and Sancho fled into the +wilderness, while from the schooner's topmast flew the Sultana's own +flag. + +Demanding that the traitors, Rufe and Sancho, be rounded up, Dolores +threw her three guests into chains, while she accused Pascherette of +abetting the treason of Sancho. + +Then Dolores turned to Venner with the offer of her love if he would +sail away with her, having first despatched his friends. When the man, +whose soul was racked with passion for the beautiful black panther, +recoiled from her condition, she left him in his chains. + +Next she dealt with Sancho, whom Pascherette had lured back to the +woman's mercy; and Sancho emerged from Dolores's presence a driveling +imbecile. + +When Milo beheld at this moment the fleeing form of Yellow Rufe, made +distinguishable by vivid lightning, Dolores determined to complete her +punishments. + +The Spaniard was making good his escape when Milo took up the pursuit in +the little sailboat. Dolores and her crew would follow, by the light of +his flares, in the schooner. + +With the untamed soul of a woman who had never known defeat, Dolores +drove her crew and defied the wind and the waves, and the Feu Follette +was liberated from the mud and swung to the gale as the cry rang out: +"There's the flare--and she's burnin' steady!" + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Pirate Woman, by Aylward Edward Dingle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PIRATE WOMAN *** + +***** This file should be named 30057.txt or 30057.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/0/5/30057/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6cd27cb --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #30057 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30057) diff --git a/old/30057-8.txt b/old/30057-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d592ce8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/30057-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6742 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pirate Woman, by Aylward Edward Dingle + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Pirate Woman + +Author: Aylward Edward Dingle + +Release Date: September 22, 2009 [EBook #30057] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PIRATE WOMAN *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover of All-Story Weekly] + + +ALL-STORY WEEKLY + +VOL. XC + +NUMBER 2 + +SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1918 + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +[Transcriber's Note: This novel was originally serialized in four +installments in All-Story Weekly magazine from November 2, 1918, to +November 23, 1918. The original breaks in the serial have been retained, +but summaries of previous events preceding the second and third +installments have been moved to the end of this e-book. The Table of +Contents which follows this note was created for this electronic +edition.] + + + +Table of Contents + + +November 2, 1918 + + I. THE CAVE OF TERRIBLE THINGS. 193 + II. DOLORES RECEIVES HER DIADEM. 196 + III. THE GROVE OF MYSTERY. 200 + IV. THE PIRATES' BARBECUE. 203 + V. MILO SIGHTS A SAIL. 206 + VI. THE PARTY FROM THE YACHT. 209 + + +November 9, 1918 + + VII. THE ATTACK ON THE FEU FOLLETTE. 466 + VIII. DOLORES DELIVERS JUDGMENT. 469 + IX. THE SULTANA DECIDES SEVERAL THINGS. 472 + X. A REED SHAKEN BY THE WINDS OF PASSION. 475 + XI. PASCHERETTE UNVEILS HER PURPOSE. 477 + XII. SANCHO SETTLES HIS ACCOUNT. 480 + XIII. DOLORES FLOATS THE FEU FOLLETTE. 488 + + +November 16, 1918 + + XIV. YELLOW RUFE'S FINISH. 697 + XV. THE FIRES OF THE FLESH. 701 + XVI. PEARSE ENTERS THE CAVE OF ALADDIN. 704 + XVII. THE TREASURE TEST. 707 + XVIII. PASCHERETTE DEALS AGAIN. 711 + XIX. WHILE VICTORY HANGS IN THE BALANCE. 715 + + +November 23, 1918 + + XX. DOLORES DEMANDS A DECISION. 147 + XXI. THE SLUMBERING SAVAGE. 150 + XXII. THE FLIGHT OF THE FEU FOLLETTE. 153 + XXIII. STUMPY FIRES THE MAGAZINE. 155 + XXIV. MILO CROSSES THE BAR. 157 + XXV. THE TOLL OF THE GODS. 159 + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE CAVE OF TERRIBLE THINGS. + + +A great unrest brooded over mountain and forest; the blue Caribbean lay +hushed and glaring, as if held in leash by a power greater than that +which ordered its daily ebb and flow. + +Men moved or stood beneath the trees on the cliffside in attitudes of +supreme awe or growing uneasiness, according to their kind: for among +them were numbered Spaniard and Briton, creole and mulatto, Carib and +octoroon, with coal-black negroes enough to outnumber all the rest--and +it was upon these last that profound awe sat oppressively. + +Apart, followed by a hundred furtive eyes, Dolores, daughter of Red +Jabez, ranged back and forth before the mighty rock portals of the Cave +of Terrible Things, like some magnificent tigress hedged with foes. +Beyond those portals Red Jabez, Sultan of pirates, arbiter of life and +death over the motley community, lay at grips with the grim specter to +whom he had consigned scores far more readily than he now yielded up +his own red-stained soul. Red Jabez was dying a death as hard as his +lurid life had been. + +Beyond those rock portals none save Jabez and Milo, the herculean +Abyssinian slave, had ever passed. Dolores, next in line, was in +ignorance as deep as her meanest slave, concerning what lay beyond the +great mass of rock which formed the door, and which Milo alone could +move. She knew, as did every one, that the great chamber of Red Jabez +held some vast mystery; she suspected, as did the rest, that it +concealed wealth beyond dreams; deep down in her soul she hoped that +inviolate chamber held for her the means of emancipation; but of this +hope, none knew save herself. For Queen of Night though the white men +called her, Sultana though she was named with fear and submission by the +blacks, though her power was second only to that of Red Jabez, and +barely less than his, a canker gnawed at the heart of Dolores, the +canker of a suspicion that her power was but a paltry power, her freedom +but a caged freedom. + +Somewhere beyond the great ocean that stretched away before her eyes +lay a world she knew nothing of; yet since her earliest childhood her +keen mind had told her that the silk with which she was clothed, the +jewels that encrusted her dagger-hilt, the ships whose pillage had +yielded up these things, must come from lands far distant, more +desirable than the maroon country of Jamaica. More, her ears attuned to +the whisper or roar of the sea, the sigh or shriek of the winds, carried +to her the mutterings of men long held in leash, who now saw in their +chieftain's death the realization of their own wild dreams of riches and +release. All these things told her that the great, strange world beyond +the sea-line was something for her to strive for; not for the rabble who +called her queen. + +She paced back and forth, a splendidly lithe, glowing creature of beauty +and passion, every movement a grace, each grace such as befitted a royal +woman conscious of mental and physical perfection. Her hair surrounded +her face and shoulders in a lustrous, rippling cloud, through which +peeped a bare arm and breast stolen from the goddess of beauty; her +tunic of quilted Chinese silk hung from one shoulder by a strap +fashioned from the ribbon of the Star of Persia, and fastened by the +star; her strong, slender waist was girdled with a heavy gold cord that +supported a long, thin dagger, no toy, in a jeweled sheath; the hem of +her single garment rang with gold sequins to the movement of her +smoothly muscular knees; her high-arched feet were protected from thorns +and shells by sandals of red leather. + +As the moments passed, and no sign came from within the cave, Dolores +restrained her impatience with increasing difficulty. The men scattered +around were not of such stuff; they felt the impending crisis settle +heavily upon them, and white and black alike drew together for the +comfort of close touch. From time to time a hardier spirit uttered his +thoughts aloud, yet always with a glance of uncertainty toward Dolores. +They had reason to glance that way; for every man had tasted of the +queen's justice, which rarely erred on the side of mildness; many of +them had experienced her terrible competence to carry out a sentence in +person. Of them all, not one but knew that in Dolores he owned as queen +a woman who need yield nothing of prowess to any man: her knife was as +swift, her round wrist as strong, her blazing violet-black eyes as sure +as any among them. Not a man could ever forget the offending slave whom +she had thrashed with her own hands, disdaining assistance, until the +wretch tore loose and fled screaming to the cliff to pitch headlong into +the shark-infested sea; nor could they forget her unhesitating dive and +terrific struggle to recover him and her completion of the interrupted +punishment when she had brought him back. + +Yet the stress proved too great, even in face of these memories, and a +tall, powerful Spaniard, heavily earringed, handsome, with a swart, +brutal beauty, delivered a scorching oath to the heavy air and exclaimed +fiercely: + +"A curse on this babe's play! Must men stand here like whipped curs +until a slave commands us enter? Come! Who'll follow me past that door? +I'll know what lies behind this mummery if I choke it from old Jabez's +withered neck as he dies." + +The man stepped forward two paces, glaring defiantly at Dolores, waiting +for men to follow. An uneasy shuffling of feet was his only answer for a +moment; then his eyes shifted with cooling ardor at sight of Dolores. +For a breath after he had ceased speaking, the girl stood like a +splendid statue, except for the glitter of her eyes and a slight +quivering of her limbs; it was as if she awaited some response; then her +face relaxed into a contemptuous smile, and her crimson lips parted to +reveal her even, gleaming teeth. She laughed, a rippling little laugh +like the tinkle of steel links, and with a single gliding movement that +permitted no avoidance she swept to within two feet of the now +frightened ruffian. + +"Yes? Yellow Rufe would choke words from a dying man!" she cried. +"Nothing that lives and can stand on two feet is in danger from such as +he. Peace, slavish dog!" she panted, flinging out a gleaming hand and +seizing him by one earring. "Thus I mark curs that seek their food among +the dead!" With the words Dolores's right hand flashed upward, +knife-armed, and across Rufe's cheek glared a crimson cross; into his +eyes leaped the fear of death. + +"Now go!" she said imperiously, pushing him away. "Let no man forget +that while the life is in Red Jabez he holds thy lives in pawn. When his +spirit goes, ye shall reckon with me!" + +Rufe staggered away, half incredulous that his punishment had fallen +short of death. His companions led him apart with many a backward glance +of apprehension at the authoress of his discomfiture, and a deep, sullen +muttering rippled through the crowd. Dolores resumed her solitary pacing +without another thought for the hardy rascal she had so swiftly and +effectively softened. Her eyes were ever bent toward the great rock; her +thoughts were centered on a vague, mysterious instinct which whispered +to her that with her first admission into that frowning cavern the +mantle of fierce old Red Jabez would fall upon her, and with it would +come power that a Czar might envy! A Czar's power, indeed, but with all +of a Czar's cares and more; for Czar never ruled over subjects like +these. + +A sudden hush fell upon the place; the mutterings ceased as if tongues +were stricken stiff. Rufe, with his head now enwrapped in crossed +bandages, stared toward the great rock with a wavering expression in his +smoldering eyes, an expression that hovered between reluctant +submission, reawakened cupidity, and dawning hope. Dolores stood +motionless, imperious in every line and feature, her heavy eyelashes +veiling the eagerness in her eyes, her red lips curved in royal +indifference. + +The great rock was turning. + +Slowly, yet with the flawless regularity of a millwheel, the mass of +stone was rolled upward and to one side; it rested at last on a ledge, +balanced perfectly, ready to fall again at the touch of a finger; and in +the aperture appeared the human agent of its opening. + +Milo, the giant Abyssinian, guardian of the rock, custodian of the Cave +of Terrible Things, bone of contention for the jealous and terror of the +strongest, filled the entrance with his colossal frame and looked out +with a calm dignity that made the whites cringe with hatred. Slowly, +with stately grace, the giant advanced until he stood before Dolores, +and in his coal-black eyes shone the light of limitless devotion. He +knelt, kissed the sequins on her tunic's hem, then, with both hands +pressed to his forehead, he bowed his face to the earth at her feet. + +"Rise, Milo," said Dolores, gently, and her breath caught painfully as +she spoke. She knew what the slave came for; every man in that community +of pirates, wreckers, escaped slaves, and convicts knew as well as she. +All had awaited this moment, knowing when it came that the mystery of +the cave would be a mystery no longer to at least one of them: all knew +that the summons meant the passing of the old pirate who had brought +them together, ruled them with blood and iron, and forced from them a +homage none of them would render to his Maker. + +"My Sultana, it is time," said Milo, rising and waiting. He needed to +say no more. + +"Lead me to my father, then," replied the girl, and stepped after the +giant with sure step and resolute face, giving no heed to the renewed +shuffling and congregating of her people, nor to Rufe, who again stood +out before the rest and addressed them in fierce tones. + +Dolores entered the great hewn-rock doorway and in spite of her stout +heart and steel will she thrilled in every fiber. At the end of the +frowning passage, whose ruby lamps but accentuated the gloom and +imparted to it an infernal glow, lay the great chamber that only the +chief might enter. What would she find there? Her father, yes, and +dying! Otherwise this summons had never come. The death must be upon him +now; the fierce old sea-king had held his throne-room inviolate through +many bouts with the grim Reaper, knowing his own strength to conquer. +But now he had called, and Dolores sought the unknown with a curiosity +that beat down fear. + +Behind her a heavy thud echoed along the rocky walls, and the outer +light was cut off by the falling of the great stone. In a moment Milo +stood beside her and, taking her hand in his, led her along the utterly +invisible floor until she stood before a massive door. Her feet sank +into the pile of heavy carpets; her nostrils quivered to the delicate +odors of burning spices; at the top of the door a great jeweled lantern +cast a rich, yellow light down the panels, and the girl gasped +involuntarily at the sight revealed to her. Each panel was formed of +scales that overlapped like a serpent's; the scales were roughly +hammered gold and silver, richly chased, and studded thickly with +gems--without any conjecture she knew them to be precious vessels that +should have graced an altar, split, perhaps with a bloody cutlass, and +beaten out into irregular plates to gratify some grim humor of the +terrible old corsair in the long ago. Neither hinges, handle, lock, nor +latch appeared on the surface; apparently the door was solidly embedded +in the mighty rock itself. The giant laid a hand on the side of the +door-frame, and Dolores waited with impatience for admission. For all +her schooled self-control her eyes glinted with astonishment when Milo +stood aside and bowed low, saying: + +"Enter, my princess!" + +Without a sound the massive door had vanished, sliding up and out of +sight in the dark recess of the roof, leaving smooth, steel-lined slots +at sides and bottom that reflected the polish of scrupulous care. +Dolores stifled her surprise, and moved toward the heavy velvet hangings +which still barred her way. These, too, were swept aside with no visible +effort, and the girl stood on the threshold of the chamber of mystery. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +DOLORES RECEIVES HER DIADEM. + + +In a great canopied bed, taken from some rich looted Indiaman, Red Jabez +lay motionless as an effigy in stone. His tall, powerful body was +sharply outlined in coverings of silk and rare lace; the arms and crest +of a ducal house were worked into the pillows that supported his massive +head. His drawn, haggard face was surrounded and all but covered with a +great mane of vivid red hair; his silken shirt, wide open at the neck, +revealed a massive chest, whose tide of respiration had all but ceased +to run. Only his eyes, fierce yet, held token of lingering life; it was +as if the vital spark was concentrated into one final blaze of +tremendous brilliancy. + +The fierce eyes moved swiftly at Dolores's entrance, and one might have +said a film of tenderness swept for an instant over the hard glint in +them. It was gone as swiftly as it came, and the stare settled +unwaveringly upon the stupefied girl. For stupefaction had gripped +Dolores in that first entry into the great chamber. Her wildest dreams, +and they had been at times fantastic, had never showed her anything +measurably approaching the scene that smote her eyes now. For the moment +death, Red Jabez, her destiny, everything melted into the visionary +beyond and left her capable of no volition. + +The great bed stood in the center of a vast cavern; sides, roof, floor, +every inch of the rock itself bore proof of the handiwork of hundreds of +cunning craftsmen; but the furnishings filled Dolores's eyes to the +exclusion of all else. Divans and chairs, cabinets and tables carried +the mind far away to the realm of emperors and kings; vases from China +and Greece stood on stands of boule-work; a tall ebony-and-ivory +clock-case, in which ticked sonorously a masterpiece of Peter Hele, +stood between two gorgeous pieces of Gobelin tapestry. And around her +and above, Dolores's amazed eyes lighted upon gems of the painter's art +such as few collections might boast. The entire ceiling was covered with +a colossal "Battle of the Amazons," by Rubens, each figure thrown out in +startling distinctness, full of voluptuous life and action; the walls +were mantled by vast golden frames holding the best of Titian, Correggio +and Giorgione, Raphael and Ribera. And jewels flashed everywhere; +cunningly placed lamps, themselves encrusted with the reddest of rubies, +the subtlest of green emeralds, flooded walls and furnishings with a +soft yet searching light which seemed to be carefully calculated to +accentuate those things whose beauty demanded light, yet to leave the +eye unwearied. + +"The hour has struck, my Sultana," said Milo anxiously, and Dolores +shook off the spell and approached the great bed. Red Jabez closed his +eyes as she leaned over him, and his lips now alone gave evidence of +life. The girl, reared among the wildest of desolate isolation, knowing +no softening ties of family, her impulses and emotions those of a +beautiful animal, and increasingly so because of her station among the +rabble that called the dying man chief, stared down at her terrible +parent without a trace of visible regret: rather in her eyes shone the +triumph of a victor about to enter upon a conquered kingdom. But the red +pirate was speaking, and she bent her ear to catch his words. It +required no physician's knowledge to perceive in his damp face all the +signs of imminent dissolution. + +"Dolores, my traverse is run," whispered Jabez. The effort all but stole +his breath. He paused; then summoning all the tremendous will that had +dominated his frame when surging with strength, he told what he had to +say in short sentences, nursing the flickering spark to force his +speech. "Never leave here, girl. Let no man go, either. The world has +forgotten me and all of us; but memory is tenacious--it will revive at a +hint; every throat that pulses with hot life here--yes, my daughter, +even your fair throat--was measured years ago--a rope awaits every one. +But here--" + +"Yes, father?" Dolores shivered in the pause; the silence chilled her. +The giant Abyssinian stood at the head of the bed, and now moistened the +dying lips with wine. Red Jabez strained convulsively, snatching at his +throat, and resumed with weaker voice. + +"Here I have been king; here you are queen; all these things you see, +and many more, are yours; life and death are in your hands to give or +withhold. Keep the steel hand, though you wear the glove, Dolores. You +have learned power; with the greater power you take from this chamber, +and with Milo, let nothing, no man, stir your fears. Keep this chamber +as I have kept it; it is your strength; when danger threatens to beat +you down, here you will find--" + +The fluttering whisper ceased. The old pirate lay rigid. Dolores, having +heard so much, yet so little, hovered over the bed in an ecstasy of +unsatisfied hunger for more; Milo stood by, a magnificent statue in +living bronze, his eyes set in a steady blaze on the face of his master. +Once more the blue lips moved. Dolores darted down with eager ear, her +hands clasped as if in supplication. + +"Milo--tell," came the whisper, and with it went up the soul of Red +Jabez to face a tribunal more dread than any earthly judge his body had +eluded. And the tall clock ticked his knell. + +Dolores flung herself down on the bed, patting the dead face with +nervous fingers; but she was dry-eyed, no filial despair raised tumult +in her breast, her pleading was for the impossible--for the dead lips to +speak--and when she was refused her plea, she sprang from the couch in a +paroxysm of royal fury: + +"Now, by the powers of evil, he shall lie uncoffined until those +secretive lips read me the riddle they have half told!" she cried, +pacing between bed and wall with uplifted arms and hard, glittering +eyes. She suddenly paused in her wild walk, turned swiftly, and reached +the bedside with the same subtle, gliding sweep that had carried her +before Yellow Rufe; it was a characteristic movement with her--a +compound of the gliding dart of the tiger-shark and the silent-footed +pounce of its jungle brother. Milo roused from his dejection and sprang +from his knees with amazing promptitude, but he had yet to round the +bed-foot when the splendid fury stood panting over the corpse. + +"Speak!" she cried, shaking the coverlet savagely. Milo, with horror in +his shining face, gently removed her hand, then stood before her with +bowed head, his cavernous chest heaving wildly. + +"Fool! Leave me!" she snapped, and struck the slave with all her savage +force on the cheek. Milo's face turned gray for a flashing instant, then +the doglike devotion that filled his heart shone through his eyes, and +he knelt at the furious girl's feet, his head to the ground. In a moment +he stood up and, laying a hand reverently upon Dolores's shaking +shoulders, he gazed deep into her eyes. She shivered again at the +uncanny hint of volcanic might effused by the giant--volcanic, yet +quiescent for the moment. His lips opened to speak; and she sprang to +the reaction. Now a fresh fury seized her at the slave's temerity; she +flung off his hand, and snatched forth her dagger. + +"Strike, Sultana," said Milo simply. He drew aside the strap of his +leathern tunic, baring his heart. "Strike, but first suffer thy slave to +release thee from this tomb." + +"Release? Tomb? What talk is this?" gasped Dolores, her dagger held +poised aloft, her lips quivering. + +"A tomb it is if thy servant falls, Sultana. None save I can open the +great door. Close it? Yes, any might close it. Come, I will lead thee +out of this awful presence; then at the gate thou shalt send Milo to his +master who loved him." + +Slowly Dolores slipped her dagger into the sheath, and her face was +bowed in confusion. All her life, the giant slave had tended her, +guarded her steps and her sleep, taught her the exercises that had made +her feared by all the turbulent crew outside; and she was now permitted +the saving grace of remembrance. She gave him her hand, and allowed him +to place it upon his head, always his favorite means of expression when +she followed an outburst of rage with contrition; and in softer tone she +begged for an answer to the riddle that had been left with her. + +"Come, Sultana," Milo said, once more laying a hand on her shoulder, +this time without resentment from her. "Thy father, the Red Chief, left +much to be told; I will tell thee all, but not now. Patience, princess," +he pleaded, catching the warning glint in her eyes, "dost thou hear +nothing? Listen attentively--no, not in here, outside--bend thy ear to +this tapestry; 'tis before a cunning sounding stone through which voices +may well be heard on the cliffside. Listen." + +Dolores listened with bad grace, for she regarded this as a subterfuge +of the giant's, and resentment was very ready to rise in her again. But +in a moment her indifference vanished; she grew alert; her body tensed, +and her limbs quivered; the glitter of a queen in righteous anger +lighted her eyes, and she raised an unnecessary hand to impress silence +upon the slave. + +"Hast hear this before now?" she demanded in a vibrant whisper. + +"Since thou entered, Sultana. It could be nothing but rebellion; yet was +I loath to burden my chief with this trouble in his hour of passage. But +I know now that it has risen to heights which demand swift action; +therefore I have made thee aware of it." + +"'Tis that villain Rufe again!" muttered Dolores, still pressing her ear +against the tapestry. The murmur of a hundred voices came clearly to +her, and above all sounded the high-raised shout of one who harangued +the rest. At periods the murmuring became a howl, and the triumphant +note in it left scant room for doubt as to the nature of the address. +The girl, faced with the responsibility of decided action, no longer +able to depend on the wisdom and terrible power of Red Jabez, stepped +from the wall with panting heart and parted lips, but with no trace of +fear. Uncertainty moved her; uncertainty as to the resources of the +great chamber, whose mysteries had scarcely begun to unfold for her ere +the curtain was dropped again. Her stout spirit decided for her. + +"Come, lead me out, Milo," she ordered, drawing herself royally erect +and slipping her dagger around nearer her hand. "We must cool that +rabble before the fire spreads further. Take a weapon, open the door, +and follow me." + +"It is the decision of a fit daughter of my chief," replied Milo, his +great frame expanding to the bounding energy that surged through him. +Unknown to her, his eyes had never left Dolores while she was making her +decision; now joy and ardor suffused and transfigured him. Slave he was, +yet it was he who looked the royal part in that instant. + +"Wait but a breath," he said, and reached in two gigantic strides a +massive oaken chest heavily fastened with wrought iron. Lifting the lid +with reverence, he took out a plain gold circlet and returned to +Dolores. + +"Thy father bade me make this and keep it until thou wast my Sultana, +indeed," he said. He raised the heavy, dull-gold band, and placed it +upon Dolores's brow with the courtly homage of a born noble. It fitted +to perfection--as indeed it should, since the loving fingers that had +fashioned it had crept around the girl's sleeping head many times to +that end--and feminine vanity would not permit Dolores to ignore the +fit. She stepped over to a long gilt-framed mirror, and her beautiful +face grew dark and her violet eyes dusky at the glorious reflection that +gazed out at her. + +"It is well, Milo; I thank thee," she smiled. "Now to scatter the rats +that gnaw at my walls. Lead out quickly." + +Milo entered the passage, raising the plated door and letting it fall +after them. He disdained to carry a weapon; but Dolores was content, for +she had witnessed what those huge hands could do. As they approached the +great stone at the entrance, the sounds outside rang through the +corridor, and the sharp reverberations that accompanied them at +intervals told of an assault on the rock itself with pikes, crowbars, or +other smaller rocks. Milo stooped to the sill of the rock, and placed +his hands beneath it. + +"Stand away," he whispered, and strained his arms. "Let thy servant go +out and silence this clamor--" + +"Open quickly!" she interrupted him, imperiously. "It is not for the +slave to precede the sovereign. Peace, and open." + +Her hand was on her dagger, her head was raised proudly; every inch and +line of her figure irradiated splendid strength and surety; Milo heaved +at the rock, and smiled blissfully. This was indeed how he had dreamed +of his Sultana when she should come into her own. + +He heaved steadily, and the great rock rose from one side, rolling up +and up until it balanced on the ledge; but Milo knew there was some +agency at work that hindered the raising of it; never before had it been +a task to bring sweat to his brow, and now he dripped from every pore. +The rock refused to balance without his hand upon it, and he dared not +take his shoulder away to look over the top lest it fall and crush him. +He cast an appealing look toward Dolores, who was impatiently waiting +for him to stand clear, and she stepped past him to the outside. She was +greeted with a roar of derision that echoed far down to the sea. + +"Peace, dogs of the devil!" she cried with one hand upraised. A roaring +guffaw answered her. Then a burly ruffian, one-eyed and marked by a +great cutlas-scar that ran from his chin across his broken nose and +ended somewhere among the roots of his hair, stepped forward with a +smirk of confidence, and made a mock curtsy. + +"Queen o' the pirates, we salute ye!" he said. Then threw away all +pretense, and swore a ripping curse to the destination of his soul. +"Come, my girl," he shouted, "the game's played to a finish. Th' old +buck is dead, an' we want some o' them pretties he hid away inside. +You're a nice gal, I don't deny, and we ain't going to harm ye if ye +don't hinder us; but we ain't playin' kings an' queens no more. Come +now, let the big feller take us in, and say no more about it, for have +our fling, we will." + +The mob had edged nearer, until now they surged around the entrance so +close to Dolores that she felt the breath of the leaders. She noticed +with sharp wonderment that Yellow Rufe was not among the foremost; but +she was given no time to surmise, for the mob pressed on until she was +forced either to risk an advance or give ground. A little shock rippled +through her when she turned swiftly to see how Milo fared, and found him +gone. The mob saw it, too, and seethed about her with hungry faces. + +"Come on, lads!" they howled. "Milo's gone inside to open up the loot +for us." A grimy hand snatched at the girl's tunic, and in a flash the +entrance was choked with fiercely striving shapes. + +With a gasping cry of fury Dolores struck aside the bold hand, and with +a panther-spring she was upon him. One slender, brown hand, strong as a +steel claw, gripped his throat; the other hand gripped a glittering +dagger that swept like the arrow of fate to his heart and dropped him a +log at her feet. Just for a breath the crowd paused in awe; then +hoarsely growling they packed forward again, and Dolores found herself +fighting desperately against men maddened into steel-armed wolves, +thirsty for her blood in payment for that split. She more than held her +own by sheer skill and suppleness for a space; but assailed from all +sides save the back she speedily felt her limbs growing heavy and +awkward, and a cutlas sang above her bent head when her foot had failed, +leaving her without guard or avoidance. + +Then she knew that she had been permitted to win her spurs. For the +threatening cutlas was caught in mid air by a huge bare hand, wrenched +from its owner's grasp, and returned point first into the assailant's +breast. And Milo's deep voice rang in her ear: + +"Step into the passage, Sultana, and swiftly. Have a care for the body +on the floor, but tarry not. To pause is to die!" + +She felt herself drawn inside, the battle seemed to leave her isolated, +the passage was as still as a cloister after the turmoil outside, and +she stumbled along in the dim red glow, barely avoiding tripping over a +body on the floor which a glance showed her to be a corpse. This was the +man who had tried to crush back the rock door on Milo. + +Dolores spurned the body with her foot, and abruptly turned back, in a +rage to think that she had permitted the giant slave to order her into +skulking security. She halted as swiftly as she had turned; for in the +aperture at the end of the passage the huge form of Milo stood, both +hands raised, and in them a cask was poised. A queer, spluttering sound +at first puzzled Dolores; then she made out a short, hanging fuse +depending from the cask, and it spluttered as it dwindled, flinging +sparks around the giant's bowed head until the point of fire seemed +ready to disappear in the bung-hole. + +"Treasure for dogs!" roared Milo. "Divide it among thee!" The great rock +thudded down as the cask hurtled out into the mob; the next instant the +cavern shook and quivered to a terrific explosion; a moment after the +earth might have been dead for all sound in the passage; yet another +moment and the outer world rang with cries and shrieks, curses and +entreaties, and Milo bowed low to his mistress and said: + +"Now if my Sultana deems fit, it is time to show this scum of the earth +their sovereign." + +"Wait, Milo," replied Dolores, shuddering slightly at sight of him. The +giant was streaked and splashed with blood; for in those moments when he +stood defenseless before casting his infernal machine, a dozen cutlases +and knives had sought his life. + +"Pardon thy slave," he returned, sensing her meaning. "I will go thus. +'Twere not good that these dogs should know their wounds can hurt. Such +scratches are nothing. They are paid for in full." + +"It is well. Lead out again, good Milo, and fear not for me. With thou +beside me I am armed in proof." + +Again they emerged into the air, but now a deathly silence received +them. Silence broken only by the rustling of garments, as a withered old +crone shambled forward and cast herself at Dolores's feet. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE GROVE OF MYSTERY. + + +Dolores stood still, sweeping the scene of destruction with a gaze of +flinty penetration. The groveling crone at her feet affected her like +something unclean, and she spurned the old woman with her foot, stepping +aside with a gesture of disgust. Then she raised her right hand, and +cried with bitter scorn: + +"Come, my brave jackals! Come to the feast prepared for thee." She +lowered her hand and with a contemptuous smile indicated the gruesome +results of the explosion of Milo's awful bomb. + +On the edge of the forest the hardier rascals had halted; at her word +they glared loweringly at her and the impassive giant at her back; from +the shadow of the trees yellow and brown and black faces peered in +quivering terror; but none responded to her command to approach her. The +old woman on the ground alone made audible reply, and her slavish +whining enraged Dolores. With a stamp of her sandaled foot she tore from +her waist the gold cord, slipped off the dagger sheath, and fell upon +the wretched old servitor with a shower of blows. + +"Silence, old cat!" she cried, and the blows fell heavily. "Up with +thee, and away. Go quickly, and make ready the altar in the Grove of +Mystery. Cease thy bleating, old witch, and summon thy shaky wits +against the ordeal I shall put thee to. Some one among ye stirred up the +rising which resulted as ye now see. That one I shall know before +sundown, and he shall bitterly repent him. Away!" + +Dolores was astonished at seeing no sign of Rufe, but outwardly she +showed none of her astonishment. A more vital consideration was present +in the disobedience of the motley crew who as yet made no effort to come +to her call. Drawing herself fully erect when the old woman departed, +she again stretched out her hand and cried: + +"Dogs of Satan! I await your homage. Red Jabez lies dead: yet his spirit +lives in me, your queen. By so many breaths that ye flout me, by just so +many torments shall I have ye torn. Come, dogs. Kneel!" + +A hoarse murmur went up from the forest edge, and first one by one, then +in knots of half a score each, the negroes and half-breeds slunk into +the open and approached her with eyes full of panic. The whites, not so +susceptible to abstract influence, still hesitated, drawing near to each +other in growling consultation. Dolores gave them no sign, though she +watched them keenly from under her lowered lashes. She gave her +attention to the line of abject creatures who filed slowly past her, +each one stopping to grovel in the dust at her feet and passing on. +These Milo halted near by and herded into a shivering, frightened mob. +And Dolores's cool disregard of the whites had its calculated effect. +One by one they stepped out into the open as had the colored men; the +more timorous, or superstitious, came first, some wearing shamed grins, +others palpably impressed by the example of the others and shuffling on +their way uncomfortably. Last of all came the bolder spirits, and these +wore faces intended to express contempt, or at least sarcastic +indifference; but the faces changed invariably on closer approach to the +queen. Memory proved a stubborn master; in every man's breast +remembrance clamored to them to have a care how they bore themselves +before this beautiful fury they called queen. + +Still Yellow Rufe came not. + +When all had knelt, and all had been herded by the giant Milo in two +separate parties, the number was tallied, and of the whites, besides +Rufe, seven were missing. One lay inside the passage; of the rest there +were remains lying about the rocky wall to the cavern that might be +three men or six--human discernment could never decide which. + +Dolores faced her mongrel subjects again and her dark eyes blazed with +fire, her beautiful face was dark with surging blood, every line of her +lithe figure quivered as she spoke: + +"I seek the dog who stirred ye up to mutiny!" she cried. "Yellow Rufe, +if it be he, is not among ye, nor is he one of these carrion scattered +on the ground. If it be some other villain, him I will know before the +sun has stretched my shadow to the cliff. Deliver him up to me, and he +alone shall repay. Disobey, and every biting dog among ye shall swiftly +learn the price of disobedience. I wait." + +The sun was fast setting, and already the shadows had grown long. Five +minutes at most would see the shadow of Dolores's head at the base of +the great rock, and the blacks started whimpering with apprehension. +Among the whites a tremendous quiet reigned; but sullen brows here, +snarling teeth there, gave hint of their interest in the sun's progress. +Still no man spoke. Rather they looked at each other questioningly as +the minutes flew, as if the culprit were indeed not among them. + +But Dolores was wise beyond her years, wise with a wisdom bred of her +volcanic existence in such a station, and she refused to be hoodwinked +by the apparent absence of the man she sought. Her shadow touched the +rock, and without another second of hesitation she turned toward the +forest fringe, walking with majestic carriage and looking neither to +right nor left. She simply uttered one short sentence: "To the Grove!" + +Every man with dark blood in his veins followed her like a sheep, for +terrible things had been witnessed in the Grove of Mysteries: things far +beyond the understanding of such men. The sullen whites hung back +again, for their colder blood was not impregnated with the fears and +superstitions that exerted such tremendous sway over their colored +fellows. Still Dolores gave them never a look; she walked on, and the +forest closed behind her, as if she believed her footsteps followed by +every foot in the unruly crew. + +It was Milo who constituted her dependable rearguard. Milo was there, +and Milo would see to it that no skulker declined his queen's command. +There lay the reason why Dolores so placidly turned her back to men +whose dearest ambition would have been realized by the plunge of steel +between her shoulders at that moment. Milo walked around to the rear of +the hesitant mob, and without a word gripped the hindmost in his two +great hands and hurled him bodily over the heads of his mates in the +desired direction. + +"Swine!" swore a harelipped Mexican, whipping out his cutlas. "I'll see +your black heart for that!" and furiously made play to avenge insult to +his sorely handled fellow. + +The black giant turned as calmly as if his mistress had called him, and +seized the fellow's cutlas hand in one huge fist, crushing bone and +steel into gory pulp without visible effort. His lips never opened, his +tremendous chest was ruffled not one whit; Milo's eyes alone gave +warning of what he might do if occasion arose; and fooled by his obvious +carelessness, the white men closed around him, knives and cutlases +drawn, frantic for his life. + +They should have known better. Their lessons had been many and vivid; +but not a man of them all was of the caliber to learn from a slave. Milo +kept hold of his man's hand, and at the scrape of steel leaving +scabbard, he brought up his free hand and grasped the fellow's left +wrist. Then, springing aside with the resistless impulse of a charging +buffalo, he gained a clear space, and began to swing his victim by the +wrists. + +One complete circle was made with the human club, then a catlike ruffian +watched his chance and darted in with murderous knife at Milo's breast +while the dreadful club was at his back. Cool as a mountain spring, the +giant immediately let go his man, letting him fly far behind him like a +stone from a catapult. In a twinkling of an eye, the great hands that +released the one captive closed afresh on the new assailant in front, +and now the giant gave no further grace. His fingers tightened on the +man's throat and the desperate face went black. Then, keeping the fellow +ever before him, he suddenly flung him into the air by the waist, +shifting holds with tigerish swiftness, and caught him by the ankles as +he came down. He whirled the unfortunate wretch once, and three men went +down under the terrible blow; the rest scattered with furious howls, +bespattered with the blood of their comrade; but one more sight of the +unruffled giant cowed them; none attempted further knife or sword-play. +Then Milo smiled scornfully, and uttered: "Go!" and they went to the +forest like jackals before the lion. The giant saw them on their way, +and tossing his fearful weapon over the cliff, strode after them, an +awful embodiment of relentless, all but limitless strength. + +The forest lay hushed and dim beyond the fringe; whispering leaves and +crackling twigs sounded sharp as a shower of stones in the stillness. +Great trees reared their majestic heads to mingle their foliage and shut +out the light; every creeping, flying, walking creature seemed awed into +a vague murmuring that was deeper than silence. The Grove of Mysteries +was a semicircular space of cool, mossy sward, bowered in great trees +and tangled vine screens; its background was the bare rock of the +cliffside itself--actually, though unknown to the rabble, the outer +rocky wall of the great chamber--and against this stood the altar. + +The old woman had made use of her skinny limbs to good effect, impelled +by a fear that had become terror. The altar was resplendent in silk and +velvet, fashioned for an altar very different from this; but in place of +the vessels usually associated with so sacred a piece of furniture, the +Altar of the Grove was embellished with a mosaic of skulls and bones +surrounding a complete skeleton which held its head in one grisly hand. + +In the hollow eye-sockets glowed a weird fire that darted forth at +irregular intervals like glances of demoniacal hate; at the altar foot a +great censer erupted a dense cloud of pungent smoke that rendered the +altar and those about it still more vague and ghostly. And the glade was +full of cowering, slavering blacks and half-breeds, whose superstitious +terrors reached high tide with each succeeding swirl of smoke or +outflash of eye-socket fires. + +Dolores went directly to the old woman, who stood in cringing +subservience with a plain white garment in her hands. This she placed on +the girl's shoulders, fastening it at the bosom with a small skull of +jade stone whose grinning teeth were pearls, and whose eye-sockets were +empty with an awful blackness. The gold circlet was discarded, and in +its place Dolores placed on her head a turban formed from a stuffed +coiled snake, whose neck and head darted hither and thither on cunning +springs with her every motion and gesture. + +To this awesome place came the herd that Milo drove before him; and not +a man among the hardened crew was hardy enough to carry his bravado into +the Grove. Blacks and whites alike, no matter what their inmost thoughts +might be, yielded to the spell of the place the moment their feet trod +the sward and the congregation settled into the places allotted to them. + +Dolores glided out in front of the altar, and eyes glittered, dusky +throats went constricted and dry with terror when she stirred up the +brazier and was hidden for a moment in the rising volume of blue smoke +in which flashes of devilish light played incessantly. Milo stepped up +behind and above the altar, and as the smoke reeked about him vanished +seemingly into the face of the cliff. There, in an unsuspected outlet to +the great chamber, was the key to much of the magic with which Dolores +kept her turbulent crew on the borderline of fear. She flashed a glance +holding much of anxiety after her giant servitor, and busied herself +about the altar to gain time. + +She had received from his hands as he stepped up the effigy of a man in +black wax, and now she advanced with hand upraised for silence. It was +unnecessary: the silence of the dead prevailed in the Grove. With the +image held aloft Dolores was a magnet that drew all eyes inevitably. Six +inches tall, the image was a cleverly modeled composite of every type in +the motley band; and every man realized this. Placing the effigy on the +altar, Dolores seized from the brazier a glowing coal with her bare +hands and placed it behind the figure. Then she flung both hands high +and her vibrant voice pealed through the Grove. + +"Regard all men the voice of the gods! By this sacred fire shall this +image be melted; and when it is gone, out of its many likenesses shall +remain the shape of him who stirred ye to mutiny against me. That shape +I shall show ye by the power of my will. Lest ye disbelieve that I have +this power, behold! Look for proof in the smoke behind me!" + +As she spoke she stirred the incense to a dense cloud of smoke, and her +blazing eyes, turned from her people, peered through the reek for a +reassuring sign from the rock, for what she now demanded of Milo called +for superhuman swiftness and surety. As the seconds sped, she kept the +smoke swirling thickly, and her voice rang out in a weird incantation +that kept the spectators trembling with the growing suspense. + +Then a triumphant note entered her speech; the smoke rose thicker for an +instant, then dissolved; and as it vanished, high on the rocky cliff, +framed, as it seemed, in the solid rock itself, stood the grim, cold +figure of the dead Red Jabez. + +In this, her grave extremity, Milo the strong, Milo the slave, more than +all, Milo the faithful, had not failed her. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE PIRATES' BARBECUE. + + +A moment of ghastly hush prevailed, then the Grove shook from sward to +tree-tops--pandemonium broke loose and all were in turmoil. + +No need now to wait for the verdict of the wax image; no further +shifting of brazen glances, or winking of knowing eyes. Shrill voices of +terrified blacks, hoarse bellowings of the hardiest rascals who had +ever kissed a dripping cutlas, the throaty roar of men who had played +willing lieutenants to the ringleader: all pealed up to high heaven for +the culprit to come forth and taste of the queen's justice rather than +wait for her vengeance. + +"Rufe! Yellow Rufe!" they howled. They howled it until the forest echoed +with the word. + +"Peace, Devilspawn!" cried Dolores, covering the crowd with an +all-embracing smile of utter scorn. "Think ye I need to hear the name? +Go, all of ye! Fill your swinish skins with liquor, and trouble me no +more this day. When I will that Yellow Rufe appear, here he shall be +drawn, whether he will or not. And in your carousal let this thought be +with ye: Ye are dogs and slaves of dogs; by my will ye live, at my word +ye die. The Red Chief is dead; I am your law, your queen, owner of your +bodies and souls! Let any of ye seek to imitate Yellow Rufe, and Milo +shall pick your limbs apart as if ye were flies. Go now; there is rum +broached, and wine; make a barbecue, and fill yourselves to bursting +like the vultures ye are!" + +"Hello, lads, that's your sort!" roared a purple-faced ruffian with a +hang-lip. "A right proper gal is that. Give her a huzza and crack yer +pipes, lads!" + +"Bravo, Hanglip!" bellowed another of the same kidney. Spotted Dog had +lost part of an ear, and the same knife had seamed his flabby jowl into +the likeness of a bloodhound's cheek; his deeply-pitted visage completed +the ensemble, and no other name would have fitted him as well. "Bravo, +old cutthroat! Let her play queens an' fairies, if she wants to. Here's +for th' jolly grog, lads. Hey, Stumpy, start a cheer for th' pretty +wench!" + +So had the spell of the Grove left them immediately they smelled the +fleshpots. But Dolores still held the altar; and Stumpy, having a keener +memory perhaps than most of his fellows, took the warning that flashed +from her angry eyes. He shivered slightly as his gaze met hers, then, +hopping forward on his one good leg and club-foot, he swung a knotty +fist against Spotted Dog's creased jowl and growled: + +"A turn wi' that poison tongue, Spotted Dog. All hands, too, hear me +talkin'. Here's a royal feast spread for us, an' th' spreader's queen o' +th' pirates! Don't ever ferget that, lads. I ain't hankerin' fer what +Rufe'll get. Away wi' you, now, an' I'll slit th' winepipe o' th' dog as +says disrespect to th' queen." + +And so the rascals trooped down to their hut-village. Noisily, +profanely, full of horseplay and ear-burning jests; but never a voice +spoke any word that failed in its homage when Dolores was the theme. + +Snugly settled around the great rock door, the pirates' village looked +out from a broad level platform over the darkening evening sea. In the +center, its rear abutting on the rock itself, stood the great council +hall and the dwelling of Dolores. In front of this black slaves busily +heaped a great bonfire; torches were thrust into iron rings on doorpost +and tree-trunk; noisy ruffians tramped into a cool cave in the rock and +trundled forth casks and horn cups; while Sancho, the Spaniard, bent +over a whetstone, giving his knife a final edge against the arrival of +the meat. + +A venomous devil was this Sancho, and his contorted face, with the +missing eye covered by a black patch, worked demoniacally in the +gathering darkness with each leaping flame of the ignited torches. The +hand that clutched the knife was a thing of horror; two fingers and half +the thumb remained from some drunken brawl to serve the Spaniard in +future play for work or debauch; and the man, crouching low over his +stone, made a picture of incarnate hate that had no humor in it. + +"Where's th' flesh?" screamed Sancho, looking up, his mutilated thumb +running creepily along the knife-edge. + +"Whet your tusks, lads, here's the blessed manna!" squealed Caliban, a +hunchbacked terror, who kept his maimed carcass secure by virtue of his +viperish temper, coupled with an uncanny skill of the cutlas. "Milo's +our man! Huzza for Milo!" + +Out from the trees stalked the giant Abyssinian, and the shadows and +torchlight distorted him to grotesque proportions. He walked as if his +weight was nothing; yet on his great shoulders he bore a half-grown ox, +its feet hobbled, its tongue hanging from its panting mouth. Straight to +the fire he stepped and cast his burden down, turning again without a +word and going back to the rock portals. + +"Meat for men!" screamed Sancho, crouching again, knife in hand. + +"For men!" echoed Caliban ferociously, and whipped his cutlas out. +"Stand clear!" he howled, and Sancho dodged aside. The little terror's +blade sang through the air with a wicked whistle; it curved high over +Sancho, then flashed down and plunged through the throat of the ox, +pinning the beast to the earth. And when he recovered his breath the +Spaniard swooped upon the prize, and his knife completed what the dwarf +had well begun. + +Then began an orgy that must render description bald and colorless. +Casks were broached by knocking out the heads; long horns of cattle were +filled to slopping over with rare wine or powerful rum; and then up +leaped Hanglip on to an unbroached cask, cup in hand, and bellowed a +toast that set the trees, the sea, the skies clamoring with rasping +applause. + +"The next vessel as heaves in sight, lads! May her sails be silk, her +masts be gold, and her great cabin full o' rum, with a pretty wench +sittin' atop o' every keg!" + +From the fire came the odor of roasting meat, and the black night came +down outside, making of the small circle where the pirates sprawled a +blotch of infernal light, peopled with infernal shapes. But a sprinkling +of faces a shade less evil leavened the mass; for to the feast came +trooping the women of the camp: of a kidney with the men--yet women, +with women's beguilements and softnesses. + +Dolores sat alone in the great chamber, careless of the noise outside, +her beautiful face dark with somber passion. Beside her chair Milo had +placed her treasure chests; hers now, through the death of the terrible +old corsair who had amassed them. Idly she had heaped the table with a +glittering collection of gems that an empress might well have found +interest in; but Dolores frowned as at so much dross, for her thoughts +were far away. The filmiest of lace and silken shawls, jeweled +slippers, gossamer-gold head dresses, pearls and rubies from India and +Persia--all lay in confusion at her hand, and aroused no spark of joy in +her breast. From time to time her brooding eyes flashed and fastened +upon a priceless Rembrandt "Laughing Cavalier" on the wall opposite; +they flashed again when her gaze shifted to a colossal Rubens "Rape of +the Sabines"; her face lighted for an instant when her fingers in +groping closed upon a cobwebby golden net, scintillating with cunningly +wrought jeweled insects caught in the meshes, which had once graced the +all-powerful head of Pompadour. + +"Where such things are, are better!" she whispered vehemently, clenching +her strong, slender hands fiercely. "Where such are fashioned and worn +there are people worthy my power. My people! Pah!" she burst out +passionately. "My people? Dogs! Cattle! Brutes without souls! There--" +she flung a hand impetuously toward the "Laughing Cavalier"--"there is +the pirate who should call me queen! There"--with a gesture toward +Rubens's great canvas--"are men that I would command. Here, I must stay, +why? Because a dead man willed it so. May I wither eternally if I make +not my own laws. Milo!" + +She clapped her hands, and in a moment the giant was before her, +reverent awe in every line of his huge body. + +"Sultana?" + +"Are my beasts well fed?" + +"They eat like crocodiles, guzzle like swine, Sultana." + +"See that the liquor flows freely, Milo. And a word in thy ear. We shall +go from here as quickly as the fates will send a ship. Let no sail pass +henceforth." + +"Lady, that may not be--" + +"Silence! Give me no may not! When I, Dolores, will to go, who shall +stay me?" + +"Death lies beyond the horizon for thee as for all of us, Sultana. +Pirate the Red Chief was last of the band; every man who calls thee +queen is under sentence of death; the pillage of a hundred ships lies +here. Here is safety. The Red Chief's law--" + +"Peace! I am the law! Seek me that ship--and quickly. Shall I live among +such carrion, when the world is peopled with such as those?" she cried +with a sweeping gesture toward a life-size "Three Graces," by Correggio, +epitomizing feminine grace indeed. + +"Thou art fairer, Sultana," replied the giant simply; and the girl +flushed warmly for all her moody dissatisfaction. She smiled kindly upon +the slave, and said more softly: "Thy devotion pleases me, Milo. Yet is +my will unchanged. Seek me that ship. I will go from here. Stay, if thou +wilt, or art afraid." + +"Lady," returned the giant, "when the Red Chief, thy father, took me +from the slave ship he gave me liberty--liberty to serve him. He has +gone; my care is now the queen, his daughter. Going or staying, Milo +remains thy bodyguard. Pardon if I offended thee; thy father desired +what I have told thee. But the ship. This evening, at sundown, a sail +leaped in sight beyond the Tongue." + +"This evening! And ye said no word of it?" cried Dolores, blazing with +fresh anger. She leaned forward in her chair as if crouching for a +spring. + +"It passed as swiftly as it appeared, Sultana. No other eye save mine +saw it; the men know nothing--" + +"It is well, Milo. I had forgotten thy eyes were twice as keen as any +other man's. Keep that condor's vision of thine bent to seaward, and +tell no man of what comes into view. Bring me the news; I shall know how +to keep my rascals in hand. Now go and send to me a woman to serve me: a +young woman, nimble and deft; give the old woman to the cooks for +scullery drudge." + +"A woman here, Sultana?" + +"Here! What bee buzzes in thy great head now?" The giant again looked +grave; the girl's impatience surged anew. + +"Sultana, don't forget that, save thee and me, servant of the great +chamber, none may enter here and go alive?" + +"Now by the fiend, enough!" blazed the girl. "Again, I am the law! Wilt +have it imprinted on thy great body with my whip?" + +Milo made a low obeisance, departed without further speech, and in a few +moments ushered in from the bacchanalian revels a maid for his +mistress. + +"Pascherette will serve thee well, Sultana," he said, leading the girl +forward. He saw approval in Dolores's face and departed, his luminous +black eyes unwontedly soft and limpid. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +MILO SIGHTS A SAIL. + + +Day broke through a silver haze, and as the blue sea unrolled to view, +far down to the southeast, flashed a pearly sliver of sail lazily +drawing in to the coast. It was the merest streak of white against the +sky, and none but Milo's sharp eyes could have seen it. Even at that +distance, and indistinct though it was in the mist, the giant detected +the three masts crossed with yards that proclaimed the vessel a +full-rigged ship. He gazed long and earnestly, to assure himself of the +ship's progress, then hurried along the mountain toward the village. + +He strode with the free stride of a perfect creature, swinging from the +hip and covering the ground at a common man's running pace. His vast +chest heaved and fell easily and rhythmically, the golden-hued skin +rippling and flashing in the rising sunlight; every line of limbs and +torso was the outward and visible sign of abounding health; the straight +black hair falling to his shoulders framed a keen, powerful face of +Semitic mold, in which the high brow and calm, fearless eyes belonged +rather to one of the blood-royal than to a slave. And rightly, too, for +Milo, the giant, was of princely line in his own land, and his present +servitude was an accident that had yet failed to rob him of his +birthright of dignity. + +He came abreast of and above the haven where lay the stout sloop and +boats of the community, and the sounds of noisy industry about the craft +brought a frown and a sneer to his face. It reminded him too vividly of +his actual station, and violently dragged him back from the realm of +visions he had allowed himself to indulge in. The pirates were busily +overhauling their gear, filling water casks, calking dried-out seams, +and sluicing opening decks with copious streams of water, just as they +were used to do in the palmy days when Red Jabez kept them gorged with +pillage. + +Milo hurried faster, for he feared they too had sighted his ship, and +sprang down to the shore to accost surly Caliban. + +"Here, Milo old buck, stick yer beak into this, lad!" screamed Caliban, +thrusting forward a brimming horn of wine. The giant declined +impatiently, waving a hand toward the activity afoot. + +"What, won't drink luck, hey?" cried the dwarf, emptying the horn +himself. "Ain't got the news yet, hey?" + +"News? What news can such as thee have that I am not told?" demanded +Milo contemptuously. Caliban scowled viciously at his tone, but the +giant's hands were strong, and the little ruffian loved his warped life. +He flung down his horn and retorted: "We're to windward o' ye this time, +Milo me lad. Th' queen bade us be ready for a lamb headed this way, an', +sure enough, there comes a craft now, a'most in sight from here. Small +fish, true, but sweet after so long a spell o' famine." + +Milo knew that the ship he had seen could not possibly have been +detected from the village. It must be yet another craft, and, without a +word, he bounded back up the cliff and scanned the waters closer +inshore. There, sure enough, lay a beautiful white schooner, her paint +dazzling to the eye, her decks flashing with metal, her canvas faultless +in fit and set and whiteness. She was still five miles distant and +slowly edging along the coast, as if indifferent to her tardy progress. +The giant noted her exact position, then presented himself to Dolores. + +The girl was luxuriously submitting to the skilful attentions of +Pascherette; her wealth of lustrous hair enveloped her like a veil, +rendering almost superfluous the filmy silken robe she had donned. But +at sight of Milo all her feline contentment fled, and she thrust the +maid from her and stood up to receive his report. + +"A ship?" she flashed. + +"Two, Sultana. The men make ready now." + +"The men? Dolt! Did I not tell thee to keep such news for me?" + +"They saw the small vessel while I was beyond the Tongue. They have not +seen the ship I saw, nor have I told them. It is a great ship, lady; +theirs is but a small, poor thing." + +"I will see it." Dolores suddenly remembered the maid, whose presence +she had ignored. Pascherette stood apart, a small, fairylike French +octoroon, dainty as a golden thistledown; her full red lips were parted +in eager inquisitiveness, and her slim, small body leaned forward, as if +to catch every word; but at sight of her Dolores burst into knowing +merriment, for the girl's eyes told her story. They were fastened in +intense, burning adoration, not on the mistress but on Milo, the giant +slave. + +"La-la, chit!" Dolores cried; "keep thy black eyes from my property." +But more weighty matters than a maid's fluttering bosom demanded her +attention, and she commanded sharply: "Milo, summon the men to the +council hall at once. Let none be absent. Go swiftly!" Milo went, and +Dolores flashed around on Pascherette again: "And thou, hussy, take this +clinging frippery from me and give me my tunic. And, mark me, girl, thy +eyes and ears belong to me. Thy tongue, too. Let that tongue utter one +word of what those eyes see, those ears hear, and it shall be plucked +from thy pretty mouth with hot pincers. Remember!" + +Dolores put on her tunic and swept out to steal a long look at the white +schooner before entering the hall. + +Into the council hall the pirates came trooping, tarry, wet, soiled with +the estuary mud as they were, and stood in a milling mob awaiting speech +from Dolores, who entered from the rear and scanned their faces closely. +Shuffling feet and whistling breath would not be stilled, even in her +presence, for their appetites were already whetted for a victim, and the +fumes of the previous night's debauch lingered. They glared at the girl +and cursed impatiently. + +"Hear!" commanded Dolores with an imperious gesture, and every sound was +muffled, not stilled. "Hear, my brave jackals! For long ye have hungered +for employment fit for the royal corsairs ye are. Now the meal is to +hand." The hall reverberated with the clamor that went up. Cutlases +scraped from their scabbards and swished aloft; bold Spotted Dog +snatched out his great horse-pistol and blazed into the floor, filling +the place with acrid smoke and noise. Dolores's eyes flashed angrily; +she governed her fury, and went on when the uproar subsided: "Your boats +are ready?" + +"Ready and rotting wi' idleness!" roared Hanglip. + +"And ye purpose wasting powder and shot on some paltry craft of the +islands! Wait, my brave lads, I have better game at hand!" + +Now the crowd was hushed in earnest, for none of them saw more than a +frolic coming from such a small craft as the schooner. The girl went on +to tell them of the big ship that Milo had seen, and she painted it a +rich West Indiaman, loaded to the hatches with rum and powder, gold and +jewels, delicate meats and--with emphasis which she carefully cloaked +yet made vivid--dainty ladies, no doubt. + +"Take ye the sloop, then," she commanded, "and bring me no tale of +failure. Ten miles southwest from the bluff she lies becalmed. Let no +man return without tribute for me. Go now!" + +With a whoop the evil ruffians tumbled out, hurling themselves pell-mell +down to the shore, and splashing out to the boats. Their sloop, a long, +beamy Cayman-built craft, of eighty tons and twelve murderous guns that +were cast for a king's ship, could be handled by four men or a hundred. +She carried fifty men now, and she sped out of the estuary before the +faint breeze with a velocity that spelled certain doom for any +square-rigged ship she ever lifted over the horizon. + +Dolores watched them go with inscrutable face; then commanded Milo to +attend her in the great chamber. Pascherette, not yet over her fright, +hovered tremblingly near, and her mistress dismissed her with a +pacifying pat on the head, flinging, at the same time, a string of +pearls around her neck that brought mingled gratitude, greed, and +conceit into her sparkling eyes. + +"How stands the schooner now?" Dolores asked when the girl had gone. + +"She drifts slowly, Sultana. There is little wind. Yet she ever comes +nearer." + +"Milo, that is my ship!" breathed Dolores fervidly. "I have jewels and +silken trash, the richest in my store, which my father told me were +taken from such a vessel. A yacht, he called that craft. 'Tis sailed for +pleasure; trade never soils the holds of such craft; men who sail such a +vessel as that which now hovers near us are of the kind from which comes +such as that!" Once more she indicated the "Laughing Cavalier," and now +her form and face were filled with surging ambition strengthened with +ardent hope. + +"How goes our sloop?" she asked abruptly. + +"Swiftly, but with the dying breath of the wind. By noon she will be +swinging idly, Sultana." + +"Who of the boldest rascals remain with us?" + +"The noisiest dogs have gone. Sancho remains, for Stumpy cracked his +head last night in a brawl. The others here are but cattle!" The giant +uttered the words with bitter scorn. + +"Then, at noon, Milo, we move to secure my ship!" Dolores cried with +gleaming eyes. "Set slaves to move out the false Point and anchor it a +cable-length off the true. I will have a plan then to lure the schooner +on. We must not let her escape, Milo!" + +"Pardon, lady, I know a way!" + +"And that?" + +"I will swim to the schooner and command them to thy presence." + +Dolores smiled whimsically, for she was too wise to be ignorant of the +fact that such men as were in that schooner must first be caught before +they might be commanded. Yet the giant's plan suggested another to her. + +"Hear my plan," she said. "That chit--Pascherette--she's a dainty minx! +Does she swim?" + +"Like a conger, Sultana!" Milo's face lighted warmly, and Dolores +shrewdly guessed then that the petite octoroon's regard for the giant +was not altogether unrequited. + +"Then carry her abreast of the vessel, quickly, and bid her swim out to +it. Let her use some of the cunning that is in her pretty little head, +and make them wonder what else our island has to offer in dainties. +Then, ere evening, I shall have work for thee that shall complete what +Pascherette begins. Command the minx to bring forth all her fascinations +and allurements. Nay, friend, have no fear for thy sweetheart. I warrant +thee she can care for herself, if she will. Go! It is my command!" + +Milo departed, and Dolores went out to the Grove, climbed nimbly to the +cliff-top, and sat down to watch. She had a clear view of the schooner +now winging lazily along three miles away and a mile off shore; the +shore, from the point where her rascals were even now towing out a great +mass of interlaced trees and foliage planted upon stout logs to form a +false point, right along to abreast of the schooner, lay immediately +beneath her eye; the blue sea glittered and flashed under the hot sun, +unruffled by wind, and only bursting into a long line of creamy foam, +where it licked the golden sands. The tall palms nodded languorously, +their deep green heads faintly chafing like sleeping crickets; the +tinkle of the sands came up to her ears like tiny bells. + +Dolores followed with her eyes two swiftly moving figures on the shore +path, hidden from the ocean by a mass of verdure, and she smiled +cryptically. The giant Milo strode on his way like the embodiment of +force; at his side tripped Pascherette, her glossy black crown barely +reaching above his waist, her tiny hand hidden completely in his great +fist. And she kept her bright eyes raised to his great height all the +while, satisfied that her little feet should trip, perhaps, if only her +eyes tripped not from his face. + +Presently they stopped, and Dolores stood up alertly. There was but a +moment's delay, while Pascherette bound her hair more securely; then, +with a flirting hand-wave, the little octoroon darted from Milo, +wriggled through the bushes, and ran lightly down to the sea. In another +moment her small, black head was moving rapidly toward the schooner, her +golden skin flashing warmly in the sun as her arms swept over and over +in an adept stroke that carried her forward with the speed of a fish. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE PARTY FROM THE YACHT. + + +The schooner yacht Feu Follette swam sluggishly along shore, her lofty +canvas flapping in the faint air. On her spotless quarter-deck, Rupert +Venner, wealthy idler and owner of the vessel, lounged in a deck-chair a +picture of the utter finality of boredom. His guests, Craik Tomlin and +John Pearse, made perfunctory pretense of admiring the lovely coast +scenery along the port hand; but their air was that of men surfeited +with sights, tired of the languorous calm, _blasé_ of life. + +The schooner's appointments typified money in abundance. From forecastle +capstan to binnacle she glowed and glittered with massive brass and +ornate gilding; along the waist six burnished-bronze cannon stood on +heavily carved carriages, lashings and breechings as white as a shark's +tooth; over the quarter-deck double awnings gave ample clearance to the +swing of the main boom--the outer of dazzling white canvas, the inner of +richest, striped silk-and-cotton mixture. The open doors of the +deckhouse companion revealed an interior of ivory paneling touched with +gold, and hung with heavy velvet punkahs. The walls were embellished +with exactly the right number of art gems to establish the artistic +perception of the owner and to whet the expectation for more yet unseen. +But, with all this, the Feu Follette housed a discontented master and +discontented guests. + +"Oh, for a breeze!" grumbled Pearse, breaking in on the frowning +silence. "How much longer are we to drift around these stagnant seas, +Venner?" + +"The very next slant of wind shall wing us homeward," replied Venner +dreamily. "I, too, am sick of the cruise and its deadly monotony." + +Again silence, marred only by creak of gear and flap of idle sails. The +schooner barely moved now, though the western sky held promise of a +breeze later on. Then came a cry from one of the negro crew forward, +and its tenor stirred the party into mild interest. + +"De debbil, ef 'tain't one o' dem marmaids! Oh, Cæsar!" + +A ripple of panting laughter alongside brought Venner and his guests to +the rail in haste, and gone to the windless heavens was their _ennui_. A +gleaming, gold-tinted creature, a miniature model of Aphrodite surely, +arose from the blue sea and climbed nimbly into the main channels and +thence to the deck, where little pools of water dripped from the radiant +figure. She shook her small head saucily, and heavy masses of raven-wing +hair tumbled about her, provokingly cloaking the charms so boldly +outlined by her single saturated tunic of fine silk. + +"Who in paradise may you be?" ejaculated Venner, while his friends +stared with unconscious rudeness. + +"I? I am Pascherette!" laughed the small vision, and her black eyes +sparkled impudently. + +"Pascherette!" echoed Tomlin, bewildered. "Does Jamaica hold such +beauties?" He awkwardly brought forward a deck-chair, while Pearse stood +by in speechless amazement. Venner, as better became the host, ordered a +steward to bring a wrap for the astounding visitor, but the girl laughed +provokingly and declined both. + +"It is not for such as I, fine gentlemen," she said, and her sharp eyes +were roving busily about the schooner, appraising values like a +veritable pirate. "Keep thy courtesies for better than I." + +"Better than you, girl?" Venner's tone was incredulous. He was taking +mental stock of the priceless pearls about Pascherette's dainty throat. +"To be found here?" + +"If not here, where shall ye find such a one as my mistress?" +Pascherette retorted saucily. + +"Your mistress?" + +"Without doubt. I am but a slave, my lady is the queen, Dolores." + +"A queen--a white woman?" stammered Venner. + +"Oh, Venner, let us look into this!" exclaimed Pearse with unconcealed +curiosity. + +"Just what we have prayed for!" Tomlin supplemented eagerly. "Anchor, +Venner, like a good fellow. A jaunt ashore will brace us all up." + +"Nonsense!" objected the owner, albeit with a good trace of +inquisitiveness himself. "The breeze will come by evening; and who knows +what this coast harbors? A bad name sticks to this shore." + +Pascherette had wandered forward, and between sly glances aft and keen +scrutiny shoreward, she flung seductive smiles broadcast at the grinning +crew, prattling prettily to officer and man alike, as if she were indeed +a stranger to the ways of shipboard. While she made her rounds the party +aft entered into a warm dispute; their curiosity was whetted, but not +sufficiently in Venner's case, to whom the safety of the yacht was +paramount just then. They wrangled for half an hour, and the schooner +drifted on until she was within a mile or so of the outflung false +Point. Then they were again startled out of their self-possession--this +time by a cry from the girl who leaned over the bulwarks a picture of +ardent admiration for something in the water. + +Double awnings and snowy hammock-cloths restricted the view shoreward +from the quarter-deck chairs, and surprise as deep as that which greeted +the girl surged through the disputing three at a great splashing over +the side, accompanied by the boom of a voice that must come from a +powerful, free-breathing chest. + +"Room for Milo, servant of Dolores!" the hail rang out, and by the same +means as Pascherette had used, up climbed Milo, to stand motionless +before the white men, an astounding and awe-inspiring shape. + +"Another slave of the mysterious queen?" demanded Venner, when recovered +from his astonishment. "It gets interesting, gentlemen. And what is your +errand, Goliath?" he inquired of Milo. + +"I know no Goliath. I am Milo. I come to summon ye to the presence of my +queen," returned the giant with as much unconcern as if he were inviting +the pirates to a barbecue. + +A titter of amusement passed over the three yachtsmen. It was tinged +with resentment, though, and only curiosity, aroused by shock upon +shock, prevented an angry rejoinder to Milo's speech that could only +have ended one way: in physical damage to three idle gentlemen of wealth +and pleasure. + +"A summons, hey?" scoffed Tomlin. "Your queen values her rank, I think." +A dangerous gleam crept into Milo's eyes, and Pearse detected it in +time. "Venner," he said quietly, "you cannot let this adventure pass. +Here's every element of sport held up to us. Let us obey this command, +and get at least a thrill out of this humdrum cruise." + +Venner was thinking of many things, and his mind needed little making +up. He had never lost sight of those pearls of Pascherette's; his eye +could not be deceived; they were priceless. And Pearse had not failed to +notice the green jade skull-charm that depended from Milo's columnar +neck, a jade skull with pearls for teeth like the altar brooch of +Dolores. And Tomlin, for all his expressed scorn, was tingling with +ardent desire for such piquant beauty and vivacity as Pascherette's. If +such a creature were the slave, then what could the mistress be? He +assumed a more complaisant attitude, and added his vote: "A good way of +passing away this odious calm spell, Venner. Let us go." + +"Where is this great queen, my Colossus?" Venner asked. + +"I will lead thee to her presence," replied Milo. "Thy boat will take us +there in a few moments. Further on, beyond that point, the ship may lie +safely in the haven." + +Venner called his sailing master, and together they examined the chart. +It showed a sand-bar stretching off the point, a deep-water channel, +narrow but accessible, close to. + +"You can work into that anchorage?" asked Venner. + +"Yes, sir, if the air don't die away altogether. It seems good ground by +the chart." + +"Then carry the schooner in and bring up. Call away my cutter, and"--in +an undertone--"keep a good watch, Peters, this is an evil coast." + + * * * * * + +The shrill pipes reverberated under the awnings, and sailors, neat and +trim in white uniforms that contrasted beautifully with their dark +skins, ran to man the graceful white cutter. Pascherette sat in the +stern-sheets, cuddled up like a pretty kitten on a crimson silk cushion, +and Milo stood erect, as firm as if on solid ground, between passengers +and rowers as the boat sped shoreward. As the two craft separated the +schooner stood out in veritable beauty, an exquisite thing of gold and +ivory, pearl and rose. Venner's eyes lighted with pride at sight of her. +Even a long, eventless cruise had not killed the artist in him. He +touched Milo softly on the thigh and said with a smile: + +"Has your queen anything like that, my friend?" + +Milo cast a disdainful glance at the yacht, abruptly turned away again, +and replied shortly: "That is nothing." + +"Nothing!" said Venner. "Then where have you seen daintier work of men's +hands and brains?" + +"Thou shall see. Thy ship is a petty thing." + +"Now, by Heaven, Venner, he has you there!" laughed Tomlin, never +ceasing for a moment from ogling Pascherette, who purred with +contentment and smiled slyly at the frown that came to Milo's face. + +"Oh, yes, a poor thing!" laughed Pascherette, hugging her knees and +rippling over with amusement. "My mistress is a great queen. +These"--touching her pearls--"thy rigging could be formed of such, if my +queen willed." + +"And in the house of such a great queen, my girl, are doubtless other +things of beauty and worth?" put in Venner with growing sarcasm. + +"As witness this pretty wench!" smiled Tomlin, striving to fix the +girl's capricious attention, which persisted in flying ever to Milo. + +"Patience," returned Milo. "Do ye know of anything of untold worth--my +queen has that which will buy it? Have ye seen a thing of peerless +beauty--in my queen's house are many of its peers! Patience!" + +No word more would the giant utter. Like a bronze statue he stood erect, +guiding the cutter to a small landing with a silent gesture. And as the +boat swept alongside and the yachtsmen began to experience the thrill of +near expectancy, Pearse caught sight of a knot of men loitering on the +nearby slopes, and their appearance startled him. + +"Good Lord, look at those piratical ruffians!" he cried. + +His companions started, and doubt came into their faces. Then +Pascherette arose from her seat and pressed near to Tomlin, with an +insinuating, caressing movement; and that ardent gentleman exclaimed +impatiently: "Oh, never mind their looks! Come on Venner! This is what +I've dreamed of all my life! Come on!" + +Milo touched Pearse's arm, said briefly, "Come!" and that reluctant +visitor stepped ashore; while Venner, after a little twinge of +misgiving, succumbed to his curiosity regarding the hidden glories of +this strange realm, and followed the great black readily enough. + +Up the cliff they followed Milo, Pascherette running ahead and looking +backward ever and again with a seductive gesture of invitation; and in +good time they stood before the council hall, the loitering pirates +staring at them wonderingly, and from them to the graceful white +schooner just then entering the narrow channel. + +"Enter!" said Milo, and stood aside at the open door. + +The interior was dark and awfully still, and the three white men paused +on the threshold doubtfully, regarding each other with half-ashamed +faces. + +"Enter!" reiterated Milo, and curiosity got the better of them, for a +swirl of fragrance eddied out to them, and one by one, until the hall +was dotted with them, ruby and amber lights twinkled before them, +seeming to beckon them on to something mysterious in the shadows beyond +the soft lights. + +"Neck or nothing!" muttered Venner, leading the way. His friends +followed in silence. Then the doors closed behind them; but fear, doubt, +unbelief, all went to the winds at the spectacle that slowly unfolded +itself before their gaze. + +"Cleopatra reincarnated, by God!" gasped Venner. His friends could find +no words to express their sensations in that moment. + +Dolores glided out from the heavy hangings behind her chair of state, +and stood, a vision of majestic loveliness, on the dais. Clad in her +short tunic, her hair bound to her brow by the gold circlet that Milo +had made, she had calculated effects with the art of a Circe. Her +rounded arms and bare shoulders, faultless throat and swelling bosom, +radiant enough in their own fair perfection, she had embellished with +such jewels as subtly served to accentuate even that perfection. Upon +one polished forearm a bracelet was pressed, a gaud formed from one +immense emerald cut in a fashion that forced one to doubt the existence +of such a cutter in mortal form. About her neck a rope of exquisitely +matched black pearls supported a single uncut emerald which might have +been born in the same matrix with that on her arm. Her red leather +sandals were fastened, and her ankles crisscrossed, with such bands of +glittering fire as a goddess might have stolen from the belt of Orion. + +These things were revealed gradually by cunningly manipulated light +effects until Dolores blazed out entire before her stupefied guests. +They, seeking for relief from the spell, sought in her face some answer +to the riddle; but her expression was that of a being apart: +tantalizingly, inscrutably indifferent to their presence. Then Milo +advanced, prostrated himself before her, and reported his errand done. +"Rise, Milo, and I thank thee," she said, and her soft, yet vibrant, +voice sent a thrill through her waiting guests. Dolores waved a hand +toward the door. "Send Sancho in to me at once, Milo, and do ye watch +for the return of my wolves." + +The giant went out; yet the calm face of Dolores gave no relief to the +three yachtsmen; uneasiness began to sit heavily upon them, and it was +not lessened by the entry of Sancho, for such an awful impersonation of +evil in one man they had never seen before. + +"Sancho," Dolores commanded him, "it is my will that the vessel now +entering my haven be cared for as mine. See to it!" + +"The lads are hungry, lady; it is long since they tasted such--" Sancho +snarled his protest with wickedly curling lips that revealed ragged +yellow fangs. Dolores stared him down with blazing eyes, held his gaze +for a breath and uttered: "Go! See to it! Thy life is the bond!" and +Sancho slunk out like a whipped cur. + +There was an uncanny hint of dynamic force in the girl's swift +assumption of authority, and Tomlin found his throat very dry despite +the fact that he was drinking greedily of her beauty. Venner stole a +look at Pearse, and saw in that gentleman a reflection of his own rising +uneasiness. And then, at that instant of shivery doubt, Dolores smiled +at them; and in that same instant three men, with immortal souls, forgot +everything of the world and affairs in the mad intoxication of her +charm. + +"Welcome, sirs," she smiled, and stepped down to offer each a hand in +turn--not in handshake, but with an air that said plainly homage was due +to her; and whether he would or not, each of her guests raised the hand +to his lips with reverence. + +"What is your pleasure, lady?" asked Venner quietly. He was resolved to +show his friends the way into this magnificent creature's intimate +confidence; and the resolution promised interesting developments, for +each of his friends nursed a similar one. There was, even now, less of +comradeship in the looks with which the friends regarded each other. If +Dolores detected this, she made no sign. She gave a hand to Venner, led +him to the door, and smiled invitation to the others. They followed +hungrily. + +"I will give thee food and wine," she said; "then I have much to say to +thee. I have commanded that thy ship and thy men be cared for; to-night +ye are my guests. Come! But first give me thy swords. Thou'rt with +friends." They complied dumbly, dazed by her radiant charm. + +They stepped outside into the glaring sunlight; a light breeze was now +singing in the tall palms and making silvery music of the wavelets along +the shore; far away to the southwest a sliver of sail was in sight, and +to a practised eye could be made out as the pirate sloop returning. +Dolores glanced swiftly around, seeking some evidence that her commands +to Sancho were being obeyed; but she saw no man--no figure save the +ancient crone she had discarded and sent to the drudgery of the kitchen. +With a keen sidelong glance she saw that the schooner was heavily +grounded on the Point; a second glance told her that her guests were +thinking little of the schooner, for their eyes never left her face. But +notice was forced upon them, and the reason for the camp's desertion +impressed upon her, by the weird, drawn-out scream of jubilation that +issued from the old woman's withered throat an instant before her old +eyes gave her sight of her mistress and froze the cry at her lips. + +"Ha, ha, ha!" she shrieked, waving skinny arms. "That's the way Red +Jabez taught his lambs! Flesh your blade, my bully Rufe, and bring me +some of the meat!" + +Abruptly Dolores's guests swung around to follow the direction of the +old woman's arm, and the girl darted a look of fury at the scene. Out +from the point poured Yellow Rufe and a horde of strange mulattos and +blacks, and shots crackled from the schooner's rails. On the little bay +two boats filled with Sancho and his men pulled frantically toward the +fight, and the haven rang with howls of gleeful anticipation. Venner +uttered a smoking oath, and clutched Tomlin and Pearse by the arms. + +"Come fellows!" he cried. "This is treachery!" + +"Treachery? Ye wrong me, sirs!" Dolores's soft voice halted them. They +stared at her, and she gave them back look for look until she saw the +blood surge back to their faces and their eyes lose their hardness. Then +she laughed, low and sweet, and waved them back. + +"Wait. I shall preserve thy ship, and give thee back an eye for an eye +if thy men are harmed. Trust me, will ye not?" She paused a moment to +thrill them with her eyes; they stayed. They she sped down the cliff +like a deer. + + +TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month. + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE ATTACK ON THE FEU FOLLETTE. + + +By means of the floating blind the Point had been carried out across the +narrow channel until its edge rested on the bar; and the schooner lay +with a heavy list broadside on to the hard sand. Yellow Rufe and his +followers, runaways from the pirates' camp, maroons banished from their +homes for crimes against their fellows, rebellious slaves, and what not, +splashed through the shallow water and stormed the Feu Follette by way +of the jib-boom and head-rigging, while Sancho urged his boats on toward +the vessel's quarters. + +Dolores, uncertain yet as to Sancho's motives, but in no uncertainty as +to Rufe's, paused but to look around for Milo as she leaped down the +cliff. The giant was even then engaged in thwarting an inclination on +the part of the yachtsmen to follow Dolores, for, her spell gone for the +moment, Venner felt all an owner's solicitude for his property. But Milo +had been well schooled; he knew how to play upon little weaknesses; +Pascherette had told him, if he had not seen for himself, how +amorousness and cupidity formed the key-note of character in the +visitors; and now he used the knowledge to the fullest extent. The +little octoroon appeared as Dolores watched; she had hastily attired +herself in dry clothes, a single garment more filmy and daring than that +she had worn to swim aboard the schooner, and from her mistress's store +had borrowed jewels that transformed her into a beautiful little golden +butterfly. + +Dolores saw all this in a flash; she saw Pascherette take capable charge +of the three men, led them away from the cliff, and then Milo advanced +to the steep path. Turning swiftly to resume her career, Dolores uttered +a shrill, piercing cry that the giant understood perfectly, and she +plunged into the sea as he bounded down the slope to her support. + +The schooner's crew were already hard pressed; but they fought like men, +led courageously by Peters, the sailing master. As Dolores cleft the +sparkling water, speeding out to them like a gorgeous sprite of the +waves, men tugged at gun-tackles to swing a piece around to rake their +own decks, for Yellow Rufe and his ruffians had swept the forecastle +clear of defenders. And Dolores reached the vessel, climbed over the +low-listing rail nimbly as a jungle cat, at the instant when Sancho's +boats hooked on to the main-chains and took the crew in the rear. + +The pirate queen stood for a single long breath to grasp the scene in +its entirety. Panting slightly from her exertions, her blazing eyes and +heaving breast rendered her a figure of bewildering and awful +loveliness; and the Feu Follette's men paused in the fight out of sheer +amazement. + +Sancho's gaze fell on her the moment his evil head topped the rail, and +into his eyes crept an expression of detected insubordination. He sought +Yellow Rufe, but Dolores had seen all she needed to apprise her that +this was a concerted attempt to flout her authority. Then Rufe's hoarse +roar went up, and the tide of struggling men surged anew, and Sancho, +plucking up heart, rejoined with a scream. + +"Into the sea with the dogs!" he cried. "'Tis such a craft as Jabez +would love to see ye carry." + +The fight rolled aft, and Dolores was left standing alone by the midship +shot-rack. She singled out a few of her men by name, and commanded them +to rally to her side; then, seizing a cutlas from the deck, she glided +tigerishly to the main companionway, down which the pirates were now +driving the beaten crew, and the men she had picked out were shorn of +all indecision as Milo leaped on board with a bull-throated shout and +gained her side. + +"Sancho! Rufe! Have done with this play!" she cried, placing herself in +front of the blood-hungry horde. "Dogs, fall back! Have ye no memory +that ye forget how Dolores strikes?" + +Milo had picked up a handspike, and with it across his breast he bore +back the scowling rascals, smiling the while himself with quiet +contempt. But one, hardier than the rest, ran to the skylight, dashed in +the glass with his boot, and cried with outflung arm: + +"A plague upon her and her strokes. See yonder, lads--her cunning +trick--our sloop comes back empty-handed, as she well knew it would--and +here lies to your hands work that the Red Chief had reveled in. Down +with her and the big bull! Below is loot fit for bold fellows." + +Without moving from where he stood, Milo pivoted around, the heavy +handspike--six feet of true ash--rigid as a bar of iron, took the +overbold pirate at the base of the skull and spilled his brains into the +breach he had made. Growling with fury, a man from Sancho's crew sprang +to avenge the stroke with steel, and his blade creased down Milo's +sturdy ribs before the giant had recovered from his own swing. And with +the hissing slit of ripping skin Milo's debt was paid for him. Dolores, +agile as a panther, reached the pirate with her cutlas pointed, and the +steel hilt rang against his breast-bone. + +But in the momentary pause in her vigilance, a score of Rufe's ruffians +burst past her and poured below into the saloon, where renewed sounds of +combat told of the ferreting out of the beaten crew. + +"Milo, follow me!" cried Dolores, springing down the stairs herself, +careless whether her wavering half-dozen followed or stayed. Her whole +soul was sickened with the fear that this vessel, the long-wished-for +means of her release from what had become a hateful bondage, was in +danger of destruction at the red hands of Rufe's undisciplined dogs. And +swiftly approaching on the freshening evening breeze her sloop grew +momentarily clearer to the eye; it was easy to fancy she could hear the +howls of disappointed rage pealing up from her deck; it needed no second +sight to determine the side those humiliated pirates would take, when +they hove alongside another prey which promised at least a taste of +coveted loot. + +In the brief time since the pirates' entry the schooner's saloon had +become a place of desolation. All the magnificence of unrestricted cost +was there; and all the beauty of artistic selection; and over all was +the mark of the beast--blood and torn hangings, corpses and splintered +panels, chaos and sulfur smoke as the pillage started. Dolores sought +out through the smoke a breathing man in the uniform of the yacht, and +swiftly placed her lips to his ear, her mind made up to a terrible +expedient to save this vessel for herself. + +"Tell me quickly--where is the magazine?" + +The man opened his agonized eyes, saw that splendid blazing face close +to his own, and shook his head loyally. He would give his master's +enemies no assistance. + +"Speak, fool!" she hissed, shaking him. They were alone by the great +table-leg on the red-stained carpet. "I would defeat these sharks! Where +is the powder?" + +The man looked into her eyes again, and she smiled at him. It was +enough. He weakly pointed to a stout door on the starboard side, forward +of the sailing master's stateroom door, beyond which the sound of axes +already resounded. The owner's and guests' quarters were filled to +overflowing with ravenous wolves tearing and ripping in a frenzy of +pillage. At the after-end of the saloon a pirate stood over a great +cask, issuing jugs of liquor to such of his fellows as found time amid +the riot to drink. Milo gripped his handspike, waiting for a command +that should send him like awful Fate into the thick of the murderous +mob. + +"Milo! Bring me a powder-keg from that magazine!" Dolores said, still +crouching low and hidden beneath the smoke-pall. The giant entered the +room, shattering the lock with a lunge of his shoulder, and returned +bearing an unopened keg of cannon powder. + +"Place it upon the table." Then the girl rose to her feet with eyes +glittering coldly and lips pressed to a tight line. "Find me a lighted +brand--swiftly!" she said, and when the giant snatched up a splinter of +dry wood, lighting it at the steward's brazier in the little pantry off +the saloon, she swept majestically aft to suddenly confront the roaring +ruffian at the wine cask. + +"Milo, hurl this liquor cask away!" + +Milo picked up the heavy barrel as a man might pick up a cushion, heaved +it above his head, and flung it like a cannon-shot at the door, behind +which rang the greatest noise, while the pirate, whose care the wine had +been, gaped like a stranded fish. + +"Now this dog!" + +The man followed his cask before his mouth closed from his astonishment; +but as he flew his leathern lungs performed their office and warned the +pillagers of peril. Out from cabins and storerooms poured the rascals, +gorged with fine wines and delicate foods seized in their pillaging; +steamy with blood not yet dried on their bestial faces. And when the +great saloon was full, Dolores raised her torch above her head and +blazed out at them: + +"In five short breaths this vessel carries all thy black souls to hell! +Skulking rats, swim while the breath is in you!" + +The torch came down, Milo smashed in the head of the keg, revealing the +terrible contents, and as if in grim jest he snatched up a sprinkling of +the powder and flicked some grains into the flare of the torch. If there +had been any doubt as to the deadly earnestness of Dolores, there could +be none now, for sparks crackled and spit in fearful nearness to that +open keg. Men stampeded for the stairs, hurling each other down in their +frenzy; but Yellow Rufe and Sancho lingered. Theirs had been the +gravest fault; if they fled, it must be only to do penance some other +day; if they forced Dolores's hand, at least she and that scornful giant +must die the death also. They stood their ground, staring defiantly into +her expressionless face. + +Dolores spoke no word more. Milo stood like a bronze figure of Doom at +her side, his noble face expressionless as hers. Between them stood that +keg of terrible possibilities. The girl lowered the torch until the +flame all but licked the wood of the keg; a dropping piece of charred +wood fell audibly against the side. Sancho's breath caught painfully; +Yellow Rufe's bloodshot eyes wavered. Still they held on. + +"Milo, I give thee freedom!" said Dolores in a low, distinct voice that +carried to their ears like the sound of a silver bell. "Farewell, +faithful friend!" + +The torch swept around, fanning to a blaze in the eddying air, then +darted toward the keg. And with a yell that echoed on deck and far out +over the sea, Yellow Rufe and Sancho turned and fled, fighting with each +other, as had their less bold fellows, for the precious air of safety. + +Dolores laughed contemptuously, flung the torch aside and bade Milo +trample it out, then she, too, ascended to the deck to view her victory. +The sea was dotted with swimming men, the beach was full of running men, +terrified men made the cliff resound with their cries. Then, sure that +the schooner was free of foes, Dolores looked toward the sloop, now +within hail of the schooner and coming fast with sail and sweeps, while +her crew stared over the low bulwarks in puzzlement as to the reason for +the hasty exodus from the strange craft. + +"Here, Milo, is fresh fare of trouble. Hast brought my own flag?" + +"Here, Sultana," replied Milo, taking a carefully folded silken banner +from a pocket in his leathern tunic. + +"Hoist it, then, at the main! Perhaps Hanglip and Caliban, Stumpy and +the rest of my brave jackals, will forego their expected meal at sight +of it. And send forth a shout for slaves; this vessel must be cleansed +and her people's wounds attended to." + +Up at the schooner's lofty main-truck the Sultana's private flag +fluttered out; the mark and sign of Dolores's ownership. And while three +anxious yachtsmen on the cliff-top waited for her return, a hundred and +twenty hungry and thirsty baffled ruffians on the sloop cursed her +vehemently in their hoarse, dry throats. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +DOLORES DELIVERS JUDGMENT. + + +On the level sward before the village the three yachtsmen paced back and +forth in an ecstasy of apprehension. Pascherette had left them, after +playing them like fish with her own charms and a hinted promise of +Dolores's favors as bait; and the moment they were alone Venner shook +off the spell in a resurging determination to attend to the safety of +his vessel in person. + +"Follow me, Pearse; come Tomlin!" he said. "We are three mad fools to +stand here while these pirates loot and wreck the Feu Follette!" + +Tomlin shuddered as he started to follow. Pearse kept silence, but did +not hesitate. But they had not stepped ten paces before they realized +fully the completeness of their helplessness, for Venner, first to +attempt the path down, was brought to a halt by a musket leveled at his +breast, the musketeer showing only his head and shoulders above the +cliff edge. And as Tomlin and Pearse came up, they, too, were abruptly +halted in like manner; and a grinning Carib motioned each back with an +unspoken command which was none the less inexorable. + +They returned to their first positions, and resumed their nervous walk, +condemning themselves as utter idiots for venturing unarmed into such a +nest of vipers at the urge of curiosity, novelty, feminine attraction, +greed--whatever their motives had been. And here Dolores came upon them, +while all about them swarmed the disgruntled pirates from the sloop, and +those of the mutineers whose abject fears warned them to take whatever +punishment their queen chose to mete out rather than to escape only to +be brought back to endure penalties immeasurably more terrible. + +Yellow Rufe and Sancho were not minded to stay, however; they had +vanished; and Dolores's keen eyes noted this the moment she surveyed the +scene. She walked swiftly to the door of the council hall, turned to +face the mob, and lifted an arm for attention. Then fell a hush full of +anxiety or terror, according to the degree of culpability in the +consciousness of her audience. + +"Summon every creature in the village," she cried, "and let no man or +woman dare to leave this place until ye hear my thoughts concerning this +day's work!" + +Men scattered eagerly through the huts, calling by name all who were not +present in the crowd, and presently more of the community came out, +their faces mostly reflecting the terror that was in their souls; for +none might ever foretell the moods of their queen. Inscrutable as night, +her eyes were like pools of violet shadow wherein lurked promise or +threat of unimaginable things; every line of her face and form was a +line of a riddle that could prove in the solution either magnificent +generosity, fearless justice, or implacable vengeance: like the +lightning, Dolores struck where she willed, and in what fashion she +chose; it was useless to attempt avoidance. + +Venner and his friends looked on curiously, a feeling akin to awe +pervading them at the increasing evidence before their eyes of the power +wielded by this splendid fury, they had yet to know. When all were +present, except those whose activities on the schooner had already +procured them a passport to another world, Dolores swept the crowd with +a penetrating glance and called for Milo, who appeared from the rear of +the council hall laden with chains and bilboes which he cast down at her +feet. Then the angry impatience of the disappointed sloop's crew proved +too intense, and Caliban bounded to the front, squealing shrilly: + +"The fiend may take you with your irons! Shall we, men who followed Red +Jabez through a sea of blood, cower to a woman of such soft mettle? +Dolores, queen or woman or wench, it is for you, not us, to explain. +Lads--" he shrieked, flashing about and haranguing his companions--"back +me in this. We will know why the sloop lacked powder; why to-day's work +has brought no reward!" + +The deformed little demon stepped back to the crowd, and paced to and +fro with feverish gestures, scowling blackly at every turn that brought +him face to face with Dolores. The packed mob milled and murmured, some +afraid, many of Caliban's mind yet not daring to openly support him. +Venner and his friends sensed the thrill of it, for their brief +experience of the pirate queen left them in slight doubt as to the +outcome of Caliban's speech. Dolores herself stood motionless for a full +minute after the hunchback ceased his defiance, and under her lowered, +heavily lashed eyelids the dark eyes seemed to slumber; only in her lips +was any trace of the alertness that governed her brain, and those +scarlet petals, which seemed to have been plucked from a love flower in +the garden of passion, slowly, almost imperceptibly parted, until the +dazzling teeth gleamed through in a smile that none might yet determine +whether soft or terrible. And as the seconds heaped suspense upon +suspense, the overbold Caliban was seized with a choking fear that he +was to pay the price. Then Dolores spoke, slowly, quietly, almost +soothingly; and those of her hardened ruffians who thought they knew her +best hung on her words in shivery uncertainty. + +"For those bold words, Caliban, my father had stripped thy poisonous +skin from thy putrid flesh. Yesterday thy queen might not have proved +more merciful. Yet do I know how thy disappointment chafes thy brave +soul, and because of that thy rash speech goes unpunished." The hush +intensified, for the leniency of Dolores was little less to be feared +than her fury. A smile of ineffable radiance broke over her beautiful +face, and she extended her right hand and said, still in the same slow, +even voice: "Come, Caliban. Thou art worthy of my mercy. Kneel, that I +may know thy heart is right." + +Now the suspense reached its climax. Somewhere behind those softly +spoken words surely lurked some awful, cunningly cloaked threat. +Caliban went white, ghastly; his brave tongue stuck to his palate, and +the thin lips slavered with growing panic. + +"Come, Caliban!" + +The girl's command was uttered no louder, her expression was unchanged; +in her glorious eyes gleamed no trace of anything other than benign +forgiveness; she remained motionless as before, with her rounded arm and +shapely hand extended in a manner that revealed their every perfection. + +"Come, Caliban!" + +Again the words fell from her smiling lips, and now the quivering +hunchback obeyed, drawn irresistibly by her magnetism, sick with dread +of the stroke he in common with all his mates expected to fall. + +"Kneel! See, I give thee my hand to kiss," Dolores said, and smiled upon +the cowering wretch with a tender brilliance that sent a tremendous +flutter through the hearts of the three yachtsmen. + +Caliban knelt and took the proffered hand, then at her word he stood +before her, scarcely certain yet that his head was solidly established +on his shoulders. She motioned him to stand on one side of her, then, +aglow with warm color, she addressed the puzzled throng: + +"My bold sea tigers, the ship that escaped thy sloop is but one ship. +The seas are full of such. Yet, until to-day, how many have ye been +forced to let go because of thy poor equipment in craft? Thy sloop, how +small, how old--yet what rich prey escaped thy guns since the Red +Chief's swift brig laid her bones here? None! Yet ye complain because I +prevented thee destroying the beautiful schooner the gods have this day +sent to us!" + +Now the purport of her speech struck home; the seemingly soft-brained +weakness that had forbidden the rape and pillage of the schooner stood +in part explained. And as the light filtered through thick skulls and +shone upon all but atrophied brains, a deep muttering swelled into the +embryo of a throaty cheer that needed but one look of encouragement from +Dolores to spring into noisy life. As for Venner, his expression was +reflected in Tomlin, and both in Pearse; and awakening or resurrected, +fear was the keynote of all. + +"The vampire means to suck us dry after all!" whispered Venner hoarsely. +His friends could only squeeze his arm in mute sympathy. They harbored +no doubts at all. + +Dolores went on: + +"With such a vessel as this"--pointing to the schooner--"that Indiaman +to-day had never shown heels. And more, how think ye my store is +replenished? Dost think I tap the rock for wine? Does Milo crush the +granite and bring forth meat for thy hungry bellies? Are my treasures +kept at high tide by snatching the colors from the sunset? Fools!" she +cried, and for a moment passion conquered her calm. "In that schooner +are wines that will make thy hot blood living flame; meats that will put +teeth into the throats of the toothless; treasures fit for thy queen's +treasury. And more to thy hand, my brave jackals, those pretty pieces of +ordnance, which the sun even now paints with liquid gold, will outrange +the guns of a king's ship." Pausing, she bent upon the murmuring crew a +look of blazing majesty; then concluded with a vibrant demand: "Now dost +know why thy queen withheld thy senseless hands from witless +destruction?" + +Her question was scarcely heard before the answer came. From a hundred +rusty throats pealed a huzzah that rolled out over the sea and sent the +sea-birds squawking with fright to more peaceful surroundings. + +"Dolores! Dolores! That's a queen for the tribe of Jolly Roger!" howled +Hanglip, and tumult rang again. + +The girl raised her hand, and silence fell once more. + +"Hear my judgment upon such of ye as are not of thy mind," she cried, +and now the smile had gone; her eyes flashed and the words fell red-hot +from her scornful lips. + +"I demand no tales from thy mouths. Hiding among these woods Yellow Rufe +and Sancho, he of the one eye and the mutilated hand, think to ward off +my vengeance. By meridian to-morrow I command those traitors to be +brought to me. Fail in this, and ye shall see that Dolores can be +terrible, too." + +The crowd took this as a dismissal, and broke into parties to scour the +woods. Only slaves and women remained, and Pascherette ran to her +mistress's side and whispered, with a sidelong look of coquettish +allurement at Venner and his friends. + +"Something about to happen!" Venner whispered, hoping that it might +prove something in recompense for his day of stress. Dolores cast a look +of cool indifference toward them and told Milo: + +"Put these strangers in separate chambers, Milo. Iron them securely and +look to it well. Thou art answerable for them." + +No more. She took Pascherette and departed. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE SULTANA DECIDES SEVERAL THINGS. + + +There was a moment of cruel amazement for Venner and the others when +Dolores had gone; then Milo, approaching with his irons and chains, +awoke the captives to resistance. + +"No chains for me, by God!" shouted Venner, crouching to ward off the +giant's approach. "Tomlin, Pearse, break for the schooner! I'll hold +this savage. We shall perhaps fail; but by the powers of justice we'll +go down fighting on our own ship!" + +He sprang at Milo as he spoke, and his friends hesitated. Milo, without +haste, without change of countenance, dropped his irons and reached +Venner with great deliberate strides. And in that momentary hesitation +Tomlin and Pearse were lost with their host; for the giant stretched out +one tremendous arm, seized Venner by the slack breast of his shirt, and +lifted him from the ground, flailing with both hands like some puny +child in the grip of his nurse. + +Milo spoke no word. He gave no more attention to Venner's futile blows +than to the whispering of the sands of the shore. But bearing ever +toward the other two men, now seemingly paralyzed out of all volition by +the awful exhibition of strength, he reached out with his free hand and +added Tomlin to his capture as he had taken Venner. + +Pearse might even now have made his bid for liberty; but he was no +coward to desert his companions. He uttered a choking cry of mingled +fear and defiance, and rushed in between his friends to swing a heavy +blow with his fist fair upon the giant's unprotected temple. Now Milo +gave sign of interest. He laughed: a deep, rumbling, pleasant laugh of +appreciation for the courage that prompted the blow; but he never +blinked at the impact, nor did he attempt to avoid another blow that +came swiftly. Simply putting forth a greater effort of muscle he swung +his two captives apart, held them at arm's length while the sinews of +his mighty chest and beamlike arms writhed and rippled like snakes, and +rushed upon Pearse with the terrible resistlessness of an avalanche. A +shower of blows pounded his face and breast as he closed, then he +laughed again; this time triumphantly; for Pearse was enfolded between +Venner and Tomlin in a hug that spelled suffocation did he persist in +his struggles. + +The swift conquest had taken but minutes; none but a few women of the +camp had seen it; and they, well used to such scenes, simply chattered +and smiled pityingly, not with pity for the men, but for the futility of +their resistance. Milo, scarcely breathing above normal, called loudly: +"Pascherette!" and gave his prisoners another quieting squeeze. + +Pascherette was with her mistress. She did not answer, and Milo called +again: "Pascherette!" + +The other women drew near, and on many a wickedly fair face shone a +light of hope that its wearer might serve in Pascherette's place, no +matter what the errand; for it was not the _petite_ golden octoroon +alone who had sighed for love of the giant. + +"Pascherette is with the Sultana, Milo. Let me answer for her," spoke +out a dark beauty whose sparkling eyes held the craft and wisdom of a +harpy. + +"I--" and "I--" came other voices, and the women gathered around. "What +do you need, good Milo?" + +"Open three chambers behind the council hall. In each must be a +fettering ring. Make speed. Go!" + +The women ran, and Milo made his capture more complete. Flinging the +three men down, breathless and numbed from his grasp, he swiftly +clapped leg-irons on them one after the other, then stood up, holding +the long chains together in one huge fist until the women cried out that +the chambers were ready. + +The bruised and subdued yachtsmen were placed in their separate cells, +fettered to great iron rings, and left to cogitate over their probable +fate. They were not even permitted the solace of intercourse; but as +each grew more accustomed to the gloom inside, he discerned that it was +no part of the plan to permit him to hunger or thirst, for a subtle +gleam of ruby light shot into each small room from an unseen source, +intensifying gradually and touched with its infernal radiance a small +tabouret on which stood a silver flagon and a dish of the same metal +containing meat. + +Milo went to the great chamber in the Cave of Terrible Things when the +doors had closed on his prisoners, and presented himself to Dolores. He +found Pascherette prostrate on the floor before the queen, whimpering +and sobbing with terror. Over her Dolores stood like Wrath in person, +her beautiful face distorted with passion, fire blazing in her eyes, her +breast heaving tumultuously. In her hand she held a cat-o'-nine-tails--a +dainty, vicious, splendid instrument of terror--formed of plaited human +hair of as many shades as thongs, studded with nuggets of gold instead +of lead--and none the less terrible for that--set in a cunningly carved +handle of ivory. And as Milo entered, she held the whip aloft in a +quivering hand, and cried to Pascherette: + +"Speak, or I flay thee, traitor! What wert telling the villain, Sancho?" + +Pascherette whined and cringed; she could not, or would not speak. The +whip quivered, was about to fall on those dainty bare shoulders, when +Milo, uttering a choking cry, flung himself forward and took the blow on +his face. Dolores started back, a thing of fury, as Milo cast himself at +her feet, his head on the ground, and said with submission: + +"Spare the child, Sultana. Let my back bear her penance. She is faithful +to thee." + +Dolores halted an instant between redoubled rage and mercy; then she +flung down the whip with a hard laugh, seated herself in the great +chair, and bade Milo and the girl rise and come to her. + +"Milo, thou'rt a fool!" she said. "Were thy brain as great as thy great +heart the world might well be thine. I tell thee, child or no child, +that chit is woman enough to have bound thee her slave. She is woman +enough, too, to hold secret converse with my foes. Do thou speak to her +now and learn for me what traffic she had with Sancho the morning after +I took her as my handmaid. I give thee scant time; if I learn it not +swiftly neither thou nor she shall leave this chamber alive!" + +With her giant beside her, Pascherette's fears subsided in part. She +peered up at him shyly and stepped closer to him, as if to seek actual +shelter from the storm that threatened her; but her frightened, +dependent demeanor was scarcely in accord with the new light that +glinted in her sharp eyes when she dropped them from his face again. +There was cunning and craft in them; the brazen assurance of a thief +whose conviction is prevented by a lucky mishap. + +She spoke rapidly, for his ears only, and her face drooped in an access +of confusion that, beautifully simulated, satisfied Milo and sent a warm +thrill into his honest breast. + +"Pascherette says she only gave Sancho his answer," Milo told Dolores. +"He had demanded her for his mate." + +"A pretty tale!" cried Dolores impatiently. "If that be all, why so +fearful of telling me, girl? Why did Sancho, who well knows the price, +join Rufe against me?" + +"I was afraid," murmured Pascherette with a pretty shiver. She summoned +a rosy blush to her piquant face and added in a still lower whisper: +"Thy anger terrified me, Sultana. My tongue was tied. And Sancho did +what he did in rage, in jealousy against Milo." + +The giant drew himself more erect, and his face became transfigured. If +in his great heart there remained any room after his devotion to his +mistress, cunning little Pascherette occupied it all when she uttered +the half-admission that Milo was her man. Dolores regarded the pair +silently; her expression changed slowly from irritation to query; from +unbelief to amusement, and after a moment's reflection she smiled +without softness and said: + +"Milo, I would do much for thee. For double dealing I have no mercy. If +thy love-bird would have me believe, if she is ought to thee, bid her +seek Sancho and bring him to me. Let her bring him at her own hands +before my hunters run him to earth, and I forgive thee both. She has +fooled thee; she can fool Sancho." + +Pascherette lighted up with something higher than hope: it was +certainty; and while it made Milo happy it did not escape Dolores, whose +dark-violet eyes once again became fathomless pools in which none might +read her thoughts. She waved them from her presence, and they went out +together, leaving her sitting motionless until the hangings fell behind +them. Then she sprang up, ran to a great mirror, and stood for many +moments regarding her lovely reflection. + +"Yes, thou art beautiful!" she apostrophised. "Beautiful as an artist's +dream. And for what? To queen it over these beasts! To be called +Sultana, and to be in truth a caged eagle. Of them all, who save loyal +Milo may I trust? Of them all, where is one whose blood mixed with mine +could produce aught but devils! Yet I must slink away in the night like +a whipped cur, or leave behind these treasures which alone can secure me +station in the outside world." She began to pace the great apartment, +oblivious of her surroundings, conscious only of a surging rebellion +against even the small necessity of biding her time. The day's +happenings on the schooner had shown her clearly the explosive condition +of her crew; she had no mistaken ideas that for her to load up the +schooner and sail away was simple. Further, she detected in recent +events a growing unrest among the band, the cause of which she had but +begun to fathom. Even now, through the tapestry sounding-stone, her +keenly attuned ears caught a note in the cries of returning woods +parties that told her how precarious was her sway over some of the more +turbulent spirits. + +"Before me they cringe like the dogs they are," she muttered, halting +again at the mirror. "Behind my back they snap like wolves. They shall +have their lesson quickly--such a one as the boldest of them shall +shriek mercy." She gazed intently into the mirror, as if she would read +therein an answer to her unspoken longing; then her eyes grew dark and +hard; her round, strong chin set stubbornly, and she whispered +intensely: "Pah! Cattle! They shall not alter my will to seek my +rightful place in the world of the white man! What avails it that in my +veins runs my mother's noble blood, the red chief's fiery courage, if +this nest of soulless brutes is to witness my life and my end? Among +those three white men is one who shall release me. They--ah, they are of +a whiter, cleaner mold! Theirs is the blood that matches mine! Let them +show me which is the stronger. He shall mate with me, and I will make +him a king indeed, even in his own land." + +Dolores stepped back panting. Then she controlled herself and began to +put on garment after garment, jewel after jewel, all of superlative +magnificence. Every moment she glided to the great mirror; as often she +tore off a garment or a jewel, flung it down impatiently, and seized +others from her boundless store. At last she stood clad like a fabled +daughter of old Bagdad; a robe of shimmering silk reached her ankles, +outlining every grace of her splendid figure; upon her head she had set +a tiara, priceless with gems whose fire dazzled even their wearer; on +arms and fingers, ankles and toes, lustrous rings and bracelets made +flashing lightning with her every movement; at her girdled waist was a +dagger whose sheath could have ransomed a prince. + +She stood like a statue, except for the rise and fall of her breast; her +eyes glittered at her gorgeous reflection in the mirror. Then suddenly +her expression changed, her lips parted in scorn, and with a savage, +tigerish gesture, she tore off her splendors. She stood once more in her +simple tunic of knee-length, sleeveless, beauty-revealing; and picking +up her dagger with the gold cord she knotted it about her waist and +again regarded herself closely. + +And where before she had looked upon a gorgeous woman, royally clad, +weighted with gems formed by man's art, now she gazed into the limpid, +fathomless eyes of a living goddess--royally clad in her own peerless +loveliness, crowned with a wealth of lustrous hair in which the gleams +of gold outshone the tiara she had discarded. And her face lighted; a +delicate flush overspread her cheeks; the full, luscious red lips parted +in a veritable Cupid's bow; and she laughed a rippling, heart-warming +laugh that brought the small, even teeth glistening into view. + +Dolores was satisfied at last. Without further hesitation she hurried +along to the rear of the chamber and emerged into the Grove of Mysteries +by way of a door known only to herself and Milo. From there she made her +way silently and darkly toward the council hall. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +A REED SHAKEN BY THE WINDS OF PASSION. + + +Rupert Venner sat on the floor of his prison, tugging at his chains with +an absent, aimless, all but perpetual motion; for he had long since +convinced himself that his fetters could not be broken or loosed. The +ruby light that had shown him the food and wine placed for him had faded +away to the faintest red glow which scarcely sufficed to reach the +tabouret. That mattered little; Venner had eaten when he was hungry, +drunk when dry, and knew the position of the flagon and dish to the +ultimate inch. He was not caring about the light. His mind was filled to +the exclusion of all else with his plight and the predicament of his +schooner. + +"Confound me for a fool!" he mused aloud, gritting his teeth savagely. +"Led by the nose by a saucy little chit who knows how to display her +charms as well as her pearls!" + +He pondered over his situation with growing irritation; for he knew only +too well that his release could never be obtained by bribery; his keen +sense of values told him that neither in the yacht or at home could he +match the treasures he had already seen on the persons of Dolores, and +Pascherette, and the other women of the camp. Yet he tried to console +himself that after all these things might be displayed for his +impression; might in fact be the entire store of the pirate queen, +displayed for one gaudy, overpowering effect. + +"That's it!" he cried, striking fist to palm. "Just a theatrical trick. +That little jade, Pascherette, will sell her dark little soul for +diamonds or pearls, I'll wager, and she shall sell me liberty. Then I'll +see the queen creature, gaining entry by the same medium, and we shall +see if cultivated wits are not a match for this wild beauty." + +With something very like a smile of resignation Venner stretched himself +on the floor and composed himself to rest. He was quite certain that +Pascherette could be reached through his jailer, whoever that might +be--Milo or somebody else--and the entire plan seemed to him beautifully +simple and infallible. He dozed, awoke, dozed again, and the ruby light +seemed to intensify each time his eyes opened. Gradually the shaft of +light grew so strong that, focused on his closed eyes, it forced him to +full wakefulness; and now he stared hard at it, blinking, hypnotized by +the trembling radiance that seemed to shoot out from the main shaft +until a great moving circle of light appeared before him. And out from +the midst of the light stepped Dolores, bewitching, irresistible, +smiling down upon him with a tenderness that filled him with awe. + +Amazed, dazzled, the man sat up, quivering with a sensation that rippled +at his hair-roots and sent the blood singing to finger and toe-tips. And +Dolores, with one forefinger at her scarlet lips to enjoin silence, +glided toward him with her inimitable grace, and knelt before him +shaking her head and starting him on the way to intoxication with the +touch of her wonderful hair. + +"My friend, I grieve that thou art here," she said, and her glowing eyes +thrilled him afresh. "Wilt thou believe that it is necessary for a +while?" + +"Necessary?" repeated Venner, dazedly. He strove hard to burst into +angry protest, but his tongue refused to utter the harsh words in the +face of such a creature of beauty. "I don't understand why it is +necessary at all, lady. It is no choice of mine, or my friends, that our +schooner is aground and we are your prisoners!" + +"Ah, my friend, thou shalt understand," she answered, and laid a hand on +his shoulder, making his senses swim with the fragrance of her breath. +"But this is for thy ears alone. Thou wilt respect my confidence?" +Venner nodded, wondering if, after all, the adventure might not turn out +well. With Dolores so close to him that he could hear her tunic rustling +to her deep, even breathing, that her loosened hair continually brushed +his face, he would have nodded assent had she offered him a piece of +charcoal for his immortal soul. "Then listen, man of my own people. A +longing gnaws at my heart--this heart that beats under thy hand"--she +took his hand with a swift movement and pressed it to her breast--"a +longing to go far from this place and these brutish people, to thy land +and the land to which I belong. + +"And now must I say why thy ship is here? It is because I have chosen +thee, my friend, to free me from this detestable bondage." She paused +for a breath, leaning closer to him, then asked with a sudden grip of +his hand at her breast: "Wilt take me out into thy world?" + +Venner shifted uneasily beneath her blazing eyes. His soul was in +torment with the touch of her; yet somewhere back of his trained brain +lingered a spark of wit not yet extinguished along with his other wits +by her spell. He lowered his gaze and said: + +"Was there need to murder my crew, wreck my vessel, and fling me and my +friends into these cells? Could not you, who are queen here, board my +schooner yourself and ask a passage?" + +"The murder of thy crew was not of my seeking. And thinkest thou I would +go from here leaving behind my treasures? Or dost fancy my rascals would +permit me to carry them away? No, friend, it is not so simple. The man +who aids me to attain my desire must be strong and wise and true. He +shall mate with me, and my treasures shall be his. That is why I have +chosen thee." + +"That requires thought, lady," returned Venner, half-heartedly. "I would +assist you in getting free from this, since you wish it; but as for +mating or marriage, why, there is a woman at home waiting for me." + +"Woman!" Dolores cried with scorn. "Woman! I am Dolores!" She swayed +toward him, her arms went about his neck, and slowly, slowly her +glorious eyes fastened on his, her moist, warm lips sought his in a kiss +that dragged at his soul's foundations. + +"Canst refuse me?" she laughed softly, drawing back her head and peering +at him from under lowered lids. "See, I trust thee utterly!" Snatching +her dagger from the sheath she placed it in his right hand; then, with a +key from her girdle, she unfastened his chains and swayed back, still +kneeling. She clutched the single shoulder-strap of her tunic, tore it +from her bosom, and flung both arms wide apart. "See!" she whispered, +and Rupert Venner flung away the dagger, stumbled to his feet, and swept +her into his crushing embrace while she abandoned herself to him with a +long, quivering sigh. + +"By the gods!" he swore hoarsely, "show me what I have to do. Wonderful, +wonderful Dolores!" + +"Patience," she smiled, resting her head on his breast. "First tell me +thy name. What shall thy Dolores call thee?" + +"I am Rupert. Call me slave!" + +"Rupert. It is a name to love. Slave? Nay, it is I who shall be slave to +thee. But patience again, Rupert. When we two go from here, there can be +no other to share our secret; none save the slaves that I shall place in +thy ship to replace thy dead crew. Thy friends may not go. They must not +live to see thee go!" + +Venner shivered, and drew back, holding her at arms' length and staring +at her in horror. + +"What are you saying, Dolores?" he gasped. "My friends are to die?" + +"Yes, and by thy hand, my Rupert. For how else may I know thou are +worthy to be mate to a queen?" + +"Now, by Heaven! Witch, siren, whatever you are, my madness has passed!" +he cried. "Not for the key to a paradise peopled with such as you would +I do this!" He stepped aside, picked up her dagger, and glared at her +with steely eyes. + +Dolores laughed at him: a low, throaty little laugh that went clear to +his brain and set it on fire again. Yet, nerving himself against her, he +stood erect, dagger in hand, and met the blaze of her dusky eyes +bravely. He shivered violently when her rich voice thrilled his tingling +ears. + +"Hah, my Rupert, thou'rt not yet tamed. Let me show thee thy master!" + +With the words she reached him with her subtle, tigerish glide, swiftly, +startlingly, and with the dart of a cobra her hand gripped his which +held the dagger. Her warm body again pressed closely to him, her red +lips, parted still, almost touched his cheek; her hair smothered him +with its fragrance; and while his senses swam her supple muscles tensed +to living steel wire, her grip tightened and twisted at his wrist, and +the dagger was wrenched from his fingers. Then leaping back, laughing +mockingly now, Dolores slipped the dagger into the sheath, snatched up +the chains from the floor, and flew upon him with a deadly pounce that +bore him back to the wall. + +Aroused from his numbness, Rupert Venner fought back furiously, +humiliated, and ashamed. Whether he would or not, he forgot all his +chivalry, and strove to meet this appalling woman with strength against +strength; but in Dolores he met a thing of wire and whipcord where +moments before had been a creature of warm softnesses; a being of feline +agility, and devilish skill that reflected the devilish skill of her +teacher, Milo. The chain-links tinkled and clashed against their swaying +bodies, but she never let them fall; they hung from her girdle; her +hands were free; and she had both his wrists in a grip that outrivaled +the irons. Laughing, ever laughing, her hot breath playing over his +face, she placed one foot behind one of his, surged toward him heavily, +and, when his arms would have involuntarily gone out to preserve his +footing, she subtly twisted them back and up from the elbows, until she +rested against his chest with her bare arms tightly about his body. + +Now her head, with the gold circlet about the brows, pressed hard +against his chin. Her hair was in his mouth, tendrils of it stung his +eyes, but the gold band numbed his flesh and bruised the bone. Upward, +ever upward, she forced his chin until his neck was cracking with the +strain and he choked for breath. Then she suddenly relaxed. Her arms +left him, her wickedly lovely face once more smiled into his starting +eyes, and she took the chain from her girdle with leisurely swiftness, +falling to her knees at his feet. + +"There, my friend, thou art back in thy place!" she said, snapping on +his ankle irons. "Spend the night in thought, good Rupert. To-morrow I +shall come to thee again for thy decision. Now, pleasant dreams, +my--lover!" she whispered, suddenly slipping her arms about his neck +again and pulling his head hard against her panting breast. She softly +kissed his hair, then pressed back his head and kissed his lips long and +passionately. + +"Good night, beloved!" she said, and passed out of the room, leaving +behind the echoes of a rippling little laugh that set Venner's blood to +leaping. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +PASCHERETTE UNVEILS HER PURPOSE. + + +Milo and Pascherette stood outside the rock portals of the great chamber +after their dismissal by Dolores, and the giant's face wore a look of +perplexity which was not reflected in the little octoroon. If her task +was difficult, Pascherette seemed not in the least disturbed; rather in +her sharp eyes lurked something of bravado at having escaped her +mistress's anger so easily. And this expression perplexed Milo. + +"Art sure of thyself, Pascherette?" asked the giant, ill at ease for his +little companion. + +"Why not?" she laughed, peering up at his troubled face impudently. +"Thinkest thou Pascherette is a fool?" + +"No, thou art not a fool," replied Milo slowly. He laid a heavy hand on +her shoulder, turned her around to face the faint light remaining, and +gazed hard into her bright eyes. "Thou art not a fool, little one. But +Sancho--is it so simple to find him?" + +"Big, childish Milo!" she cried with a laugh that had no joy in it. +"Dost think I feared that verdict of Dolores? No. I fear her whip only. +My flesh creeps even now at thought of my poor shoulders hadst thou not +appeared in time. Sancho? Pah! I can find him easily enough." + +"Then, child, was there nothing in thy traffic with him save what I +heard from thy lips?" + +Pascherette looked down, tapping the sand with her tiny foot, and her +breast fluttered in agitation. Then she slipped her hand into his, +looked up shyly yet ardently into his eyes, and replied swift and low: + +"Milo, my love for thee must be my defense. I did have traffic with +Sancho, to the end that we--thee and me--might use him to our advantage. +Wait!" she cried, when he would have spoken, "hear me. Canst not see +Dolores's cunning intention? She goes from here, carrying her treasure; +what will she do with thee, once safely away? Will she carry thee always +with her, to be marked because of thy great stature? No, Milo, thy life +will pay for her desertion of her people, and she will laugh at thy +passing. And why should it be? Here, thou and I can rule these cattle as +she never could. With Sancho's deserters, and Rufe's followers, I can +give thee a band that will force the treasure from her greedy grasp, and +make of her what she has made of thee and me--a slave!" + +"Girl!" Milo's deep voice vibrated with passionate horror. "Cease thy +treason, or I crush thy wicked heart in these two hands. Dolores is +mistress of my soul--my body is but the slave of that." + +"Pish!" retorted Pascherette, contemptuously. "She has thee dazzled, +Milo. Say, dost thou not love me?" she demanded, standing tiptoe and +thrusting her piquant little face under his gaze. "Look in my eyes, and +then tell me another woman owns thy soul!" + +"Yes, I love thee," replied Milo, with simple earnestness. "I love thee; +yet will I kill thee ere Dolores suffers ill through thy scheming. Have +done with this talk. I hate thee for it!" + +"Love--and hate!" she laughed metallically. "Loving me, still thou hast +room to love another better. Hate and love! Thou great fool, it cannot +be!" + +"Pascherette, I love thee. Thou'rt entangled in my heart-strings. When I +hate thee, it is because of that love, which will not brook treason in +thee. Again, I love thee, golden girl; but, forget it not, I worship +Dolores as I worship my gods!" + +"Then wilt thou not seek her power for thyself?" whispered the girl +subduedly, awed for the moment by his tremendous and solemn earnestness. + +"Little one, bring Sancho as she bade thee. He has merited punishment. +Yet tell him the Sultana will be just. His punishment will but fit the +fault. Afterward we two will talk together, and I shall teach thee +loyalty. Go now, bring thy man to the council hall. I shall await thee. +Stay, I shall come with thee, for the woods are dark, and a storm +threatens." + +"I go alone, Milo. He will fly from thee. Have no fear for me; the woods +are safe, and the storm is in thy great head only." + +The girl turned, kissed her hand airily, and ran into the gloom of the +forest. And as she went she laughed again harshly and muttered: "The +great clod! His worship overtops his love. But I shall make love overtop +worship yet, my giant! Such a man--a slave? Not for a thousand +Doloreses! Wait, Milo; wait, my mistress!" + +The evening breeze had strengthened as darkness fell, and its breath was +hot and sultry. As Pascherette plunged deeper into the woods, the heavy +boom of the seas along shore died away and gave place to the softer, +more vibrant hum and murmur of the great trees. The track, little more +than a line of flattened underbrush, vanished before she had gone fifty +yards; but the little octoroon was no stranger to nocturnal rambles, her +keen eyes, and, keener still, her sense of direction, led her unerringly +through the shades toward the rearward spur of the granite cliff. +Creepers and hanging mosses brushed her face and limbs; alone she might +have ignored them; but there was a quality in the sighing and rustling +about her that seemed to give voices to the ghostly fingers that +touched her, and to support her courage as well as to warn Sancho of +her coming, she thrilled forth a merry little snatch of song: + + "Ho! for the Jolly Roger lads; + Ho! for the decks red-streaming. + A pirate's lass is a well-lov'd lass, + And there's gold through the red a gleaming! + + "Ho! for a cask in the fire's red glow; + Ho! for the heaps of plunder. + There are showers of pearls for the pirates' girls-- + The rain from the corsair's thunder!" + +At the end of her song Pascherette halted, listened, then called softly: + +"Sancho! Thy Pascherette calls!" + +Silence prevailed for several moments, and she called again, fearing +that her voice had gone astray amid the increasing confusion of the +trees. Then came a lull in the wind, the lull that always punctuated the +gathering of such tropical storms as now threatened; and in the hush she +heard voices--uncertain, disputing. Then Sancho growled, close to her +ear: + +"Art alone, jade?" + +"Oh, Sancho!" she cried, darting into the gloom to the sound of his +voice and flinging her arms about him. "I have feared for thee, my +Sancho. Now I fear no more, for all is well." + +"Well?" the pirate growled suspiciously. "Hast left thy hot-blood +mistress, then?" + +"No, Sancho. It is better for thee even than that. I have made thy peace +with Dolores. She has forgiven thee, and wishes to tell thee so." + +A fervid curse burst from some one yet invisible, and Sancho leaned back +to catch some whispered words. Then he, too, ripped out an oath, and +gripped Pascherette tightly by the arm. + +"This is a trick, little devil! Don't you value that pretty little head +more than to trifle with me?" + +"I trifle with thee? Thou art mad, Sancho!" she cried. "Did I lie when I +said I loved thee, then?" + +"The fiend knows! I know 'tis plaguey risky for thee if thou didst!" + +"Unbeliever!" whispered Pascherette with thrilling emphasis. "Shall I +tell thee again, in language even thy stubborn soul must believe?" + +The girl suddenly glided inside his arms, flung up her hands, each +clutching a mass of her glossy, scented hair, and enmeshed his +disfigured face. Then, straining upward from her small height, her rosy, +false lips sought his and fastened there while he staggered as if drunk. + +"There, heart o' mine!" she panted. "Dost believe now? Or must I tell +thee again that with such love as mine proud Dolores cannot hurt thee. +Come! Such a chance will never come thy way again. Man! 'Tis her +confidence Dolores offers thee. Shall it go begging because of thy +madness?" + +"Pascherette!" returned Sancho hoarsely. "I will go with thee. But, +girl, thy heart's blood pours at first sign of treachery! Mark that +well. And tell me now, does Yellow Rufe share in this mercy?" + +"No, Sancho. It cannot be. Dolores has sworn to hunt him down; the woods +are full of men even now, seeking him and thee. Only by going with me +wilt thou escape them and have advantage from my pleading with the +queen." She drew his head down to her ear, and whispered rapidly. Doubt, +then admiration, crept into Sancho's voice as he said: "Dost think it +can be done? Can he gain the sloop unseen?" + +"I will make it easy, Sancho. Bid Rufe have no fear. The storm will be +upon us within an hour. It is dark; there is wind aplenty. With six men +he may win clear; and listen: If he is stout of heart, what is to stop +him taking tribute from the stranger's white vessel?" + +"Lack o' powder, girl," returned Sancho angrily. "Thy mistress keeps us +short of powder, as well thou dost know, lest we become too strong for +her. Who of us has ever seen the store? Not I, by Satan! Canst thou get +powder and shot for Rufe?" + +"Simpleton! Can he not get with steel all he wants from the schooner?" + +"By the heart of Portuguez, he can!" cried another voice, and Yellow +Rufe strode through the bushes. + +"Rufe!" exclaimed the girl, feigning astonishment. Her ears were too +keen not to have caught Rufe's voice in the whispering that had gone +on. + +"Yes, Rufe, and obliged to thee, Pascherette. Dost say thou wilt help me +win away?" + +"Gladly, Rufe, for I like well men of your mettle. Follow close behind +Sancho and me. Count ten score after we go in to Dolores with Milo, then +for an hour thou'lt have the sea to thyself. Luck go with thee, Rufe; +thou'lt think of little Pascherette sometimes, I'll warrant." + +A rumble of thunder rolled up from the sea, and lightning played in the +tree-tops. Pascherette turned back toward the camp, and giving no heed +to Sancho save to listen for his footsteps, she ran through the darkness +sure-footed, sure-eyed as a cat. Rain began to fall, and the heavy +foliage thrummed with the growing downpour which yet did not penetrate +to the earth. As they neared the shore, the forest resounded with the +solemn boom and crash of long-sweeping seas outside the bar; the wind +screamed among the huts; all the women and those men who had returned +from their portion of the search were snugly under cover. The place +seemed deserted. + +"Farewell, Rufe," Pascherette whispered at last, when the great black +mass of the council hall loomed against the sky in a lightning flash. +"Count ten score. Thy safety is in my hands." + +Then she took Sancho by the hand, and led him through the plashing rain +to the rear of the hall and called softly: "Milo!" + +"Here. Hast found him?" + +"Take us to the Sultana quickly, Milo. I have told Sancho to trust in +the justice of Dolores." + +"He may well do that," returned Milo. "The great Sultana is ever just." + +"Yes, have no fear, good Sancho. I am Justice itself!" rejoined the +mellow voice of Dolores in person, who had a few moments before left +Rupert Venner. "Milo, I am minded to give Sancho proof of my mercy, +since he already believes in my justice. Open the great chamber. Sancho, +canst guess the honor I propose to do thee?" + +"No, lady," replied Sancho, an awful dryness gripping his throat. + +"Hast ever hungered for sight of the great chamber?" She paused smiling +at the uneasy pirate, who could not answer. "Of course thou hast," she +replied for him. "Which of my rogues has not? I am minded to show thee +this mark of my love, since thy conscience permitted thee to return +here. Hast any fear of the saying the Red Chief uttered? That none might +enter the great chamber and live?" + +Sancho suddenly sprang to life. His face was distorted; when the +lightning flashed it revealed him a ghastly picture of apprehension. + +"I will not go there! I have no wish to see what my eyes are forbidden +to see. I never sought to enter, Sultana. It was the others!" + +"Yes, Sancho, the others. That is why I select thee for the honor, +because thou wert patient. Come. I promise thee thy life is safe." + +Dolores passed on toward the great stone, where Milo stood guard over +the opened portals. Sancho, trembling violently, was drawn irresistibly +after her, partly fascinated by her calm strength, partly influenced by +the soft fingers and whispered prattle of Pascherette, who strove to set +him aflame with mention of some of the wonders he was to see. + +He paused at the rock door, glancing around with a vague premonition of +evil; but now it was Dolores's hand that took his; Dolores's rich voice +that lured him on; and he stepped after her, smothering a sob of +resurging terror as the great stone fell into its place behind. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +SANCHO SETTLES HIS ACCOUNT. + + +In the rock passage the hush was complete. For the space of ten long +breaths Sancho stood quivering under the weird spell of the infernal red +radiance from the hidden lights, while almost invisible ahead of him +Dolores bent to listen to a last moment's communication from +Pascherette. With Milo behind him, and the great unknown ahead, the +pirate's usual fierce courage oozed out through his boots. Yet he was +hypnotized by the vague glitter that shone at the end of the tunnel--the +glitter, though he knew it not yet, of the great sliding door to the +inner mystery. + +Suddenly the mighty rock reverberated and shook to a Titanic volley of +thunder, and Sancho shrieked with nervous terror. His shriek was echoed +by a rippling laugh from Dolores, and she came back swiftly toward him, +pushing Pascherette before her. She handed the little octoroon on to +Milo, and said, with a kindly pat on the girl's head: "Open, Milo, and +let thy sweetheart complete her good works. Now I shall have none but +faithful friends about me. Pascherette, thou'rt more than forgiven: +thou'rt my good friend. I shall reward thee fittingly when"--she smiled +dazzlingly at Sancho--"I have rewarded Sancho." + +The rock door rolled aside, and Pascherette passed out into the storm. +Sancho's nerves gave way utterly now, and he rushed toward the opening, +screaming: "Let me out! I want air! I want none of the great chamber! +Let me pass!" + +Milo again let fall the rock, pressed a huge hand on Sancho's breast, +and pushed him back, saying: "Peace, fool! Go with thy mistress. Thine +eye will never again witness the like. Go, I tell thee. Dost fear the +Sultana's justice?" + +"Come, Sancho. Thou'lt be a marked man among thy fellows when I have +shown thee what they yearn to see." + +Dolores again took his hand, bent her glorious eyes full upon him, and +Sancho followed her like a sheep, straight to the great door under the +jeweled yellow lantern, where he stood, stupefied with awe at the +barbaric splendors revealed. + +His lips went dry, and he licked them feverishly; his single eye blazed +with avarice; the two fingers and mutilated thumb of his right hand +worked convulsively, as if he would tear the gems and plate from the +door. And Dolores watched him from under lowered lids, her rich red lips +curled scornfully, one hand half raised to warn Milo to open the great +door slowly. + +"Well, Sancho, art better prepared for the greater treasures yet to be +seen?" smiled Dolores. The pirate's blazing eye seemed to dart flames as +the door slowly rose to Milo's touch. + +"Sultana!" he gasped, and his speech would do no more for him. + +"Enter, friend. This is thy great hour!" + +The queen pushed him gently inside, following herself, and Milo let fall +the door again, standing mute and motionless on the inside while his +mistress led the pirate to the center of the great chamber and waited +until his dazzled eye adjusted itself to the subtle lighting effects. + +Pascherette's last whispered communication to Dolores had told her of +Yellow Rufe's intentions; and while Sancho stood in amaze, she bent her +ear to catch the expected sound of voices through the sounding-stone +behind the tapestry. For there the little octoroon was to play a part +for Sancho's especial benefit. The thunder had become all but incessant; +with every crash the great chamber rumbled and echoed eerily; yet +between the crashes, brief as the periods were, human voices could be +heard. + +"Art ready to see my treasures, Sancho?" + +Dolores waved a gleaming arm around the place, indicating with one wide +gesture the glories of the walls and roof. But the pirate's senses +responded more readily to the tangible riches represented by gold and +gems, tall flagons, and jewel-incrusted lamps, littered diamonds and +rubies that strewed the big table. + +"Hah!" cried Dolores, with a low, throaty laugh. "Ah! my friend, I know +thy mind. Milo!" + +Milo advanced with a deep obeisance. + +"Milo, open the great chests for Sancho. Let him plunge his arms to the +elbows in red gold. Then I shall show him that which lies nearest to his +deserts." + +The pirate watched with lips no longer dry, but dripping with the saliva +of greed, while Milo flung open chest after chest, full to overflowing +with minted gold of many nations; looted jewels of royal and noble +houses, sacred vessels and glittering orders, weapons whose hilts and +scabbards, if ever made for use, could only have been used to bewilder +the eye and senses. + +Again the thunder pealed; and in the tremendous hush succeeding, the +voices outside penetrated the sounding-stone in more than a whisper. +Sancho jerked up his head and fear once more shone in his single eye. + +"Come, good Sancho," purred Dolores, running her soft hand down his bare +forearm. "Art frightened by petty noises, then? Plunge thy hands deep, +man! All thou canst grasp is thine for so long as thy eye can enjoy or +thy hands fondle." + +Now Sancho's sordid soul surrendered. His greed conquered fear, and he +delved deep into a coffer, chattering the while with frenzy. And now +when the thunder rolled, his ears heard it not. He drew forth his hands, +and a glittering mass of wealth fell about his feet. He glared up at +Dolores, laughing ghoulishly. + +"That is well, Sancho," Dolores said, and took his hand. "Now I will +show thee the rest; and I know thou'lt never tell of it. I trust thee. +Come. Put thy ear to this tapestry, and tell me what thou canst hear." + +Sancho laid his ear to the cloth, and his eye gleamed brightly. Milo +stepped silently behind him. + +"I hear Hanglip!" he gasped. "Is he, too, here?" + +"He is outside the cliff. But whom else canst hear?" + +"I hear Caliban--Spotted Dog--Stumpy--I hear a score as if they stood by +my side! And Pascherette! By the fiend! She has played Rufe a trick! And +me--" He sprang from the wall like a tiger, snatching at his weaponless +belt with slavering fury, to be gathered at once into the remorseless +hug of Milo. And he glared full into the mocking face of Dolores--soft +and generous no more, but the embodiment of awful vengeance. + +For many seconds she stood regarding him contemptuously, until he +subsided helplessly in Milo's grasp; then, motioning the giant to +follow, she passed along and stopped before a life-size painting of "The +Sleeping Venus" in a massive, gilded frame. With one hand raised high at +the side, she turned a pulley-catch, and the great picture slowly fell +forward from the top until it rested slopingly on the floor, forming an +inclined entrance to a gloomy passage, dimly touched by a dark-red glow. + +This was the secret outlet to the great chamber by which Milo had access +to the altar in the grove at such times as his aid was needed to +support Dolores in some exhibition of black magic. She stepped swiftly +along the passage, giving no further heed to the panic-stricken pirate +until Milo had carried and dragged him to where she awaited him. This +was still another dark excavation, running deeper yet into the bowels of +the cliff; and the devilish red glare was here intensified until +surrounding objects were vividly revealed. + +"Now hear the doom of a traitor!" cried Dolores, with haughty mien. +"What! Not a traitor?" she mocked at the pirate's frantic howl of +denial. "Then Dolores has erred, perhaps. There is a test, good Sancho. +Let me see if I am wrong!" + +She signed to Milo, and the giant swung Sancho around until he faced the +deepest recess of the cave. There, swathed in mummy clothes, preserved +by the chemical miracle of the stratum of red earth that formed the core +of the rock, the body of Red Jabez stood erect against the wall, bathed +in the red glow, diamonds glittering where the dead eyes had been. And +on the rock ledge at his feet stood a tall flagon of gold, in which +Dolores had brewed an awful potion for this event. Beside this ledge +stood a low brazier full of glowing charcoal; on a tabouret near by lay +several terrible implements the use of which needed no explanation. + +"Look upon the face of the Red Chief, and drink this draft--'tis his +blood!" she cried, seizing the flagon and thrusting it into Sancho's +hands. "Then, if thy heart held no treachery toward me, thy life and +limbs are safe. But have a care! A lie in thy heart will surely undo +thee. Drink!" + +A splitting thunder-crash filled the place with uproar; a gust of the +tempest from the outer entrance sent the wind swirling in. It was as if +the breath of the storm snatched Sancho's senses back from the +terror-land they had fled to; he ceased his howling, glared defiantly up +at the dead chief, and cried in desperation: "Give me the drink! I fear +neither gods nor devils; why should I fear you, dead man?" + +"Wait!" Dolores laid a hand on his arm, and stayed the flagon at his +lips. "Wait, till I tell thee more. Then, if thou art guiltless, and go +from here with the treasure I gave thee, thou'lt know thy friends and +thy foes. + +"Didst think Yellow Rufe was free? Thou fool! Thy wits are powerless +before a woman's. Did my pretty Pascherette tell him he might go free, +taking my sloop, escaping my vengeance, as thou didst think to? Didst +hear those voices? Then I tell thee, Sancho, that ten-score count, that +Rufe doubtless made in fear and trembling, but sufficed to raise his +hopes. For ere he had gained the sloop and started her anchor, +Pascherette had done her work. The stranger's schooner is full of my +men, waiting for Rufe to come for his booty. Let him take alarm, then +how far may he win? Thou'lt never know, false Sancho, for I have no +doubt of thy treachery. Now drink, if thou darest!" + +"Then, by the fiend, I dare!" shouted the pirate. Something in the tang +of the gale sweeping in from the unseen entrance reassured him of the +existence of the outer world; persuaded him that by taking a desperate +chance he might yet throw dust in the eyes of this terrible woman and go +hence with the secret of the great chamber. "I dare, Dolores! Blood, d' +ye say? What fitter drink for a pirate?" + +He lifted the flagon, took a deep draft in great gulps, so that his +determination might carry him; then his eye sparkled, he took the flagon +from his lips, and grinned at Milo. "By the great Red Chief!" he cried. +"This is justice indeed! I drink to ye, Sultana, and to Milo, ye big +jester!" and finished the drink with a greedy swallow. + +Then the flagon clattered to the ground, Sancho's face went livid, and +his mouth opened wide and loosely, as his body and limbs were seized +with subtle pains. His brain, too, felt an awful numbness creeping upon +it; for the draft had done its work. The rarest of wine from her store, +Dolores had mingled with it a devilish powder that first sapped the +strength, then attacked the brain, and eventually snapped the cord of +intelligence, leaving the victim a driveling imbecile. But that point +had not yet been reached. It would come perhaps in one hour, two, three, +perhaps six--but inevitably it must come. For the present the pirate +was simply in the grip of the unknown, yet having full power to realize, +but not resist, the tangible terrors at hand. + +"Milo, hasten the rest. I shall await thee at the gate. Put forth this +traitor by the Grove outlet, and see to it that he takes with him +neither power to see beauty, to utter treason, or to ever feel again the +scalding touch of coveted gold. Make speed, I command thee, for I hear +my stout trusty ones clamoring for the chase!" + +Dolores disappeared through the secret outlet, sprang down behind the +altar, and ran through the Grove. Beside the cliff were huddled Hanglip +and Stumpy, Caliban, and Spotted Dog, drenched with the teeming rain, +restless with impatience, peering ever to seaward in the lightning +flashes that continually illumined the scene. + +Among them Dolores appeared, suddenly, mysteriously, as coming from the +skies, and after a choke of amazement Stumpy flung a hand seaward, and +shouted above the turmoil of wind and rain: + +"Queen o' Night, thou'lt need thy magic now! See, there flies the +villain!" + +Dolores looked, and smiled disdainfully. The torrential rain beat upon +her bare head and shoulders, causing her to glisten and shine like a +golden goddess; but she heeded it not at all; her eyes sought out what +Stumpy had indicated. And there, in the next lightning-flash, flying +seaward, was the sloop. Rufe had taken alarm, and had foregone his plan +of looting the schooner. + +"Let him go; he'll fly not far," she said calmly. "Come with me to the +great rock, my bold fellows; daylight shall show thee Rufe where I would +have him--paying the price, as Sancho has paid!" + +She glided around the rock, followed by her silent faithfuls, while from +the Grove rang a shriek of mortal agony that sent fierce hearts aquiver +with terror. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +DOLORES FLOATS THE FEU FOLLETTE. + + +"Hell's breath!" screamed Caliban, as the cry rang out. "Have ye devils +in the Grove, mistress?" Hanglip and Spotted Dog, too, cringed back in +fright. Stumpy concealed his uneasiness, yet his eyes searched Dolores's +face questingly. None truly believed in the queen's magic powers; yet +none was bold enough to openly avow his unbelief; and the added grimness +of the storm, assisted by the unearthliness of that howl of anguish, +brought the four godless pirates to the verge of superstitious terror. + +"Yes, I keep my devils there," replied Dolores; "and that is the traitor +Sancho answering to them for his perfidy. So watch, and obey me, lest +thy cries, too, go up from my altar!" + +She stood apart at the great stone, listening, and presently Milo rolled +up the rock barrier, and appeared in the gloom, calm and cool as if he +had no association with devils, imaginary or otherwise. A livid +lightning-flash played on his features, and the pirates drew back, +muttering at his black eyes which glowed with red points like rubies in +the heart of twin coals. + +"Milo, there flies Rufe," said Dolores, flinging an arm seaward. Beyond +the false point, in the midst of black seas dappled with rushing +white-horses, under a lowering black sky that seemed to lean down to the +verge of the ocean itself, Rufe's sloop was pictured in the next flash +of electric radiance a thing of desolation and panic. Fully a mile away, +the craft vanished in the pervading blackness between every flash. "I +need thy condor's vision now as never before. Take the swift, small +sailboat, and flares; follow the sloop as long as thy eyes can pick her +out; we shall follow thy flares in the schooner until we overtake thee. +Haste now; Rufe has grace enough!" + +Milo stayed only to get his flare-powder and tinder-box, then +disappeared down the cliff. + +Dolores despatched her four attendants to the schooner, prepared to +follow, then, with an afterthought, halted two of them. + +"Here, Hanglip, Spotted Dog, wait!" She swiftly entered the council +hall, went to the three small chambers, and released her captives from +the ring-bolts. Driving them before her, bewildered by the sudden +emergence from tranquillity to the turmoil of the storm, she gave the +two pirates each a chain, held the other herself, and led the way down +to the stranded schooner. Her motive was not only uncertainty about the +people left at the camp, who might prove susceptible to bribery if not +pity; she also felt a sort of whimsical desire to impress these +strangers with the utter inevitability of her power. + +The Feu Follette lay on the edge of the bar, as she had lain since +stranding, except that with tide after tide her keel had worn itself a +place in the sand, and she was less closely held than before. Of her +rightful crew but five survived the fight; one was the sailing-master, +Peters, and all were imprisoned under jailers in the forecastle. On the +schooner's sloping decks, when Dolores and her party climbed aboard, +were a score of nondescript pirates, besides the crew's custodians, at a +loss to account for the escape of the sloop, and worked up to a pitch of +nervousness where they were only fit for sudden, strenuous action with a +merciless taskmaster. And such they speedily had. + +Dolores ordered her three captives to be taken to the great cabin, and +their chains were fastened to the ornately paneled mainmast which ran +down through both decks and formed the support of a gorgeously furnished +sideboard. Then the companionway was locked on them, and the girl sprang +to tremendous life. + +"Aloft with thee, Stumpy!" she cried, selecting him because after Milo +his eyes were keenest of them all. "Keep thy eyes open for Milo's +flares, and mark well the direction. Hanglip, thou surly dog! Take ten +men and lay me out a good anchor astern, with a stout hawser. Be brisk! +Come aboard in ten minutes, or thy back shall smart." + +Sancho's boat had remained at the port quarter, and into this Hanglip +drove his crew while Spotted Dog with the rest of the men got ready an +anchor to lower to them. + +"Caliban, cast off the gaskets from fore and main!" cried Dolores next. +"Where are thy rascals? Plague take thee, hunchback! Couldst not say +there were not men enough? Below with ye, and bring up the schooner's +people. Have sail on this vessel before that anchor takes hold, or I'll +flay thy hump!" + +Cursing venomously, the deformed little demon sprang into the forecastle +and drove up Peters and his four men with kicks and blows. They, too, +were bewildered by the tremendous uproar of sea and wind, and went like +sheep to the fore and main masts at Caliban's bidding. + +"Ready for the anchor--lower away!" roared Hanglip in the boat, where +already was piled coil on coil a great hemp hawser. + +"Handsomely, ye dogs, handsomely!" shrieked Spotted Dog in turn. The +anchor sank into the boat to the screeching of tackles and the groaning +of boat-timbers, and was carried out astern. + +"Carry the end aft!" Dolores commanded; the hawser was taken along and +the end passed around the quarter-deck capstan. "Up with those sails!" +cried the girl now, and Caliban's gang sweated at the halyards, while +slackened sheets permitted the booms to swing and present the luffs to +the screaming gale, bearing no resistance. While the boat pulled away +into the darkness astern, carrying the anchor to the full scope of the +cable, Dolores kept her eyes ever aloft, and over the sea, and upon +every detail of the work. Her eyes fell upon Peters, standing in sullen +mood at the belaying-pin which held a turn of the main-throat halyards. +And as the croaking cry of Caliban ordered "Belay!" she called Peters to +her. + +"Thou'rt sailing-master, hey?" + +"I was." + +"Art still, if thy heart is as stubborn as thy face!" cried Dolores, +laughing at his scowl. "Canst sail thy ship now?" + +"I can sail any ship that floats, but neither I nor your sharks can sail +this schooner now," he replied surlily. "Your false marks did their work +well." + +"Then thou'd rather pull a rope than hold a wheel, hey? 'Tis but a +wooden sailor, after all. I hoped such a ship would boast a seaman as +master. I'll show thee seamanship, sheep-heart!" + +Out of the darkness astern came a roar: + +"Anchor's down! Heave away!" + +And from the darkness aloft Stumpy bawled: + +"There she flares! Mother o' me!" The prayer, curse, whatever the last +words might be, were called forth by a paralyzing flash of lightning +that shone over the raging sea like a gigantic calcium-light. The +schooner's deck resounded with superstitious howls, which rose to awed +cries from the weakest as from trucks and gaff-ends glowed and flickered +the blue brush of St. Elmo's fire. + +"Heave away, heave away!" Dolores's voice rang out on the hubbub, +forcing obedience even in face of terror. The capstan went round to the +urge of a dozen pair of fear-stimulated arms; and fathom by fathom the +great cable came in dripping and glistening; fathom after fathom was +heaped on the deck, and still the schooner remained fast. And ever from +aloft came Stumpy's hail, reporting Milo's flare fast fading in the +distance. + +"You can't do it! I knew it!" shouted Peters defiantly. + +"Peace, sheep!" answered Dolores, slapping him upon the mouth. She stood +at the wheel, and no part of the vessel's situation escaped her. She had +yet a trump to play: a hazardous one, truly, but the big one. The big +fore and main sails swung and crashed idly at their sheets, filling the +air with the thunder of their flinging blocks. At each boom a seaman +stood, and each held the double block of a boom-tackle, waiting the word +that now came. + +"Clap on those boom-tackles!" Dolores commanded, and four men flew to +each as it was hooked to the rigging. "Haul away! Boom the sails square +out!" The great sails filled with a crash as the gale took them on the +fore side, flinging them violently aback. + +"You'll pluck the spars out of her!" screamed Peters, in a frenzy now as +his cherished masts whipped and cracked to the tremendous backward +strain. Dolores ignored the crazed man, but a scornful smile wreathed +about her lips, and her dark eyes gleamed. "Out with them!" she cried. +"More hands there! And heave, ho, heave away on the capstan! Burst thy +arms, bullies! Here comes Hanglip and his bold lads to help ye! Round +with her! Out with them! Heave, good bullies!" + +The girl stood by the wheel, a splendid figure of matchless energy and +courage. Aloft the topmasts bent like whips; Stumpy's voice came down +in ever-increasing fear as his perch grew shakier; the great expanse of +canvas, which should have been treble-reefed even in a floating ship +going forward, tore at boom-tackles and earrings, tacks, and mast-hoops, +shaking the vessel to the keel and filling her with cataclysmic thunder. + +"By the bones of Red Jabez, she comes!" roared Spotted Dog, peering over +the side. "Heave, lads, and never doubt the girl again! Fiends o' +Topheth! See her slide!" + +The schooner shuddered from forefoot to sternpost; the big hawser +slipped in through the lead with gathering speed; the groaning masts +imparted an impulse to her that drove her astern like an arrow, and now, +triumphantly, Dolores cried: + +"An ax! Quickly--cut the hawser! Caliban, get a jib loosed! Hanglip, +open the companionway, and bring up my prisoners. I would have them +enjoy the sail." + +A curling sea poured over the taffrail, sweeping Dolores from her feet; +she met it with a ringing laugh, gripping the wheel as her safeguard, +and the moment the ax severed the hawser she gave the vessel a sheer +with the helm, and again her orders rang out: + +"Let go both boom-tackles! Hoist away the jib! Haul the jib-sheet to +starboard, and stand by fore and main sheets!" + +Out of the darkness ahead came the fluttering of canvas, and soon +Caliban's hoarse croak rang aft: "Hoist away th' jib!" The great booms +swung amidships again when the tackles were cast off, and now the +headsail flew up the stay, the restrained sheet to starboard causing the +canvas to fill aback as had the greater sails before. The pressure was +ahead and to one side; the schooner's head began to fall off, then +faster as she gained momentum, and the fore and main sails again began +to thunder at their blocks. + +"Let draw the jib! Bring in the fore sheet; bear a hand aft here, main +sheet, lads, smartly!" cried Dolores, twirling the wheel to meet the +vessel's swift leeward leap. And as the liberated Feu Follette heeled +dizzily to the gale, under full spread of sail, and her owner and his +guests appeared into the storm, Stumpy's cry rang out: + +"There's the flare--and she's burnin' steady!" + + +TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month. + + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +YELLOW RUFE'S FINISH. + + +"How bears the flare?" Dolores demanded, steadying the helm. + +"Three points on lee-bow!" came from aloft. + +"Sing out when we point for it!" Dolores gave the wheel a few spokes, +and at her command the main-sheet was rendered until the schooner fell +off from the wind, and Stumpy hailed: "Steady! She heads fair for it!" + +"Does it still burn?" + +"Aye, blazing bright! And low down, too, for the seas hide it every +moment!" + +"Keep thy eyes skinned, and seek for the sloop, too." + +The schooner came to a more even keel as she squared away from the gale, +and the splendid speed of the craft sent a thrill through Dolores, as +through the less impressionable pirate of the gang. Fast as Rufe's sloop +was, this dainty plaything of wealth and leisure sped over the snarling +seas at a gait that promised to overhaul the smaller vessel two fathoms +to one. + +Even Rupert Venner and his friends, shivering with the wet and sudden +change from the cabin to the deck though they were, found much to soothe +them in the glorious sweep and swing of the Feu Follette; much to admire +and envy in the perfect poise and _sang froid_ of the magnificent +creature at the wheel. + +Dolores stood on feet as steady as the great, deep eyes that were fixed +on the compass-card before her. Her heavy, lustrous hair streamed about +her from under the golden circlet; in each lightning flash she stood +out, a thing of wild, awful beauty; the rain glistened on her bare +shoulders and arms, rendering her golden skin a gleaming, fairylike +armor. And the blustering wind caught her wet tunic and wrapped it about +her closely and tightly, revealing every grace and glory of her perfect +body. + +"Saints! Was there ever such a creature?" said Tomlin hoarsely. + +Pearse's face was set and grim; he made no rejoinder. Venner, too, kept +silent; but his eyes held venom as he glared at the speaker. Dolores +suddenly raised her eyes from the binnacle, looked toward them as they +crouched shivering in the lee of the deck-house-companion, and she, warm +and glowing in a flimsy, wet garment, laughed mockingly, and called to +them. + +"I am forgetting what is due to my guests. Do ye feel cold? Will ye go +below?" + +And they, shivering and uneasy as they were, were content to shiver if +only they might not lose sight of her. Their reply was unintelligible; +neither would look at the others; yet their mumbled response was +understood, and the girl laughed again, loud, ringing, and full of +allure. + +"Such courage comes only of true sea stock, my friends! I shall not +forget this fortitude when I have done with the schooner." + +"Flare close aboard!" roared Stumpy; then: "Seize my soul if I see the +boat, though, mistress. Satan! Now the flare's gone out!" + +"Whereaway?" cried Dolores shrilly. Big Milo was out there in the +blackness. + +"Right under the bows!" bellowed the lookout. "Luff, or bear away; ye'll +run him down!" + +And from the raging seas off the lee-bow came the deep, calm voice of +Milo, unperturbed as if on dry land, though no boat was to be seen in +the murk. "Hold the course, Sultana, I am here!" + +And on the heels of the words came a flash from the skies, blazing full +upon the dripping figure of the giant as he reached a great arm up, +gripped the lee-rail, and swung himself on board with the unconscious +ease of a perfect athlete. + +"Thy boat, Milo?" inquired Dolores. + +"Sailed under, Sultana. I have held the flare aloft in my hand while +swimming until a moment ago, when the powder burned out." + +"And Rufe?" + +"The sloop is close by. Thou art sailing fair at his stern if thy course +was not changed to avoid me. His topmast is gone; he sails slowly." + +Then without more ado the splendid human animal clutched a backstay and +swarmed aloft with the agility of an ape, showing not a whit of strain +after his battle with the roaring seas. He reached Stumpy, sent that +numbed mariner down, and searched the waters with his keen vision, +waiting for another lightning flash. And when it came, fainter now as +the thunderstorm receded, his resonant voice boomed down: + +"Broad abeam the sloop lies! She runs before the wind!" + +"Slack away the main-sheet!" cried Dolores, heaving the helm up. "Hail +every minute, Milo!" + +"Shall I send him a shot immediately, lady?" roared Hanglip, at the +schooner's foremost gun. + +"Hold with thy shots, villain! Does Rufe deserve no sport? Stand by with +the grappling-hooks. I'll run him down!" + +"The sloop is dead ahead!" hailed Milo, though none on deck could detect +anything of her in the blackness. Dolores listened intently; then +twirled the wheel, and cried: "I hear her! Ready the grapnels?" + +"Aye, ready!" + +"Then watch--and heave!" she commanded; and with the suddenness of light +the schooner swept around in a swift arc, the black shape of the flying +sloop stood out against the angry sea crests, and the two vessels came +together with a crash of timbers and a rattling of gear. + +A distant rumbling of thunder succeeded a faint flash, and wind and rain +came down with increased fury as if to balance the defection of the +electric element. The darkness of Erebus fell upon the surging vessels, +and men groped at the rails in a blind effort to make out a footing for +boarding the sloop. + +"Follow me; I want Yellow Rufe alive!" cried Dolores, leaving the wheel +and springing to the bulwarks. Instinctively Peters stepped to the +wheel, and as he passed his employer he leaned to whisper in his ear: + +"Let them once leave these decks, sir, and we'll up hellum and away!" + +Venner's eyes glittered at the prospect; but he could not see the faces +of his friends; he could only hear Pearse's low tones beside him, and +the mumbled words indicated no great agreement in the scheme. Uncertain, +his mind confused between desire to escape and desire to see more of +Dolores and her hidden cave of wonders, Rupert Venner hesitated in his +decision; and in the next moment it was out of his power to decide. For +Rufe, in desperation now, met the boarders at the rail, backed by his +half-dozen crazed adherents, and murderous steel glittered dully against +the inky sky. + +"Beat down his cringing curs, but leave me Rufe!" cried Dolores, +opposing her own dagger to the sweep of the pirate's cutlas. And as the +schooner's crew roared at Hanglip's heels, storming over to the pitching +sloop's decks to pursue mercilessly the panic-stricken runaways, the +girl pitted agility and splendid knife-craft against the terror-driven +strength and wolfish fury of the trapped traitor. + +"Hah! Thy black heart fails thee!" taunted Dolores, leaping down from +the rail to the schooner's streaming deck and thus avoiding a whistling +stroke of Rufe's cutlas. The pirate fell forward with the impetus of his +blow, and stumbled in a heap at the girl's nimble feet. "Up, man!" she +cried, leaping back to permit him to rise. "What, art afraid of a woman? +Here, then, I prick thee! Now wilt fight?" She darted her dagger swiftly +downward, and the partially healed cross on Rufe's cheek blazed red +again. + +"Woman or devil, I'll see thy heart for that!" swore the pirate, and +rose with a bound and hurled himself at the girl. She stepped aside +agilely and laughed mockingly at him, while as he again stumbled with +the swing of his avoided blow she darted close, and her knife ripped his +sword-arm from wrist to elbow. + +Mouthing crazily with fury, Rufe leaped backward until his shoulders +struck the rigging, and, seizing his cutlas in his left hand, he poised +it by the blade for a deadly javelin cast. + +Now upon the scene flared a great blaze, and Stumpy's scowling face +appeared at the back of it. He, with readier wit than his fellows, had +sought out a tar-pot and lamp; and at the moment his mistress stood +defenseless before the impeding steel, the club-footed pirate poured +lamp-oil into the tar, and cast the flaring wick on top of all. + +A circle of light spread from wheel to foremast, with Yellow Rufe at the +main rigging in the center of it. The light dazzled him for a second, +and his throw was stayed. The three yachtsmen, huddled in their chains +aft, stared in helpless amazement at the tableau; for such it became, +when the fight stopped for a breath and every man's passion-filled face +was lighted by the red glare. + +"Shoot him down!" shouted Pearse in horror. + +And Venner and Tomlin strove for words without success. Venner was dumb +and sick in face of Dolores's peril. Yellow Rufe uttered a grim, +Satanic growl of laughter, and drew back his arm for the cast. His +plight was utterly desperate; he knew death waited for him with +clutching talons, and with his last breath he would reap toll that +should make his name a thing to recall with dread afterward. + +"This for thy witch's heart!" he howled, and his arm quivered. Then out +of the shadows aloft, above the smoky flare, came down the tremendous +shape of Milo, forgotten in his post at the masthead, but never taking +his eyes from his Sultana. + +Like a gorilla he slipped down the backstay with one hand; with the +other hand he reached downward with a swift, sure clutch, and as Rufe's +wrist flexed to cast his javelin Milo's hand gripped him by the neck +from behind and swung him bodily off his feet, while the wide-flung +cutlas flashed through the air and plunged with a hiss over the side. + +"I thank thee again, Milo," said Dolores, slipping her dagger into the +sheath and looking on at Rufe's struggles with the unconcern of one far +apart from the actual conflict. "I wished to take him alive; yet had +almost been forced to cut too deeply. Bring the villain to me. And, +Caliban, get more flares, lanterns, lights, and make us a theater of +justice here." + +She stepped aft, saw Peters at the wheel, and smiled as she realized how +her boarding of the sloop might have resulted. + +"Hah, but it would have availed thee nothing!" she smiled at Venner. "I +read thy heart as I read the stars, friend. Watch how completely Yellow +Rufe pays his debt to me. He has fled me through forest and mountain; +through a sea of howling storm; yet he pays. And thus all men pay who +think to flout Dolores. Keep thy eyes wide, friends, and watch." + +Yellow Rufe was brought before her, and his swarthy face was pallid in +the red light. There was something of the splendid beast about this +fellow, too; a quality that showed even when he faced certain death and +no merciful one. He had run, and when overtaken he had fought; and now +he must pay. + +"Hanglip, to the wheel here!" Dolores commanded. "Six of you bring back +the sloop. The rest attend me! Bring the schooner to her course, +northwest, Hanglip; and, Spotted Dog, rig me a whip at the foregaff-end. +Yellow Rufe, pray or curse while ye may. Thy course is run. There is +nothing left to say. Ten minutes remain to thee." + +The doomed pirate stood in silence while the preparations were being +made; but when Spotted Dog brought down the end of the rope he had rove +through the block at the end of the gaff, and stood grinning +anticipatively before Dolores, Rufe's tongue came loose, and he burst +into a torrent of futile, raving blasphemy. + +"Take the rope end forward, and pass it around the bows, so that the +rope passes beneath the keel," Dolores ordered, and every eager villain +in the band knew now what fate awaited Rufe. The schooner, not being +square-rigged, was badly fitted for the operation of keel-hauling; but +Dolores's inventive brain had devised a refinement of even that +refinement of torture. She waited for the rope end, and when Spotted Dog +brought it aft, on the weather side, passing clear from the gaff to +leeward, under the keel and up to windward, she stood aside so that the +yachtsmen could witness all. + +"Tie his hands, Milo!" she said. It was carried out, in spite of Rufe's +fierce fight against it. "Now place the noose about his throat tightly." +That, too, was done, and now the rope led from Rufe's neck, over the +weather rail, under the schooner, and up to the gaff. Three men stood by +the hauling part of the rope, and at a gesture from the girl six others +joined them. On every face was a little doubt, for none saw exactly what +was coming, least of all Rufe. + +"Now release him!" said Dolores quietly, and Rufe was left standing +alone, his hands tied, but his feet unfettered. He glared around as if +he saw a slim chance yet for life; the hope died the next moment, for +Dolores signed to the men at the rope, they began hauling, and the +terror leaped into Rufe's eyes afresh. + +For a moment Venner and his friends saw what they imagined to be a piece +of grim jesting; but they, as well as Rufe, speedily saw there was no +jest in this. For as the rope tightened, and other roaring ruffians ran +joyously to take a pull at it, Rufe was drawn irresistibly toward the +weather rail with a choking drag on his throat. He seized the rail, and +strained with his every sinew to fight that deadly peril; the rope only +tightened more; it was either go or strangle for him; fight as he might, +he was forced to climb on the rail, to aid in his own funeral. + +The yachtsmen turned dizzy with the awfulness of the man's end; but they +could not take their fascinated eyes from the scene. They saw Rufe +topple over the rail with a choking curse, and saw the rope pull him +under the vessel; they saw the rope quiver to the pirates' lusty pull as +the victim was battered against the keel. And they saw the terrible +figure leap from the sea to leeward and fly to the gaff-end as the men +ran away with the rope to a roaring chorus. But they saw no more. Their +eyes refused to look at a repetition of that horror. And Dolores, +watching them keenly, came to them, after giving final orders regarding +Yellow Rufe's body, took their chains in her hand, and said: + +"When again the thought comes to leave me, gentlemen, think well upon +what I have showed thee. Now come below. I owe thee some refreshment +after a night of storm. 'Twill be approaching dawn ere the schooner can +beat back to my haven. Come. I will serve thee with supper." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE FIRES OF THE FLESH. + + +In the schooner's saloon the atmosphere was peaceful by contrast with +the hurly-burly outside; yet even here the steep slant of the deck, the +shrill, protesting squeal of working frames and beams, the sullen thud +and swish of racing seas along the vessel's skin, kept the storm ever in +mind: the dizzy plunge of the bows into great gray seas, with its +accompanying rise of the stern and the hollow jar and thump of the +rudder-post in its port, kept the interior humming with sound as from a +distant organ. + +Again chained to the mainmast, the three yachtsmen stood gloomily +regarding Dolores, whose capable, battle-wise fingers now performed a +task more in keeping with her sex and charm. Under the great swing-lamp +in the skylight she leaned over the table, mixing wine in low, stout +cups, spreading a silver salver with food from the pantry. And a +thrilling picture she made in the soft glow of the lamp. The beautiful +face was warm with color; the scarlet lips were slightly opened in a +brilliant smile; intent upon her task, she swayed with superb grace to +the tremendous lurches of the driving schooner, ignoring all outside +affairs. + +Her preparations completed, she placed tray and cups at the end of the +table nearest the mainmast, turned around the deep armchair which had +been the owner's own, and sat down, offering a cup and the tray with a +little laugh of satisfaction. + +"Come, friend Rupert," she said, thrilling Venner again with her vibrant +voice, "thou shalt be first. Eat--and drink. See, for thee I do this." +She raised the cup to her lips, and kissed the brim, fixing her +fathomless eyes full on Venner as she did so. + +He struggled with his feelings for a moment, and hated himself heartily +for even debating his attitude. But he fell, as he had done before, +dazzled by her witchery. His eyes blazed, his blood leaped, and he took +the cup with a mumbled attempt at thanks. Dolores smiled at his +confusion, and in that smile was the allure of a Circe. + +Venner's expression became less tense as he noted the faces of his +fellows; for in their eyes he read jealousy, rank and stark, and it +warmed him to the marrow. In the next instant his warmth rose to fever +heat, and malice twisted his features; Dolores had taken another cup, +and now she offered it to Pearse, with a smile yet more gracious than +before. + +"My silent friend, here's to thee, too," she murmured. His cup she +kissed twice, and presented it carefully so that the place she kissed +was against his lips. "Drink. I have sweetened it." + +As Venner's brows darkened, so did John Pearse conquer his first flush +of self-contempt and put on a smile that irradiated his usually serious +face. And Tomlin brightened, too, waiting in what patience he could +muster for his turn, which must come next. To him Dolores turned, cup in +hand, and rising at the same time gave him his wine with a brief: "Here, +drink, too. I must leave thee a while." + +She forced the cup into Tomlin's trembling fingers, gave him never a +glance, but went out of the saloon on her errand. + +When he realized she was gone, Craik Tomlin dashed down the wine like a +petulant boy, and cursed deeply and fiercely. And not until then did +Venner and Pearse awake to the true artistry of the woman; for here, +instead of making of Tomlin a raging foe, willing to plot with all the +power of his alert brain for their ultimate release, she had aroused a +demon of black jealousy in him which promised to set all three by the +ears. + +Restricted as their movements were, they were forced to nurse whatever +feelings Dolores had implanted in them in full sight of each other. And +Tomlin left no doubt as to his feelings. At the farthest scope of his +chain he flung himself down on the slanting floor and crouched there +with dull-glowing eyes bent loweringly upon his friends. Venner laughed +awkwardly, and glanced at Pearse; the laugh died away and left a silence +between them that was vividly accentuated by the manifold voices of the +laboring vessel. For in the swift meeting of eyes, John Pearse and +Venner, host and guest, friends to that moment, saw in each other an +established rival, a potential foe. Involuntarily they drew apart; and +when Dolores returned from the deck she found them spread out like star +rays, having nothing in common except a common center. + +She gave no sign that she noticed them; but her heavy, fringed lids +drooped over eyes brimming with gratification. As she stepped from the +stairs the schooner swung upright, the deck overhead thundered to the +slamming of booms as she came about, and then the cabin sloped the other +way, rolling the scattered wine-cups noisily across the floor. Neither +man looked up; but Tomlin's cup rolled so that it struck his foot, and +he gave voice to a deep oath, terrible in its uncalled-for savagery. +Then Dolores gave them outward notice for the first time. + +With a low, pleasant laugh, she stepped quickly to Tomlin's side, laid a +hand on his sullen head, and forced him to look up at her. + +"I owe thee something, friend," she smiled, and Tomlin flushed hotly +under her close regard. "I treated thee badly in my haste. Come"--she +went to the sideboard, filled another cup with wine, and came back, +kneeling before Tomlin in the attitude of a slave while her big eyes +blazed full into his. + +"Drink, for I like thee best," she whispered, sipping the wine and +putting the brim, warm from her lips, to his. + +And Tomlin drank deeply, greedily, trembling under her close proximity. +He felt her hand take his chain, heard the tinkle of links, and knew, +without seeing, that she had unlocked his fetters and he was free. + +"Now sit here with me, and thou shalt tell me about thy world, my +friend, the world thou shalt take me to." + +Her soft, thrilling voice set Tomlin's blood leaping; and as she spoke +she led him to Venner's great chair and sat him down in it. Then, facing +at the length of the table her other two captives, she stood behind the +big chair, her arms on the top, leaning low to Tomlin's ear, her lips +almost brushing his cheek. + +And she whispered to him musically, seductively; her jeweled fingers +played with his hair; the soft, warm skin of her arms slid over his neck +and face; when, in a frenzy, he reached impulsively for her hand and +gripped it, she laughed yet more deliciously and permitted him to hold +it. + +"Why must you seek another world, Dolores?" Tomlin said hoarsely. "Here +you are queen. Out in the greater world you can be no more. Stay, and +let me stay with you." + +"And would my paltry possessions pay thee for renouncing thy people, thy +home?" she asked. + +"Home? People? God! I renounce Heaven itself if you say yes!" + +"We shall see, my friend," Dolores sighed, and Tomlin felt her tremble +slightly. "My chief desire is to leave behind me this life of herder to +human beasts. To go into the world whence comes such as thee, Tomlin; to +live among the people who can make such as these"--she indicated the +rich furnishing of the saloon, the sideboard silver and plate, the +stained glass of the skylight. + +"All these things I have, and more--nay, but thy treasures are nothing +compared with what I shall show thee in the great chamber--yet must I +keep them hidden because of the beasts that call me Sultana! Where they +came from, these treasures, must be men like thee, Tomlin, women like +the painted women of my gallery, people with the art to make these +things instead of the brute power to steal them. And there I will go, +and thou art to be my guide." + +"Then, in Heaven's name, let us go now!" cried Tomlin, trying to rise. +She laughed in his ear again, and her soft, warm arms pressed him back +in the chair with a power that amazed him. "We shall go, in good +season," she whispered. "But--" The rest was murmured so faintly, yet so +tremendously audible to his superheated brain, that he drew back and +stared up at her with an awful expression of mingled unbelief and horror +distorting his face. + +"Do you know what you say?" he gasped, and shot an apprehensive glance +toward Venner and Pearse. + +"Surely, my friend," she crooned. "Thyself alone, of those who came in +this ship, may return. If I am desirable, see to it that I can be +pleased with thee." Dolores stood up, bent upon him a dazzling smile, +leaned as if to kiss his lips, then with a tinkling little ripple of +mirth blew a kiss instead and ran up the companion-stairs to the deck. + +Tomlin stood glaring after her as if fascinated. His face, deeply +flushed a moment before, had gone deathly white; his profile, turned +under the lamp toward his companions, showed deeply puckered brows over +stony eyes, lips parted as if to utter a cry of horror. And Venner, +fuming inwardly, had seen enough to recall some of his badly scattered +wits. He called Tomlin by name hoarsely, softly, and exclaimed when he +looked around: + +"Tomlin, shall we three be ruined body and soul by that sorceress? Come, +help us out of these chains, and we will make a bid for liberty. We can +reach Peters and such men as are left, by way of the alleyway to the +forecastle; I know where weapons are to be got, and we'll put our fate +on the cast. Come. Pearse is of a like mind, eh, Pearse?" + +Pearse did not reply at once, and Tomlin saved him the trouble; for, +recovering himself with a shudder, he put a hand on the companion-rail +and started up the stairs with a laugh of contempt. + +"I have no concern with your troubles, Venner," he said. "As for +liberty, I am free as air. I believe patience is the medicine you need." + +Tomlin reached the deck with tingling ears, for even Pearse came out of +his reverie to curse him. But curses or benedictions counted nothing at +that moment. In every patch of light he saw Dolores's devilishly lovely +face; in every swing of the vessel he saw her consummate grace; he was a +thirsty man seeking a spring, knowing full well that a draft must kill +him. He stood alone outside the companionway, wondering at the absence +of people, at the absence of Dolores. A solitary man stood at the wheel; +and, looking around for others, Tomlin noticed vaguely that the black +storm was broken, that watery stars were winking down, and that almost +in the zenith a gibbous moon leaned like a brimming dipper of +quicksilver, ready to drop from the inky cloud that had but just +uncovered it. + +Then voices reached his ears from forward, voices full of wondering +anger, and he stepped out clear of the deck-house and peered ahead on +the windward side. There, two miles away, the land loomed black and +forbidding; and high up, on a crest, a great red blaze leaped and +swirled against the flying clouds. + +As he stood, Dolores ran aft, ignoring him utterly in her haste. Her men +grouped themselves along the waist of the schooner, waiting for +commands. The Feu Follette was already doing her best; that is, the best +under such sail as was safe to carry. But there, to windward, and yet +two miles distant, some part of the pirate village was burning, and none +might say yet what part it was. + +The one thing certain was that it could not be the great chamber. That +was of rock; it might be destroyed by an explosion; never by fire. So +there was a ring of exultation in Dolores's tone when she sent the hail +along: + +"Loose both topsails and set them! Caliban, thou small villain, out and +loose the outer jib. Main-sheet here! Oh, haul, bullies! Flat--more +yet--so, belay!" + +Then the girl flung the man from the wheel, seized the spokes herself, +and began to nurse the schooner to windward with truly superhuman art. +Closer yet she brought the graceful craft; closer, until the luffs +trembled and the seas burst fair upon the stem and volleyed stinging +spray the full length of her. And as she drew nearer, the blaze seemed +to diminish and blaze afresh as if fire-fighters were there indeed, but +lacking weapons to fight with. + +"Is it the treasure-house?" Tomlin asked anxiously, stepping beside the +girl. She stood in deep shadow; the dim radiance from the lighted +binnacle touched her face, breast, and arms with soft light, and her +eyes, as they flashed swiftly toward the man, glittered with some subtle +quality that sent a shiver running down his spine. + +"Treasure-house?" she repeated, and her voice was no longer soft and +alluring; it was metallic and menacing. For the second time, first in +Venner, now in Tomlin, she had seen the true source of their +fascination. "No, it is not the treasure-house. It is the council hall, +where thou wert lodged." She snatched her gaze from the compass and +fixed him with the cold, unwinking stare of a snake. "Where thou wert +lodged, my friend who would renounce all for me. Where, had I cared to, +I might have left two of ye, taking with me to safety only the one whose +brains are not afire with soulless gold and jewels." + +Tomlin grew hot and uneasy. "My brain is on fire with your beauty, +Dolores," he returned, trying to force her gaze to meet his again. + +"Prove it to me, then," she replied shortly, and waved him away, +devoting her attention now to making the anchorage, already close to. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +PEARSE ENTERS THE CAVE OF ALADDIN. + + +Lucky it proved that Pascherette had been left behind when the schooner +sailed after Yellow Rufe. Even Dolores, with all her consummate wisdom, +had forgotten the existence of the old woman she had degraded to kitchen +drudge; still more utterly had she forgotten the relationship existing +between the old woman and the late victim of her terrible vengeance. + +Sancho had called the old crone mother, whether with blood reasons or +not none knew. And at bottom, much of Sancho's rebellion had come of +anger at the treatment meted out to her. And it was Sancho's despairing +cry, when Milo cast him out into the Grove, that brought the old woman +from her concealment in the forest. The awful plight of the unlucky +wretch had aroused in the woman's withered breast a demon of revenge +that knew no limits; and the departing schooner, then barely visible to +her, filled her brain with the knowledge that the strangers who came in +that vessel had been the indirect cause of her Sancho's fate. + +She knew they had been placed in the cells behind the council hall; she +knew nothing of Dolores's last-minute decision that had taken them with +her. She knew nothing as to who or how many were left in the camp; but +she knew, she had terrible and ever-present proof in that moaning, +groping, brainless thing that was Sancho, that her mistress had shown a +leaning toward the strangers at the expense of her own people, and that +she herself might expect no mercy if ever caught. And with the low +animal cunning that served her for intellect she knew her penalty could +be no greater if she struck one blow in revenge before taking to the +woods in final flight. + +Her plan was simple. Watching Sancho for a while, so that she might not +lose him, she searched for dry wood among the drenched underbrush, piled +it against the rear of the council hall, and set fire to it, fanning the +faint flame and feeding it, guarding it with her scanty garments, until +the red tongues shot up in a powerful, self-supporting conflagration. + +Then she had darted back to the forest fringe, found Sancho, and turned +his sightless, blank face toward the blaze so that he might feel the +warmth and guess the cause. But she knew nothing of his cracked brain; +she knew only of his physical agonies; the utter absence of interest in +him when she would have shown him what she had done shook her to the +foundations of her own reason; and her eldritch scream pealed up among +the trees as she flung her arms aloft and cursed the place. + +It was the scream that brought Pascherette out of the hut, where she +sheltered from the storm, to see the council hall in flames. It was the +scream that told the little octoroon where the fire had birth. And +Pascherette, too, believed that the three strangers were still within +the cells. She had plans of her own that required the safety of those +men, at least for a while. And her active brain gave her the solution +before the old woman had ceased to curse. + +Like a small, sleek panther Pascherette ran toward the old woman; she +saw Sancho, too, but instinctively knew that after Milo's treatment of +him he could not be dangerous; ignoring the man, she drew her knife as +she ran, and with a brief, panting, "That for thee, witch!" struck the +old woman down at Sancho's stumbling feet. + +Now she gave all her energies to subduing the fire; and, swiftly +rallying every man or woman in the camp she drove them with blows and +shrill invective to beating the blaze with sodden boughs and wet sand. +She set men with poles to batter down the doors to the cells; but the +doors had been built to oppose that kind of entry. Frantically she drove +the fire-fighters to another place, while she heaped up fresh fire +against the doors in the hope of burning down what could not be burst. +And it was the last up-blazing shaft of fire as the doors fell that +Dolores saw in the moment she brought the schooner to anchor. +Pascherette was emerging, singed and blackened, with dark rage in her +glittering eyes at having found the cells empty, when Dolores and her +crew arrived on the scene with Venner and Tomlin and Pearse in their +midst. + +"What! Pascherette again?" cried Dolores, glaring at the girl with red +suspicion in her face. "Is this thy work? Speak!" + +Pascherette stared in surprise at the three strangers, and her painfully +scorched lips strove to answer. Her throat was dry, and at first words +refused to come. But in the pause, when fifty faces glowered at the +girl, something stumbled across the open in the firelight, and Milo's +sharp vision distinguished it. He went up to Pascherette, with deep +concern in his devoted eyes, and laid a strong arm about her trembling +shoulders. She relaxed toward him, and managed to whisper to him. He +flung out his free hand toward the open space, and cried to Dolores: + +"There is the traitor, Sultana! This is the avenger." + +Dolores looked; every eye was turned where Milo pointed; and the brutal +laughter of some of the hardiest pirates mingled with the groans of the +three yachtsmen, whose escape from a horrible death by fire could not +reconcile them to the staggering vengeance that had overtaken the wretch +who had attempted that death. Bathed in an infernal glow, grotesque as a +creature of a diseased brain, the unhuman Sancho staggered across the +glade and into the darkness of the forest, bearing in his handless arms +a ghastly burden in which the hilt of Pascherette's dagger glittered and +flashed as the firelight touched it. + +"Back! Let him go!" cried Dolores; and a score of shouting ruffians +returned from swift pursuit, leaving Sancho and his burden to pass into +the oblivion of the great forest. + +Milo examined the damage, and reported. The cells were useless now, +except merely to confine captives. They did not fit in with Dolores's +plans thus, and she sent Milo to a distance with John Pearse while she +carried into effect a new fancy. Her crew had gone to their own places, +to soothe the fatigues of their night's work in carousal; Pascherette +stood near by, gazing at her mistress with mute appeal that she, too, be +permitted to seek alleviation of her own sore burns. + +"Wait, child," said Dolores, seeing the girl's trouble. "I'll cure thy +hurts soon." + +Then she separated Venner and Tomlin, taking each in turn to a vacant +hut. And to each she whispered patience and faith; to each her voice +imparted a renewed thrill. To Venner she said: + +"Thy anger with me was foolish, good Rupert. I did but smile at thy +friends to make thy task easier. Now see; I leave thee unfettered, and +thus." She drew his head down and lightly kissed his hair, laughing with +a little tremor: "Think of what I asked of thee, Rupert. To-morrow I +shall ask thy decision." + +In turn to Tomlin she whispered: + +"The night has been arduous for thee. I was impatient with thee. Thy vow +of devotion to me rang true, though I doubted it at the moment. +To-morrow I will hear what thy heart speaks. To-night, see, I free thee. +For thy own safety, though, do not venture beyond these doors save with +me. My rascals are fierce creatures of jealousy and suspicion. Good +night, friend." Him, too, she left tingling with her kiss, and whatever +others in the camp did that night, two men found sleep elusive and vain. + +Milo brought Pearse to her at her call, and together they went to the +great stone before the chamber. Milo rolled back the rock, while his +expression showed uneasiness. But he had learned his lesson when +protesting against Pascherette's admission to the cave of mystery, and +uttered no warning now. + +Pascherette, in spite of her burns, bent a roguish face upon Pearse as +that puzzled gentleman waited for some word or motion that should give +him the reason for this unexpected favor. + +Still Dolores said nothing. The rock rolled away, and Milo stood aside, +she entered, touching Pearse on the arm as she passed him, and he +followed meekly, Pascherette bringing up the rear with Milo after the +giant replaced the great stone. Then Dolores turned back to Pearse, +under the soft, red glow of the unseen lamps, and flashed a bewildering +smile upon him. + +"Wilt believe now that I love thee?" she whispered, and her lids drooped +over swimming eyes. "Beyond that great door lies the chamber to enter +which costs death. Art afraid?" + +"Lead on," replied Pearse hoarsely. There was no trace of fear in his +voice or in his eyes; but Dolores warmed gladly to the knowledge that +here at last was a man whose thoughts were bent upon her and not on her +chamber of treasures. + +They stood before the massive sliding door of plate and jewels, and here +the human side in John Pearse showed through for an instant. Under the +great, yellow lantern the gold and silver plates, the glowing rubies, +the glinting emeralds, made a picture of fabulous riches that even he +could not ignore. But at the upward slide of the door his eyes left the +richness of it without a flicker; he waited for the heavy velvet +hangings to be drawn, and when Dolores's eyes sought his they surprised +his deep, ardent gaze fastened full on herself and not upon what might +next be revealed. + +"Enter, man of my heart," she smiled, and stood aside to permit him to +pass. + +In the first steps over the threshold John Pearse saw little save a dim, +cool hall, vast and full of vagrant shadows; then, when Milo had +arranged the lights so that they gradually grew in power, flooding the +chamber with mellow radiance, his soul seemed to burst from his throat +in one choking, stupefied gasp. + +"The Cave of Aladdin!" he choked, and stood open-mouthed while Dolores +laughed softly at his shoulder. + +"Nay," she reproved. "'Tis the Cave of Dolores. 'Tis mine, and"--she +turned her face up toward his alluringly--"may be thine, if thou'rt a +true man!" + +With shrewd artistry she twisted away as he strove to clasp her, and +there she left him standing, in the midst of untold treasures that every +moment were increasingly revealed to him. Without another glance for +him, or apparently another thought, she took Pascherette by the hand and +led her down the chamber to the great chair. Here she busied herself +with salves and lotions to assuage the scald of the girl's fresh burns, +which were more painful than serious. And every moment she was thus +charitably employed her gleaming eyes were fixed upon Pearse from under +concealing lashes; every moment Milo's dusky face was bent upon her from +the end of the chamber with an expression of absolute adoration and +gratitude. For tiny Pascherette was custodian of the giant's green +heart; and honest Milo never sought very deeply for motives. It was +enough for him that Dolores, his Sultana, the being he worshiped as he +worshiped his gods, was ministering with woman's infinite tenderness to +her maid, a creature as humble as himself. + +Pearse, too, even in his intoxication of senses, saw and warmed to this +evidence of real womanliness in one he had small cause to think anything +other than a bewilderingly alluring fury. He could not hide his +thoughts, and Dolores saw them betrayed on his face; Pascherette +surprised the look on her mistress's lovely face that told her the +imperious beauty possessed a heart of living flesh and blood. And +Pascherette shuddered nervously at the fear of what must happen should +that heart ever feel humiliated. + +"Keep still, child," Dolores laughed happily, mistaking the reason for +the girl's shudder. "It is finished now. Thy hurts will pass in thy +sleep. Go to thy big man there, and have him pet thee. I have no need of +thee until I call. Go, take him away. I would be alone with my guest." + +The girl ran to Milo, and together they went down to the gallery beyond +the picture door. Then Dolores set out with her own fair hands wine and +sweetmeats, the confections taken from the yacht, strange and new to +her, but in her mind something desirable to such men as Pearse, else why +had they brought such things? And again using her innate witchery, she +set a chair for Pearse at a distance from her own, where she could look +straight into his face or hide her own, as her fancy dictated. + +"Hast seen the like before?" she smiled, looking at him over the brim of +a chased gold flagon. + +"Never, never, Dolores!" he said, and his eyes blazed into hers. He +moved his chair close to her, and reached for her free hand. + +"What! Hast thou no eyes for these things?" she exclaimed in simulated +surprise, taking her hand away and indicating the wealth around the +walls. "Man, thy eyes are idle; look at those gems, those paintings; +hast ever seen the like of those 'Three Graces,' then, that they have no +interest for thee?" + +"Yes, I have seen the like, wonderful, wonderful being," he returned +hoarsely. "You I have seen; you, you, I see nothing else but you, +Dolores!" + +She dazzled him with a seductive smile, full of fire-specked softnesses, +and offered him her flagon. + +"Drink, comrade. Drink here, and we shall talk of thee and me, and what +concerns us both nearly. Art sure thy eyes are not blinded by the nearer +beauty?" + +"I am not blind! I never saw with clearer vision!" Pearse cried, taking +the flagon with tremorless hand. "I care nothing for these tawdry +gauds." + +"Ah! Then thou'rt the man. Come, thy faithful soul deserves reward. +Come, I will show thee treasures thou hast not dreamed of yet; and all +shall be thine, with me--at a price." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE TREASURE TEST. + + +Dolores gaily took John Pearse by the hand and led him down the chamber +to the dais on which stood the vacant chair of state of the dead Red +Jabez. The great canopied bed still stood there; but it was curtained +in, out of sight, and unused; Dolores preferred her own low couch, with +its strangely beautiful composite furnishings of silk and tiger-skins, +velvet and snowy polar-bear rugs, heaped high with luxurious cushions +that made it a restful lounge by day as well as a sleep-inviting couch +by night. + +Beside the couch, between it and the dais, Milo had set the +treasure-chests, leaving the lids wide-flung, the contents but thinly +concealed by silken shawls. The end of a rope of matchless pearls hung +over the edge of one chest carelessly, without apparent motive; yet when +she guided Pearse to the couch and seated him, Dolores scanned his face +with glinting eyes that peeped out through narrow slits. She saw his +look of interest; then his mouth turned upward in a smile that said +plainly: "Here is a theatrical trick to impress me!" + +"Now thy reward is come," whispered Dolores, leaving him with an arch +smile and kneeling before the big chests. She tore away the shawls and +plunged her hands into the glittering hoard to the wrists, flinging out +upon the couch and the floor, upon Pearse's knees and into his hands, +rubies and emeralds, diamonds and pearls, golden chains and ornaments +for the hair in a bewildering, stupendous litter. And, her face turned +from him, her narrowed eyes were fixed upon him, and in their gleaming +depths burned a smoldering anxiety that was nearing impatience. + +For John Pearse cloaked his feelings better than his fellows; he smiled +at the shower of riches, met her questing glance with a smile, and +smiled again with shaking head when she stood before him, aglow with +yearning for his decision, and asked simply: + +"Well?" + +"Baubles, playthings, Dolores!" he laughed up at her. He seized her +hands, stroked the satin-skinned forearm, and said softly: "These are +not worthy of such a woman as Dolores. These are but the gauds of a +beautiful woman. To fit you, they should be the adornments of a +goddess!" + +"Oh, then thy lips uttered truth!" she cried delightedly. She stooped +swiftly to him, twined her arms about his neck, and laid her warm cheek +to his. "Now I shall show thee treasures indeed, my John!" + +She ran to the one chest yet unopened, and flung away the silk covering. +Here were the gems of the craftsman's art. Stones of unparalleled color +and size were in this chest; but their chief merit lay in their cunning +settings, their consummate delicacy of workmanship. Here the art +collector might find his El Dorado; in all the world such a collection +could scarcely be found in one place. Here were shrines and temples, +carved from single immense stones or pieces of jade; here was a woven +thing of gold and silver, in which the warp and woof lay close as +tapestry, portraying as no tapestry could portray it the fabled valley +of "Sinbad," in which the sands were gold, the sky silver, and the gems +were gems indeed. + +"Is this to thy mind?" Dolores cried, tossing to him a golden ball which +by some amazing internal mechanism played fairy chimes as it whirled +through the air. + +Her lips parted in flushed pleasure at the result of her display, for +John Pearse was smitten with the collector's fever. He missed her ball +through sheer inability to tear his eyes from the other treasures. And +as his brain began to grasp the stupendous truth, to more readily +estimate values, his eyes turned from the more gaudy works of art, and +noticed, for the first time clearly, the pricelessness of many greater +things of canvas and wood, ivory and glass, with which the apartment +abounded. + +"Now thy heart craves my treasures, too, eh?" she chided, gliding to him +and laying a hand on his head. Yet she felt glad of his awakened +interest. It was merely another card she might yet have to play. + +"Astounding!" he gasped. His gaze fastened upon a boule bric-à-brac +stand, on which stood an Aretine vase two feet high, of peerless form +and glaze. The ticking of the great Peter Hele clock drew his attention +to a work of ebony and ivory as scarcely could be believed as coming +from man's hands. + +"Now thou'rt of a kind with thy fellows!" she cried in anger. "Look at +me! No, thy eyes will not deign to seek me now!" + +Pearse snatched his eyes away, and answered her with a laugh that sent +her blood leaping again. + +"My Dolores forgets she demanded my admiration for her treasures," he +said. "What would you have, splendid one? Shall I say these treasures +are still paltry, when I see their countless worth? Still I say you are +the treasure beyond price. These are but a little more fitting for you. +That is all. Am I forgiven?" + +He leaped to his feet, seized her hand, and attempted to slip an arm +about her waist. She, lithe as a leopard, slipped from his grasp with a +glad laugh that rippled in a low murmur to his hot ears, and intensified +the glare that had come into his eyes. She failed to see that glare. It +was the glare of greed; stark and utter greed, that counted no cost and +brooked no opposition in driving for its ends. + +"Thou art forgiven indeed!" she replied, panting and disheveled, a thing +of wondrous loveliness. "So far art thou forgiven that I shall put thy +heart to the grand test at once. Of thy fellows none can compare with +thee for scorn of wealth and desire of me. Sit down again, my man; let +us reveal our inmost hearts to each other." + +She told him, keeping him at provoking distance, of her heart-hunger for +the outside world, the world of art and things of beauty. She thrilled +him with her vibrant voice, mesmerized him with her distant, caressing +touch and glorious, limpid eyes. She made his blood pulse hotly with +desire with her soft-spoken offer of self-surrender to the man who +should lead her from her sovereignty over human beasts and set her feet +in the high places of the earth. + +"And with these my treasures, I shall make my man a king in truth," she +said, slipping along the couch toward him and laying both hands clasped +on his arm. She threw back her head, shaking loose her great masses of +lustrous hair, and poured her soul at him from half-closed, moist eyes +that gleamed like midnight pools in starlight. "Yet must my chosen man +assure me of his love for me, and his contempt for my riches. For, +though my treasures shall be his, yet will I be first in his heart or +forget him." + +"And first you are, and shall be, Dolores," whispered Pearse, leaning +his chin on her forehead and glaring covetously at the littered wealth +of the chests. "What man of warm blood can see any other being or thing +when Dolores is by?" + +"Then come. I believe thee," she said, rising slowly. "Come with me, my +man above price. See here." + +She swept back a piece of tapestry at the rear of the chamber, and +disclosed a dark and gloomy cavern, hewn out of the solid rock, as was +the greater cavern. From a brazier she took a pine splinter, lighted it, +and beckoned Pearse into the cave. And as soon as his eyes adjusted +themselves to the gloom, he saw the place stowed tightly from floor to +ceiling with kegs and half-casks, hooped and marked with black +characters. + +"Gold?" he gasped, perspiration starting to his brows. + +"Gold!" Her rejoinder was tense, almost savage; she glared at him from +under the torch, a quivering shape of disgust. + +"Why, Dolores, don't look like that," he laughed. "I did but wonder. If +this were all gold, it could not enhance your worth in my eyes." + +"Then the proof will be easy. This is not gold. It is gunpowder. Our +whole store. My rascals are not to be trusted with more powder than they +can use at once. From this store I dole them out their rounds; thus are +all safe. But at this moment I have other use for this powder. Stay +here; or no, help me. It will be finished the sooner." + +Dolores ran out into the great chamber again, Pearse following her +wonderingly. She left him in wonder but a short time; for, gathering up +a great armful of treasure she started back to the cave, crying: "Come, +fill thy arms, too." He paused, and she took up his hesitation swiftly, +feeling again a surge of doubt and disgust rise in her breast. She +called to him, scornfully: "What, art afraid? Come, faint one; beyond +here is my secret outlet from this place. Now art satisfied?" + +And John Pearse followed into the cave, a-tingle with the hope that he +was indeed the elect. He saw her fling her riches down on the tops of +the kegs; she bade him do likewise, and then led the way back for more. +And so she went, and so he followed; journey after journey was +completed, until the gunpowder-kegs were almost buried beneath the +wealth of an empire. Then the girl stepped outside, and called Milo. The +giant appeared with silent speed. + +"Milo, burst me one of these kegs," she ordered, and her voice forced +Pearse's attention; it was so cold, passionless, utterly controlled. The +keg was burst, and a trickle of coarse cannon powder ran on the floor. + +"Lay a damp train out to the ledge over the grove, Milo!" + +Milo disappeared through the gallery, trickling moistened powder from +his fingers as he went. Then, when his voice sounded back along the +passage, Dolores again took Pearse by the arm and said, looking him full +in the eyes: "Thy test, friend. Here am I. Out there is the grove, and +beyond it the sea. Take this torch. Put light to the powder train, and +thou and I will depart in the white schooner. We shall leave nothing for +these vultures to fight over. But together we will go far away into thy +world, thee and me." + +"And leave my friends here?" he asked, huskily. + +"Ay, my man, but not alive!" she whispered, thrusting her dark, flushed +face close to his, and letting her lips breathe their fragrance upon +him. "They, thy friends, are not as my beasts. They have the brains of +the white kings of the earth; they have the cunning which makes of all +other races slaves and dependents. Leave them here, living, and in a day +they will rule these rabble and together they will hunt us down. Come, +haste. Put thy fire to the train." + +"Not yet! Tell me what deviltry is to be worked upon my companions." + +"Hah! Then thou'rt but lukewarm in thy love. Am I not Dolores? Am I not +worth thy two friends? Listen, I'll tell thee my price, friend. If thy +friends are to live, then destroy this trash ere we go, so that they get +it not. If thy heart is bent upon saving this treasure, then thy hand +must first put thy friends into their long sleep. Nay, peace! There is +no alternative. The man who mates with me shall be a man indeed; no +petty, squeamish lover whose weak heart sickens at removing a rival." + +"Give me until morning," he replied, dry of throat, and pallid of face. +"It is a terrible thing you ask, Dolores. Yet I dare not say the cost is +too high. As for destroying these treasures, that I know is but a trick +to try me. You could never go out into a new world and take a low +station. That you would have to do if I set fire to that train." He +suddenly darted a look of fierce challenge at her, "There!" he cried. +"The trial is yours!" + +He flung down his torch, and the powder-train began to splutter and +fizz. Dolores flashed a look of approval at him, and burst into a +ringing, happy laugh. She kicked aside the torch, and trampled out and +relaid the train; then ran to Pearse impulsively, and said with simple +earnestness that utterly deceived him: + +"Now I believe in thee again, and for ever. 'Twas but to try thee, John. +We will leave nothing of worth when we go. But that makes it the more +imperative that thy friends have no power to harm us afterward. Think +not that Dolores will take a lower station. I shall be queen wherever I +go, and my man shall be made a king by my power. + +"I give thee until noon to think over thy answer. Go, and the gods +protect thee and make thee faithful to me." + +Calling Milo back, she bade him conduct Pearse from the great chamber, +and as they passed out, little Pascherette peered up at Pearse with an +impudent smile, and with her head on one side like a bird she chattered: + +"White stranger, thou'rt a fool! What Dolores wills, will surely come to +pass. If thy heart fails thee, and thy friends are safe at thy hands, +dost think they will have like scruples? Fool again! One of them will +kill thee and the other, and that man will gain a peerless mate. And, +bend down thy tall head, thou imitation giant--already thy two friends +are liberated, each seeking the life of the other, though neither knows +of the other's freedom!" + +"What?" stammered Pearse, gripping the girl's slim shoulder fiercely. +"If you lie--" + +"Pshaw! One need not lie to befool thee!" Pascherette retorted +scornfully. "Sleep, and if thy throat is not yet slit on thy awakening, +make thy decision quickly, and tell it to Dolores." + +Pearse would have answered her with more questioning, but she laughed at +him, and bade Milo shut him out. So the great rock fell, and Pearse +wandered into the camp, not knowing where he went, and caring little. He +had no place to sleep, so far as he knew; yet he felt no wonder. He +walked through the sleeping-camp, across the grove, and into the forest, +his brain on fire and seething with the problem before him. + +"The treasure, with or without the woman!" he muttered, clenching his +hands savagely. "The treasure! Ye gods! There must be the wealth of +_Monte Cristo_ there!" He broke off into a harsh laugh at thought of his +challenge with the torch. "The witch!" he chuckled. "She was clever, but +John Pearse overreached her. Now I know her heart. But--" + +He wandered on, and his mind was centered upon Venner and Tomlin. The +more he thought over the situation, the more he found his ideas forming +themselves after Dolores's. + +"Why should I share it?" he asked of the winking stars. + +And while he communed with himself regarding her and her demands, +Dolores overlooked Milo in a task that brought a sparkle to her eyes and +a gleaming smile to her lips. They were repacking the great treasure +chests. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +PASCHERETTE DEALS AGAIN. + + +Dolores spent her night in slumber as peaceful as a babe's. When Milo +had completed his task with the treasure chests he went to his own +couch. John Pearse wandered deep into the eery forest, his brain filled +with tumultuous fancies, while Craik Tomlin and Rupert Venner lay in the +dark before the open doors of their separate cells, struggling for a +decision with their own good and evil natures. But Dolores, before +retiring called Pascherette to dress her hair and gave the little +octoroon some secret instructions against the morning. + +"Now to thy bed, girl, and wake with bright eyes," said Dolores, her +toilet completed. "Let thy busy tongue wag its liveliest then; see to it +that the strangers hear whispers and rumors, yet keep them apart and +from harm a while. Thy task with the other rabble is easy. I care not +how they are divided. But divided they must be; to the point of mutiny. +Go, and sweet dreams to thee." + +It was then that a subtle happiness stole into Dolores's face; then her +great luminous eyes closed slowly in utter peace; then that she lay down +with a gentle sigh on her couch of furs and slept care-free and smiling. + +Dreams not of the brightest might have ruffled her calm had she seen the +night watch of her maid. For the moment Pascherette was dismissed, and +gave a second thought to her orders, a light of dawning hope, +prospective triumph, broke over the small, gold-tinted face and +sleepiness fled for the night. + +"Divided they shall be!" she whispered, and hugged herself rapturously. +"Divided to her disaster and--Milo's triumph!" + +Then the maid wrapped herself in a robe, and went out to the camp. + +Like a fantom she appeared to Venner, and as swiftly vanished; but in +the moment that she bent over him she whispered in his ear that Tomlin +was the chosen of Dolores; that he and Pearse were doomed at the hands +of their friend. + +"I tell thee, watch," she said. "By noon to-morrow the truth shall be +shown to thee." And in leaving him she placed in his hands the rapier +that had been taken from him by Dolores. + +To Tomlin next she appeared, and his rapier also she returned; but in +his ear was breathed the name of John Pearse. To find Pearse himself was +harder; but she waited, and shortly before the dawn he emerged from the +forest and walked dully toward his own charred cell. + +"Hah, my friend," she said to him, suddenly appearing from the shades. +"I fear thy tardiness has defeated thee. Now thou'lt need to look to +thyself, for the man Venner has vowed thy life to Dolores, and that of +Tomlin." + +"What! Venner?" + +"Surely. Why not? Is not Dolores worthy such a sacrifice then? Hah, but +Venner is a man of decision. Thy eyes saw the treasure? It's lost to +thee--unless--" she whispered, peering up into his angry face. + +"Unless?" + +"Unless thou prove the better man. Dolores would have thee before all +the rest, friend; but she despises a waverer. I tell thee thy fortune is +yet in thy hands." + +"How?" + +"Here, I have thy sword. Take it, and keep aloof and watch. When thou +canst see men carrying the treasure chests out to the white vessel, then +will be the time to strike. Join thyself with the men who seem faithful +to my mistress. There will be fighting; and the spoils are for the +victor." + +Pearse would have stayed her, but she ran from him with a tantalizing +laugh and vanished into the women's quarters. + +In the morning, when the men had breakfasted, a hum of activity pervaded +the place which was attributable to the octoroon's subtle influence. As +if by prearrangement, men drew apart into little knots, each gathering +about a leader and showing indecision until each man ascertained exactly +where his fellows were going. Then Dolores appeared with Milo, and she +faced four distinct parties before the great stone. + +The sun was metallic in its redness, rising from behind a group of +low-hanging, hazy clouds, casting its fierce beams on the point and the +low shores of the anchorage. A brazen sky overtopped the scene, giving +to green foliage and yellow sands alike, a glare as of terrific +artificial light. + +As Dolores appeared, the party headed by Caliban stepped forward, +muttering angrily, and every man kept hand on knife or cutlass. Caliban +himself, nervous and yet determined, glared at the formidable giant and +suddenly sprang out alone, shaking his first at Milo, and working +himself into greater fury. A frown darkened the face of Dolores; she had +commanded Pascherette to bring about a condition of unrest, but nothing +like this; for in all four parties was an attitude of suspicion of +herself, not of each other. She spoke in a low voice to Milo, then +raised her hand and advanced toward Caliban. + +"Well, whelp of a deformed dog!" she cried. "What do ye seek with me? Is +this the way I've taught thee to beg?" + +"I beg nothing!" screamed Caliban, pacing to and fro restlessly. "We +demand, not beg!" + +"Demand? Have a care for thy loose tongue!" + +"My tongue's my own! We are tired of thy trumpery state. Tired of thy +mystery and falsity. We know thy plot--know thy cunning scheme to carry +thy favorites away from here--to carry away the treasure that is ours, +not thine! Think ye we men will let ye go, to set the dogs of war-ships +upon us? Here and now we demand a settlement." + +"Demand, again? Good Caliban"--she said softly, and smiled upon +him--"thy training has been faulty. Come, I will answer thee." + +"Ye answer us all, or none. I know thee too well to trust thee. Answer +these men, who ask thy reason for keeping these three strangers to the +detriment of thine own people. Sancho paid dearly for his sight of thy +great chamber. Did the stranger who was in there with thee last night +suffer, too?" + +"That's the talk; answer!" shouted the crew, led by Caliban's band and +supported less vociferously by the rest. + +"Silence, then; I will answer!" cried Dolores, quivering with suppressed +rage. She spoke again to Milo, then turned to face the mob, her head +erect, her eyes ablaze. + +She flashed a keen glance toward Pearse, who had sidled over to the band +led by Stumpy, who seemed less accusative than the others; she nodded +faintly, approvingly, and sought the others. Venner stood aloof, on the +fringe of Hanglip's crowd; Tomlin stood almost by the side of Spotted +Dog. + +"I will answer. I see among ye men of troubled minds, who are not yet +disposed to flout my authority. Thee, Caliban, I have forgiven before; +yet here thou art, venturing again to confront me with demands. I will +not reply to thee, nor to any one man or party. To ye all, my people, I +have my answer. In one hour, in the grove, ye shall hear and be +satisfied. That is my answer now. Come Milo." + +She walked slowly and steadily straight through the midst of the +muttering, grumbling mob, Milo at her back like a gargantuan shadow. And +looking neither to one way or the other, meeting eyes that glared in her +path with cold, dignified disdain, she proceeded through the camp, +across the grove, and to the ledge behind the altar. Savage curses +followed her; men jostled at her heels and dared Milo to prevent them; +the giant, calm and cold as his mistress, moved forward like a human +Juggernaut, laying a resistless hand upon a presuming shoulder here, +flinging aside a leering ruffian there. + +And as the mob thinned, and Dolores entered the cool glade, something in +the situation which she had failed to realize before now struck her with +force; she started at the thought, then uttered a low, rippling laugh of +satisfaction. For Pascherette, in her cunning scheme of double-dealing, +had played into her lady's hands to an extent unhoped for by Dolores. + +"Milo, the wolves are ready to tear," she said. "And they shall +tear--not me, but themselves! Didst note the three strangers? Even they +shall help more than I had hoped." She stepped up behind the altar, and +as she waited for Milo's assistance in climbing to the secret entrance +to the great chamber she asked: + +"Thy blow-pipe, hast forgotten its use." + +"As soon forget the use of my fingers, Sultana!" replied the giant, +permitting a grim smile to wrinkle his face for an instant. + +"Then get thy darts. Have thy pipe ready here, thyself concealed, and +watch thy time to strike. But first light the altar fires. The rogues +believe in my magic no longer; I shall teach them anew, and such magic +as shall convince some of them." + +From the camp arose a babel of uproar, men shouting against each other, +curses and threats alike aimed broadcast. And impatient of the delay, +small groups straggled into the grove to wait, Stumpy's party first, +their leader striving fiercely to quiet their noise. Dolores reappeared +soon, dressed in her altar robe, and her flashing eyes told her quickly +that John Pearse wavered between staying with his chosen party and going +in search of his companions. She caught his eye, and smiled brightly at +him, beckoning him to her. + +He went up to the altar slowly, his face dark and sullen. She waited for +him, ignoring the mutterings of the pirates, and as he approached her +she gave him her hand. + +"My friend, it pleases me to see thee among my faithful ones. Hast made +thy decision?" + +"Decision! False woman, the decision was made while yet I was with you. +The decision was yours, not mine." + +"False? Why, good John, what does that mean?" she asked, frank surprise +on her face. + +"Have you not taken Venner for your man? Is he not your chosen mate, at +the price of my life and Tomlin's?" + +"Fool!" she cried, fiercely. "Thy dreams have mixed thy brains. What +nonsense is this? I told thee thou wert my man, at a price. But thy +decision! Time is short. Say quickly what thou wilt do." + +"Prove to me that I have heard that which is untrue, and I give you my +answer at the hour you demanded it--at noon." + +"If thou remain here, the proof shall be shown thee," she replied, dark +with passion. Not yet had she quite seen through the cunning of +Pascherette. And a growing tumult beyond the trees warned her of greater +stress at hand, she had no more time to spare in argument with Pearse. +She waved him back, and with fire in her eyes commanded Stumpy to take +his men to one side. + +"Stand there! Thy rascals will not dare to flout me!" + +"We don't want to, lady," growled Stumpy, sullenly. He motioned his men +to follow, and took up a position at the right of the altar. But he +glared fearlessly at Dolores as he went, and added: "Ye have none more +faithful than Stumpy, if thy heart is still with us and for us. But +things begin to look plaguey rough, Dolores, since ye spared the white +schooner and her owner." + +Swiftly Dolores stepped down and glided to Stumpy's side, his men +drawing back involuntarily, not in sufficient numbers to be able to +cast off their old awe of her. + +"Thy ear, good Stumpy," she whispered. "Art for thy fellow pirates, or +for me? Speak quickly." + +"I'm for you, lady," he replied, shifting awkwardly on his mutilated +foot. "For you, but not if what we heard is true." + +"I tell thee it was false. Now art for me?" She bent upon him a smile of +dazzling beauty, soft-eyed and almost tender, and the pirate's face grew +ashamed; he knelt at her feet in humble obeisance, and the girl laid her +hand on his head, and bade him rise. + +"Then remain faithful, Stumpy, and thou and thy men shall share in my +fortunes. Look well to the stranger there. Keep him with thee. I hear +the vultures coming." + +She returned to the altar, took her place behind the swirling smoke, and +stood motionless, awaiting the arrival of the crowd whose noisy progress +could be traced step by step. And presently they broke into the grove, +unawed and uproarious, Caliban leading. Still the parties kept apart. +Hanglip and Spotted Dog ranged themselves on either side of Caliban's +gang, and every eye glared redly at the statuesque figure at the altar. + +"Answer! Give us yer answer!" cried Caliban. + +"Hear, my people!" Dolores cried, raising her arms for silence. "My +answer is this. Among ye is a traitor. That traitor has spread lies +among ye. Ye are my people, and none other. Did I not save the white +ship for ye? What if I preserved her people. They are here, and here +they shall remain. Had I thought to desert ye, could I not have gone in +the night? Who should say no? Am I not queen of ye all? Then why this +childish talk of leaving ye?" + +Dolores was carefully fighting for time; she wished to dissect the +feeling of the crowd before her, and while she spoke her irrelevant +nothings, her keen eyes roved over every face. And Spotted Dog drew and +held her gaze as no other did; his face was awork with savage unbelief, +his loose lips wreathed and curled in his impatience to speak. At last +his fury could not be longer restrained; he sprang to the front, and +howled: + +"Lies, all lies! Thy chit of a maid--" + +The words were choked in his throat with terrible suddenness. Like +something unearthly, reaching from the unknown, the hand of death +gripped Spotted Dog and he stumbled and fell forward, gnashing his teeth +and clawing futilely at his breast. Dolores did not move. Her expression +did not change. Milo had again proved faithful. + +But others of Spotted Dog's band, the greatest malcontents, stood +forward and peered down at their fallen leader; then with a shout of +rage they leaped up, faced the altar, and urged their fellows on. + +"More infernal witchcraft!" they cried. "Tear the black witch and her +altar down!" + +A moment of frightful silence followed, for the speakers felt the same +mysterious hand that had reached for and grasped their leader. One by +one they dropped in their tracks, smitten none knew how or whence; and +even Pearse, with Stumpy's band, shivered at the terrible uncanniness of +it. Then Caliban shook off his terror, sensed human agency in the silent +death, and looked around for the hand that sped it. As he glared, a dart +entered his own breast; but this one, ill-sped, failed in its mission. +The pirate staggered, his eyes widened, then he seized the protruding +dart. For an instant he hesitated; then taking the direction indicated +by the slanting missile, he flung an arm toward Stumpy's crew and +howled: + +"There's the dog! There's the sudden death! Tear 'em up, bullies! Pull +Stumpy down!" + +In an instant the grove seethed with a terrific conflict, in which +Stumpy's party was set upon by three times the number. And John Pearse +was carried into the thick of the fight; unwilling or not, his skilled +rapier began to take toll of the roaring furies about him. And while the +battle raged, and Dolores stood calmly looking on, one of the pirates +whose duties had kept him at the anchorage of the schooner appeared with +a rush upon the scene and shouted: + +"Lads, ye're being fooled! The slaves are even now taking the treasure +down to the schooner!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +WHILE VICTORY HANGS IN THE BALANCE. + + +The cry rang through the Grove like a trumpet call, and the fight was +stayed instantly. Every eye flashed upon the bringer of the news, and +behind him stood Pascherette, partly hidden by the trees, her small, +eager face peering from behind a trunk. And as she took in the scene, a +great terror stole into her eyes and her lips opened in a gasp. + +The octoroon had played her great coup. She had carried a lie to the +pirate, hoping that his telling of the treasure to his fellows would +precipitate such an assault upon Dolores that nothing could survive it. +Now she saw the attack already launched without her connivance; she saw +the pirate, dead, and saw Stumpy and one of the strangers stoutly +defending the queen. + +As she stared, at a loss, Caliban staggered out in front again, +clutching at his wound, and screamed: + +"Satan seize ye if that witch escapes ye now! Tear her down! Tear her +down! Then none can keep the treasure from ye." + +His last word ended in a sob. From the hidden giant another dart was +sped truer, and Caliban pitched headlong on the steps of the altar. And +Pascherette, terrified now that they would leave their work incomplete, +swarm after the false treasure report, and thus leave her at the mercy +of the enraged Dolores, frantically sought for Milo among the press. She +knew nothing of his secret duty with the blow-pipe: seeing nothing of +him among the defenders, she surmised he was inside on other duty bent. +In desperation she placed all upon a single hazard, and, running out +into the Grove she screamed: + +"The man lies! It is a lie, to make ye forego thy vengeance. There is no +treasure taken away. Make thy work complete!" + +A medley of conflicting cries arose as the pirates again separated into +three parties. Hanglip's crew, with those of the fallen Caliban, +detached themselves from the rest and from two sides threatened the +altar, where Dolores stood like a statue, glaring at her maid with +deadly fury. Hanglip himself seemed irresolute in the face of the maid's +denial; he stood with cutlas raised, not yet sure whether to attack or +first see to the treasure story. The decision was made for him; for the +pirate bringing the news, seized Pascherette in a fierce grip, and with +knife at her breast shouted: + +"This little snake told me the loot was going, lads! Get the job over, +as I do this!" + +Pascherette squirmed in the pirate's grasp, but all her cunning now +could not avail her. The knife flashed downward, and she fell to her +knees, her tiny golden hands pressed to her side, blood trickling +through her fingers. And her face froze in a mask of horror when from +behind Dolores stepped Milo, armed with a great broad-ax, and bent his +deep black eyes full upon her with terrible accusation in them. + +The giant saw the coming storm, and knew the futility of trying to stem +it with his blow-pipe. He emerged, armed with his ax, at the moment when +the pirates, answering their mate's cry with a shout, surged up the +altar steps with blood in their eyes. + +Dolores now shook off her seeming unconcern, and with alert vision took +in the tremendous crisis. Stumpy's band, with Pearse at their leader's +side, had been driven back in the first attack to the rock itself; and +now stood with their backs to it grimly waiting for the second onset. +They had fought hitherto for her; she saw to it that they did not change +their allegiance. Leaping up to the ledge behind the altar, she cried: + +"Stumpy! Thou'rt my man. Bring thy fellows up here; one man may hold a +score here. Milo! Make way for my faithful ones!" + +With Stumpy on the ledge, and his score of men, the battle became dead +for the moment. Few of the pirates had firearms, except on forays, and +then their ammunition was doled out to them. By this means they had ever +been kept in subjection; and now the plan was to prove their undoing; +for they could not reach their prey, whose cutlas points presented an +insurmountable barrier to their storming the rock. And with John Pearse +up there among the defenders, Tomlin and Venner found themselves +wondering just what their own position was. They, unblinded by the rage +of the pirates, saw the futility of storming that rocky wall with steel, +and in the momentary hush and indecision they withdrew from the mob and +stood apart, thinking over what was to come. + +To Dolores, the hesitation of her foes was something she could not +brook, for her great hope now was to set her rascals at each other's +throats to their ultimate annihilation. She whispered into Milo's ear. + +"Get thy blow-pipe again. Send a dart into Hanglip's black throat, and +let every man see how 'tis done." + +The giant obeyed. The slender, six-inch dart sped fair to its mark, and +Hanglip dropped. But as he fell his eyes saw, as did his men, whence had +come the mysterious death that had already taken heavy toll among them. +And Dolores saw her plan work to amazing effect; for Hanglip, with his +last wheezing breath, raised himself on his elbow, and barked: + +"Now ye see the magic! 'Tis but a man's breath. Up, lads, and take pay +for me!" + +The assault started in grim, silent fury. In waves the attackers mounted +the altar; men gave comrades backs, flung them upward, only to catch +them again as they recoiled from the steel of the defense like broken +seas at a rock base. + +But as the fight advanced, and stricken men were piled high on the great +altar, attacking steel reached higher and began to reap results. +Stumpy's men, now fully persuaded of their queen's regard for them, +fought like paladins, roaring out their rough sea-cries as they cut and +stabbed with increasing gusto. Even Pearse fell under the spell of +fierce action; his rapier played among the heavier strokes of cutlas and +broad-knife like summer lightning. And did a hardy pirate gain the ledge +in spite of all, there stood Milo, like a bronze Fate, with deadly ax +poised to turn success into death. Yet Stumpy's little band grew less; +and Dolores, standing over all like an Angel of Doom, saw that something +must be done speedily unless she was to be left with too great a number +of survivors from this lucky conflict. + +"Make a swift assault, Stumpy. Milo, swing that great ax of thine for +only five minutes," she said. Then when the fight raged higher yet, she +drew Pearse by the arm into the secret entrance. + +"Here, friend, are muskets and pistols. Load them while I pass them out. +We shall see how hungry for our blood these wolves are." + +She showed him the store of arms, in a small cave next to the powder +store, and musket powder and bullets were also there. As he loaded the +weapons, she passed them out in armfuls, then gave Stumpy a flask of +powder for priming, and told him to hold out until Milo could bring up +other resources as yet unknown. + +"And," she said, leading Stumpy inside for a moment, "here you see a +powder-train. There, on the floor. Now hear me, my faithful one, should +thy foes still beat thee back, bring all thy men along this passage, but +before ye come, touch a fire to this train. I shall await thee at the +end, Stumpy, and together we shall see these dogs destroyed." + +She called Milo, gave him a command, and then took Pearse with her into +the great chamber. Here she answered his questioning glance with a soft +smile, and seated him in the great chair. + +"Thy sword has done nobly, good John," she said, laying her hand on his +head. "The peril is over now. Rest. In a little while Milo will have +that which will fill these hungry dogs to the gullet. Rest here. I'll +soon be with thee." She leaned down, laid her lips lightly on his face, +and whispered: "And be of good cheer; the end is in sight for thee and +me." + +She left him sitting there, wrapped in his confused thoughts. Then she +flew to help Milo with his new engine of war which was to decide the +day. From a corner of the apartment the giant dragged a brass culverin, +mounted on a swivel, stolen from the poop-rail of some tall Indiaman in +years gone by. This was charged with powder, and Milo searched for +effective missiles for it. He brought a handful of musket balls to +Dolores; she shook her head decidedly after a moment's thought and +objected: "Those round pellets are too merciful for such cattle. What do +they want? Treasure! Give them treasure, good Milo--their fill of it." +As she spoke she ran swiftly into the treasure chamber and seized +handfuls of gold chains, while at her command Milo followed her with +great gold coins in his huge hands. These they rammed into the cannon, +until links of gold fell from the muzzle; then Dolores regarded the +terrible thing with a mirthless laugh and bade Milo get to work with it. + +"Bid thy men fall back into the gallery as if beaten," she said. "And +when the vile bodies of those howling wolves fill the opening, deliver +the treasure to them, and may their souls be shattered with their +bodies! And that none may remain to repeat this day's mischief, when +they break and fly loose, Stumpy and his dogs shall harry them and +pursue them into the depths of the forest. Let the maroons finish what +we so well begin. See thy gun does not harm the-- Wait," she cried, +"hold thy artillery until ye see me across the Grove! I shall give thee +a sign, then loose thy hell-blast." + +Leaving Milo, she ran again through the great chamber and out by the +rock door, which was rolled aside and standing open. Then around the +mass of the mountain and skirting the grove, past the prostrate +Pascherette she sped, casting a glance of bitter hate at the sorely +wounded octoroon, but never halting until she reached a point of the +underbrush immediately behind the spot where Venner and Tomlin still +ranged back and forth uneasily watching the fight. + +She rustled the foliage noisily, and the two men swung around in alarm. +She thrust her head through the leafy screen, and showed them her face +full of tender solicitude. Her great dark eyes were very soft; her +scarlet lips were parted in a rosy smile. Venner glared at her, then +flashed a glance of reawakening distrust at Tomlin, who returned it +tenfold. + +"Peace, good friends," she said, softly, laying a finger on her lips and +nodding toward the raging battle. "Come with me. Both of ye. The day +goes badly with me, and I would undo much that I have done toward ye. +Come quickly, and with caution." + +A momentary distrust for her made them hesitate; then she whispered +intensely: "Haste. This is your opportunity." + +Venner first shook off his moodiness and followed her into the brush; +and Tomlin was close behind him. When she had them in covert, she +stepped out once more, waited to catch Milo's eye at the ledge, then +gave him the sign. And the defenders fell back as if suddenly broken and +beaten. She waited still, until the attackers swarmed over their own +dead, stamping over her altar, and gained the entrance, where they +crowded in a milling, roaring mass. Then she glided back to the +underbrush and said tersely: + +"Come!" + +Venner and Tomlin walked on either side of her, not caring to meet each +other's eye, for their subjection to Dolores's spell was complete +whenever in close proximity to her. Hurriedly she led them around the +cliff to the great entrance, beyond which they had never stepped. And +they went full of tremendous hopes and suspicions, in which the hope +predominated; they failed even to cast a look at their schooner, then +lying free at anchor, with a few men visible on her decks. Three of the +pirates' long boats lay on the shore abreast of her. + +They stood in the entrance to the great chamber, sensing some of the awe +that filled the mysterious place, peering into the gloom where the ruby +lights now failed to cast their glow in the broader light of day +entering the open aperture. Dolores led them in with a gesture and a +smile, and they reached the massive plated sliding door and stood +beneath the yellow lantern, gazing in speechless wonder at the richness +of that barrier. And while they waited, mystified and uneasy, from +beyond the mountain came the crash of Milo's gun, and the tremendous +discharge reverberated through and through the rock, making the passage +where they stood rumble and quake as if the mountain were about to fall. + +Their faces went white, and Dolores gave them a reassuring clasp of the +hand while she pressed the side-post of the door and started the pulley +and weight mechanism that would give them entry. + +"Welcome, friends. Enter," she smiled, standing aside to permit them to +pass. And Rupert Vernier and Craik Tomlin, forgetting their gloomy +thoughts regarding each other, entered the great chamber, and were +brought to a sudden halt at the sight of John Pearse sitting at his ease +through the strife in the high chair of state. + + +TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month. + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +DOLORES DEMANDS A DECISION. + + +Milo let loose his infernal blast, and the smashing report was followed +by a hush as of death. Then through the blinding and choking powder-reek +came the groans and shrieks of the mutilated wretches whose evil fate +had placed them in the path of the horribly despatched treasure. The eye +could not penetrate the smoke that filled the narrow rock passage; +Stumpy and his men were blackened and smeared with smoke and sweat, +demoniacal to the ultimate degree; and these were the men Milo hurled +forth now to make the _débâcle_ complete. + +"Out upon them!" he cried, urging Stumpy to the ledge. "Leave not one of +these dogs alive, Stumpy, and thy fortune is made. Thy Sultana will +reward thee magnificently. Out with ye!" + +Stumpy hitched his poor clubfoot along in brave haste, and flourished +his cutlas in a hand that dripped red. For once in his stormy life the +crippled pirate felt something of the glow that pervaded the heart of +devoted Milo: for a moment he felt he was redeeming himself by enlisting +his undoubted courage in a worthy cause. + +"At 'em, lads!" he roared, leaping down through the smoke. "Dolores, +Dolores! Give 'em hell, bullies!" + +He stumbled and fell, his crippled foot playing him false. He sprang up +with a curse of pain, bit hard on his lip, and plunged into the huddled +remnants of the attackers, his roaring bullies at his heels. His +onslaught was the one thing needed to put terror into the hearts of the +survivors of Milo's blast. Coming through the leek like so many devils, +Stumpy and his crew put their foes to flight and followed eagerly, +hungrily; the forest rang and echoed with the clash of action and the +smashing of underbrush in panicky flight. + +Now Milo, his duty to his Sultana performed, thought of Pascherette. The +little octoroon lay where she had fallen, a pitiful little huddled heap; +never once had her pain-dulled eyes left the giant, or the place where +he might appear. And now she saw him coming toward her, not as a +ministering angel, but like a figure of wrath, swinging his great +broad-ax in one hand as easily as another man might swing a cutlas. She +shivered as he stood over her, accusing. + +"Milo!" she panted, gazing up at his magnificent height in plaintive +supplication. + +"Serpent!" he replied, and the utter contempt in his voice went to her +heart like a sword-thrust. "Hast a God to pray to before I send thy +false soul adrift?" + +"I have but one God, Milo; to Him I should not pray." + +She fixed her burning gaze upon him, and in her pained eyes blazed all +the tremendous love that actuated her small being. + +"A God thou canst not pray to, traitor? Art afraid, then?" + +"Not afraid, Milo," she whispered, and her eyelids drooped. "I cannot +pray to one who looks down upon me as thou dost." + +"I?" The giant's expression changed to frowning displeasure rather than +anger. "I?" he repeated. + +"Thee, my heart. Thou'rt my god, my all. For thee I have done this +thing. For thee, who even now canst not see where lies the falsity. +Milo"--her weak voice sank to a low murmur--"I beg thy forgiveness. My +love for thee caused me to sin. My life is to pay the supreme price. Let +me die at least in thy forgiveness." + +"Forgive? Forgive thee, who worked for the destruction of the being I +worship? Rather shall I speed thy soul!" + +Pascherette struggled to a kneeling position, crossed her tiny hands on +her panting breast, and looked full into his eyes as a wounded hart +looks at the hunter. Her lip quivered, her small, gold-tinted face, once +so piquant and full of allure, had taken on a gray hue from her pain, +but there was no hiding the great, overwhelming love for the giant that +gleamed in her eyes. + +"Milo," she said, and the word was a caress, "Milo, if thou must, strike +swiftly. Yet again I ask, forgive." + +The giant slowly lowered his great ax, and his honest heart answered the +pitiful plea. His deep chest swelled and throbbed; into his face crept +the look that had been there on that day when he told Pascherette he +loved her--loved her, yet worshiped Dolores as his gods. Letting the ax +fall to his elbow by the thong at the haft, he stooped and tenderly +picked up the girl, carrying her as a child carries a doll; yet his face +was averted from Pascherette's passionate lips that sought to kiss him. + +"Not yet can I forgive thee," he said. "Be content that I shall not kill +thee, girl. Perhaps, if thy acts have failed in their end, I may forgive +thee; not yet." + +He carried her around to the great rock, and through the passage into +the great chamber, bursting in upon a situation of growing intensity. +Dolores sat on a corner of the table, with all her seductive lures in +her beautiful face, smiling invitingly at Rupert Venner. Craik Tomlin +glared at both, yet his gaze seemed hard to restrain from wandering +around the gorgeous chamber, whose wealth he saw now for the first time. +Venner, too, had been seized by the jewel-hunger, although neither he, +nor Tomlin, guessed at the immensely greater wealth that had been +revealed to Pearse. As for Pearse, he sat glowering in his chair, +nervous and smoldering; ready at a hint to draw steel without caring +what the object. He simply saw rivalry where fifteen minutes before he +had thought his own course clear. + +Milo appeared to them; carrying his sobbing burden, and the interruption +brought a blaze of fury to Dolores's face. She went pale, and her hands +clenched and opened nervously. + +"Well, slave?" she cried, and Milo started. Never had she used that tone +to him. + +"Sultana, I thought thou wert alone," he replied, haltingly. "I have +brought Pascherette to thee for forgiveness." + +"I forgive? Pish! What care I for thy chit? Take her where ye will, and +trouble me not with such trash. Out, now! Let me not see her face again, +and I care not what ye do with her. But haste. I have work for thee and +a score of slaves. Bring them here quickly!" + +Silently Milo bore Pascherette to the small room beyond the great +chamber, which had been her resting-place while not in attendance on +Dolores. And there, still shaking his head to her plea, though with +deepening trouble in his eyes, he left her, crying herself into a fitful +slumber. + +Then with slaves dragged from the corners where they had cowered during +the fight, he entered the great chamber, and at Dolores's command set +them to carrying out the closed treasure-chests that stood in their old +places around the walls. + +And the sight of the great chests actually going out brought fiery +jealousy back to the eyes of the three yachtsmen. Now Dolores +half-closed her own inscrutable eyes, and watched them, catlike, +cunning. Pearse sprang from the great chair and began pacing the floor +in a heat. Venner alone seemed to retain any vestige of control over +his feelings; and he rapidly lost his color and began to peer about him. + +One chest went out, and the cries of the slaves could be heard as they +lowered it over the cliff. They returned for another, and now Dolores +leaped to her feet and followed them, flinging over her shoulder a smile +of invitation. Pearse answered instantly; the others paused. Then she +laughed like a siren and held out her hands to the hesitant ones, and +said softly and pleasantly: + +"Have no fears, timid ones. Thy minds are indeed hard to fathom. I but +want to show thee how I am repaying thee for thy sufferings here. Come." + +They followed her, and together they entered the rocky tunnel. At the +end of it the yellow sunlight blazed like a fire, in the circular +aperture was framed a picture of wonderful beauty. The blue sky, flecked +with fleecy cloudlets, filled the upper half of the circle; then the +sparkling sea of deeper blue lifted its dazzling whitecaps to the kiss +of the trades and formed a gem-like background for the brazen sands, the +glowing green-and-purple of the Point, and the dainty ivory-and-gold of +the white schooner. + +It was all mellowed and diminished as seen through a glass at great +distance; and on the shore the men toiling to load a great +treasure-chest into a long-boat looked like tiny manikins posed about a +delicate model of marine life. The second chest yet stood on the +cliff-edge, slaves about it lashing double slings and tackles that led +from a boulder for lowering it down. + +Dolores stepped back, permitting the three men to take in the view +without restriction. And she watched them again, her face enigmatic if +they glanced at her, breaking into an expression of nearing triumph when +they looked away, and left her free to scrutinize them. She saw John +Pearse step a pace behind the others, and his fingers clutched absently +at his rapier-hilt while the veins on his neck stood out and throbbed +like live things. + +"One more chest, perhaps two, and I shall see who will be my man!" she +whispered to herself. + +Then she left them without a word, and returned to the great chamber, +where she snatched up an immense rope of pearls and resumed her seat on +the edge of the table. There she sat, giving them no glance, when the +three men came back, hastily, uneasily, one behind the other, with +Tomlin bringing up the rear, scowling at Venner's back malevolently. + +Idly now Dolores rolled her pearls on the table, and one by one she +crushed them with her dagger-hilt--crushed in one moment the wealth of +many a petty princeling, and still crushed gem after gem without so much +as a flicker of interest on her cool face. The three men glared at her, +and at each other, and the stress they were under could be felt like an +impending electric storm. Tomlin's teeth gritted together harshly, his +lips were dripping saliva, and he could stand it no longer. He stepped +suddenly before Dolores, seized her hands, and cried: + +"Woman, you are mad! Do you know what those things are? They are pearls, +woman, pearls! Stop this crazy destruction, and in God's name let us go +before you madden us." + +Dolores turned her cool gaze upon him, drew her hand away easily yet +without apparent effort, and crushed another pearl between her gleaming +teeth. + +"Pearls?" she repeated, tossing away the shattered gem. "Pearls, yes, +friend. What of it? Do ye value these trifles, then? Pish! I have such +things as these, aye, one for every hair on thy hot head. But let ye +go--ha! That is in thy hands, my friend, thine and thy companions." + +"Yes, we know your price!" gasped Venner hoarsely, staring full into her +eyes. "But what is to prevent us now, when we have you alone, and that +great giant is away, from binding you fast and sailing away with the +treasure you have already put in my vessel?" + +"What can prevent?" she echoed, simulating surprise that such a question +should occur to any one. "Nothing shall prevent, my friend, if any of ye +think to try it. Have I not said my treasure is for the man who wins it. +Am I not waiting for the man able to take it, that I may go with him, +too? Here--" She suddenly flung down the pearls at Tomlin's feet, +glided close to Venner, and thrust her red lips up to him, her violet +eyes like brimming pools behind her drooping lashes. "Here, tie me, my +Rupert. Here are my hands; there my feet. Bind me well, and go if thou +canst. What, wilt thou not? There, I knew thee better than thou knowest +thyself." + +She stepped back with a low laugh, and her arm brushed his cheek, +sending the hot blood surging to his temples. John Pearse crouched +toward Venner, as if waiting for him to lay a finger on Dolores at his +peril. She smiled at all three, and stepped over to the side of the +chamber, where she carelessly pointed out sacred vessels and altar +furnishings, gems of art and jewel-crusted lamps. + +"Here, also, is a reason why ye will not go, my friends. Your eyes, +accustomed to these things in the great world outside, dare not ignore +their worth. And I tell ye that all the treasure now going to the vessel +could not purchase the thousandth part of my real treasure, which I will +not show, until I know my man." She glanced at Pearse as she spoke, and +saw rising greed in his eyes. He had seen the real treasure; he was ripe +for her hand. Milo and his slaves returned for another chest, and +Dolores waited until they had gone; then she glided swiftly toward the +passage, and turned at the door. + +"I shall return in fifteen minutes, gentlemen," she said. "Then my man +must be ready, or I will drop the great rock at the entrance, and leave +ye all three caged here until ye die. For go I will, mated or mateless, +with all my treasure, ere the sun sinks into the western sea." And as +she left them she flashed a look of appeal at John Pearse. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +THE SLUMBERING SAVAGE. + + +Pearse followed her with his eyes until she vanished into the passage; +then with muttering lips and harshly working features he strode down the +chamber to the great tapestry behind which lay the powder store. The +suspicion had come to him that Dolores was fooling them all regarding +her real treasure; for he believed she had shown him everything, and if +those heavy chests contained but a tithe of the whole, life was certain +that the gems around the walls were not what she meant when she said she +had still a thousand times greater riches than the chests contained. + +He tore aside the tapestry, and tried to see through the gloom of the +cavern. His eyes could not pierce the blackness, and he looked around +for a light, while Venner and Tomlin walked toward him with sudden +interest in their faces. Over the tall Hele clock a lantern hung; a +gaudy thing of beaten gold, in which an oil wick burned, gleaming out in +multicolored light through openings glazed with turquoise and sapphire, +ruby, and emerald. He took this down, and impatiently tore away the side +of it to secure a stronger light. Again he went to the powder store, and +now Venner and Tomlin were at his back, peering over his shoulder or +under his arms in curiosity as to his quest. + +And, sensing their presence, he swung around upon them savagely, +muffling the cry that answered the message of his eyes. Flinging the +lantern down, he trampled it out, and with snarling teeth he faced them, +his rapier flickering from the sheath like a dart of lightning. + +"Back!" he barked, and advanced one foot, falling into a guard. "This is +no concern of yours, Venner, nor yours, Tomlin. Back, I say!" + +Tomlin stared into his furious face and laughed greedily. His keen eyes +had seen a vague, shadowy something in the cavern, that filled him with +the same passion which consumed Pearse. + +"So you are the lucky one, eh, Pearse?" he chuckled, and his hand went +to his own rapier. He stepped back a pace, and, never taking his eyes +from Pearse, cried: "Venner, it's you and me against the devil and +Pearse! A pretty plot to fool us, indeed; but Pearse was too eager. Peep +into that hole, man, and see!" + +Venner glared from one to the other, not yet inflamed as they were. But +what he saw in their faces convinced him that great stakes were up to +be played for, and he edged forward bent upon seeing for himself. + +"Back!" screamed Pearse, presenting his rapier at Venner's breast. +Venner persisted, and the steel pricked him. Then, as Tomlin's weapon +rasped out, Venner's blood leaped to fighting-heat with his slight +wound, and in the next instant the three-sided duel was hotly in +progress. + +Three-sided it became after the first exchanges. For Pearse, the most +skilled in fence, applied himself to Venner as his most dangerous foe, +and with the cunning of the serpent Craik Tomlin saw and seized his own +opportunity. Let Pearse and Venner kill each other, or let that end be +accomplished with his outside help, and there was the solution that +Dolores had demanded them to work out; one of them left, to be master of +the wealth of Croesus; to be the mate of a magnificent creature, who +could be goddess or she-devil at will. + +With a satanic chuckle Tomlin drew back, leaving his friends to fight +themselves weary, his own rapier ever presented toward them, urging them +on with lashing tongue. And Venner flashed a look at him as Cæsar did at +Brutus, and suffered for his lapse in vigilance. For with the pounce of +a leopard Pearse was upon him, and his rapier grated over Venner's guard +and darted straight at his throat. But Venner's time had not come yet; +Tomlin flashed his own weapon in and parried the stroke for him, backing +away again with a murderous snarl. + +"Not yet, my friends!" he cried. "You're too strong yet, Pearse. At him, +Venner; let me see you draw blood as he has, that I may see my own way +clearer." + +From the other end of the great chamber Dolores watched the conflict +from the concealment of the velvet hangings over the door; and her hands +were clasped in ecstasy, her lips parted to the swift breathing that +agitated her breast; in her blazing eyes her wicked soul lurked, sending +out its evil aura to envelop the combatants and instil deeper hatred +into them. + +The fight raged back and forth around the powder store; once a sudden +onslaught by Pearse forced Venner back to the great chair; Tomlin's +swift rush to keep close brought all three into a tumbled crash at the +dais, and the chair was overturned in a heap of flying draperies that +entangled their feet. And while Pearse and Venner struggled vainly to +maintain their footing, Tomlin began to accomplish his own dire ends. +Crouching, with his dark face full of evil passions, he drove his point +first at one, then at the other, stabbing through the involved silk and +skins. + +In his furious haste to complete his murderous work, he sprang forward +carelessly, his foot became entangled, and he pitched face downward upon +his victims. Now Pearse seized the opening; but when he arose, +stumblingly, there was a different expression on his face, a +horror-stricken realization of Tomlin's treachery. Venner lay, still +unable to disentangle himself, but slightly hurt, and he, too, regarded +Tomlin with a look of sorrow and reawakening sanity. + +"Up, murderer, and fight!" rasped Pearse, stepping astride Venner and +glaring down at Tomlin. "Venner, draw aside. Let me punish this +scoundrel we have called friend; then meet me if you wish." + +Tomlin looked up with a snarl of baffled rage, expecting swift reprisal +for his treacherous attempt. Gone was the last vestige of civilization +from his face; greed of gold, jewel-hunger, blood-lust, all played about +his reddened eyes and cruel, down-drawn mouth. The primitive came +through the veneer of culture and showed him the man he really was. And +evil though his spirit had proved, in this final test his courage showed +up like that of the tiger. He leaned on one elbow, watching Pearse like +a cat, then slowly knelt and stood, keeping his point down. With the +bestial cunning that had overwhelmed him, he circled away from the +trappings and draperies of the chair that had brought him down, and +responded to Pearse's chivalrous waiting with a sneer. + +"You had better have made sure while you had the chance, Pearse," he +grinned, showing his teeth wolfishly. "Venner can wait. There is no +treasure for three; Dolores is mine! Guard!" + +With the word Tomlin made a savage attack without waiting for Pearse to +fall into guard. And Dolores came from her concealment, advanced +half-way down the chamber, and watched with a new intensity that was +not apparent while Venner was in the fight. + +Pearse avoided his opponent's thrust at the expense of a pierced left +hand, which caught the other's point a hand-breadth from his breast. +Then the duel dropped to equality. Swift and silent they fought, silent +save for the rasp and screech of steel on steel, their feet padding +noiselessly on the deep-piled carpet. Venner drew aside and watched, his +eyes losing their hard glare, and some of his old expression returned to +his face. It was as if his resurging emotions were bringing back to him +the shame and remorse of a gentleman inveigled into performing a +despicable action. He, too, saw Dolores approaching; saw the tensity of +her expression; sensed some of the tremendous hopes that actuated her, +now that she saw the rapid culmination of all her plots and seductions. + +She stood quite near to him now, leaning forward in an attitude of utter +anxiety. She saw nothing of Venner; her great, violet eyes were dusky +and full of yearning, her hands clutched at her breast. And all the +intensity of her gaze was fixed upon Tomlin. She responded to his +momentary success when he drove Pearse back with a savage assault, with +a panting little cry of joy; she fell back with widened eyes when a +counter-attack forced Tomlin almost upon her. And her lips opened in a +gasp when a vicious clash of steel told of a pressed onslaught, and +Pearse lunged heavily forward. + +In the instant when Pearse followed his first plunge, Dolores stood in +uncertainty through which dawned jubilation. Then her face went white, +she seemed to lose all her splendid vitality; for her astounded eyes +fastened upon Pearse's rapier-point, protruding a foot from Tomlin's +back, and slowly the stricken man sagged away and fell at her feet, +clutching at the steel at his breast and snarling like a beast. + +A hush fell over the great chamber. Then from a distance came the sound +of voices, voices of men down at the shore, ringing clear and sharp on +the still air, accentuating the deathly hush that clung around the +actors in the scene like a heavy mantle. It startled Dolores into +renewed life. She ran with feverish eagerness toward Tomlin, hurling +aside the others, and crouching upon the body in dry-eyed rage. + +Venner sought to catch the eye of the victor, and saw in Pearse a +reflection of the feelings that had possessed himself. John Pearse +showed every sign of horror and awakened sanity that had marked his own +expression before the fatal fight had started. Their eyes met, and there +was no challenge in them. Both dropped their gaze involuntarily upon the +huddled figures at their feet; and it was Pearse, the man who had +precipitated the conflict at first, who nodded with his head a silent +invitation to withdraw. Venner stepped after him, softly and with bowed +shoulders, shuddering violently as he passed the expiring Tomlin. + +They reached the door together, and with the rocky tunnel open before +them, once more holding up to their eyes the picture of absolute beauty +of sea and sky and shore, they filled their lungs with fresh, wholesome +air, and shook off the last of the evil spell that had held them. + +"In God's name, Pearse, let us fly from this hellish place!" whispered +Venner, dropping his rapier to the rocky floor with a clatter, and +thrusting his hand out in reconciliation. + +"Yes, Venner, and pray Heaven we may forget!" replied Pearse fervently. +"But how shall we get away? The giant and his crew are yet at the +schooner." + +"We must wait. They will return soon for more booty. Then we must seize +the chance. Is that somebody coming now?" + +Milo's great shoulders reared above the cliff, and behind him came the +slaves. They came directly toward the great rock, and Pearse flattened +himself against the wall in the shadow of the portals, pressing Venner +back also with a hand across his chest. + +"Hush! Hide here. Let them enter, and we'll make one leap for the +shore." + +The giant swung into the passage, his black eyes blazing with some +emotion that the hidden pair could not fathom. It was something on the +border of fear, but of what? Fear and Milo was a combination hard of +reconciliation. The slaves at his heels followed dumbly, slaves in +thought and action; if their dulled brains ever awoke, it was but to +the call of animal appetites; they were incapable of devotion such as +Milo's, and as incapable of shock should their obedience fail reward. +They passed into the great chamber, and a throaty cry of alarm burst +from the giant at the sight of his Sultana prone on the floor. + +"Now!" whispered Pearse, taking the lead. "Swift and silent!" + +Like ghosts they ran from the tunnel, glanced around once as they +reached the cliff path, then leaped down the declivity. That swift +glance showed them the camp deserted except for the wondering women, who +wandered idly among the empty huts, ever looking toward the forest +wherein had vanished all their men, waiting with bovine patience for any +one to settle their uncertainty for them. + +And the forest was yet very still. The Feu Follette lay at a single +anchor, heading in the light breeze fair to seaward; a few heads showed +above her rail, and the stops had been cast off from her snowy sails. At +her gangway a single boat lay, the painter made fast on deck; on the +foreshore the other two long-boats were drawn up on the sand, planks +running up to their sides in readiness for the embarkation of yet more +treasure. + +Venner and Pearse raced down the steep path, using little precaution, +sending showers of stones and clods flying before them. And Peters, the +schooner's sailing-master, saw them coming, and his voice rang out +calling for hands to man the boat. Two men answered and entered the boat +as the two fugitives reached the shore and ran along the Point. Pearse +counted the minutes at their disposal, and saw the futility of waiting +for that boat. He clutched eagerly at Venner's arm, and panted in his +ear: + +"Tell them to hold on! Let them get the schooner ready for swift +departure. Come, we must swim for it." + +Venner hesitated but a second. Then his hail went hurtling over the +still haven, and the two seamen scrambled out of the boat again. + +"Swim it is, Pearse," he said, leading the way down to deep water. "Swim +it is, and may the ever-cleansing sea wash out of us the last traces of +insanity." + +Together they plunged into the blue sea and swam swiftly out to the +schooner. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +THE FLIGHT OF THE FEU FOLLETTE. + + +Dolores, flinging herself down upon Craik Tomlin, seized his face +between her hands and raised his head, placing her knee beneath it. She +panted like an exhausted doe, yet the fire that leaped from her eyes +gave the lie to her attitude of sorrowing humility. Her lips moved +feverishly, but she could not or would not speak aloud. Tomlin's eyes +were closed in agony, his teeth were clenched tightly upon his under +lip; he gave no sign that he knew of her presence. And a sudden fury +seized her at his irresponsiveness. She shook his head between her hands +savagely. + +"Wake! Speak!" she cried hoarsely. "Art indeed dead, at the moment of my +triumph?" + +Tomlin's eyelids flickered, and his lips strove to speak. One hand went +weakly to his face, to grasp her fingers. And into her anxious ear he +managed to whisper: + +"Evil luck fought with me, Dolores. Yet I die content if you care." + +"Care!" she echoed, shaking his fingers loose impatiently. "Care? Yes, +this I care, bungler: I care because of all three of thee, thou alone +wert covetous enough to obey my conditions. With thee alive, there was +hope of thy friends' speedy death. With thee dead, which of the others +will wipe his fellow from his path for me? Why, think ye, did I fawn on +John Pearse? But to arouse in thee the demon of jealousy; why did I +smile on Venner, and call him my Rupert? To steel thy arm against him. +And for what?" + +She suddenly laid his head down on the floor, leaned over him with her +lips almost brushing his cheek, and whispered fiercely: "Speak! Canst +live?" + +Tomlin's face lost some of its pain. The thin lips straightened into the +semblance of a faint smile. His glazing eyes opened slightly. + +"I am done for," he whispered. "Dolores, kiss me again. I die for you." + +The beautiful fury sprang to her feet, spurning him. She glared down at +his chalky face in utter scorn. + +"Kiss thee? Thou die for me? Pah! I kiss no carrion. A half-hundred men +have died for me this day, I hope. I kiss him who lives for me and +conquers, not the weakling who dies!" + +Without deigning another glance at her victim, she turned away and went +to meet Milo. He now entered with his slaves. + +"Where are the two strangers?" she demanded harshly. + +Milo returned her stare with a look of simple surprise. He had seen +nothing of them, and had thought of them being yet with his mistress. + +"I saw them not, Sultana," he replied. + +"Saw them not, great clod!" she blazed at him, clenching her hands in +rage. "Are they here, then?" + +Milo looked around in bewilderment. In all her life Dolores had been his +especial care; in her many moments of temper she had perhaps pained his +devoted heart, but never had she used to him the tone she now used. It +seemed to his simple soul that the foundations of his faith were being +wrenched loose. + +"I will find them, Sultana," he said quietly, and turned to leave by the +tunnel. + +"Stay here, thou blind fool!" she commanded him. "I will find them +myself. Here is work more fitting for a slave. How many chests are going +to the ship?" + +"Three." + +"And how many have ye yet empty here?" + +"Three, lady." + +"Then get them quickly. Until I return, bid thy fellows replace the +treasure that is still in the powder store. And haste, for I will leave +this place this day, though all the fiends say no." + +She ran along the tunnel, and Milo set his men to their task. As he +passed along to the powder chamber, a low moan arrested him, and he +halted in sudden remorse for Pascherette, whom he now felt he had judged +harshly. He left his fellows and went to the tiny alcove where the +little octoroon lay, and his great heart leaped in response to the +worship that shone in her dark eyes. He saw the dry and cracked lips, +the flushed face, and fetched water and wine before he would speak to +her. Then, with her small head and slender shoulders against his immense +chest, he gave her drink, soothing her pain with soft speech and +caressing hand. + +Pascherette's wound was deep, and bleeding internally; a fever already +burned in the tiny maid's veins. She peered up at him wistfully, all of +her mischief, all her piquancy gone and replaced by a softened, humbled +expression that wrung Milo's heart-strings. + +"Will ye not kiss me now, Milo?" she whispered, with a pearly drop +brimming from each eye, where laughter had so lately dwelt. + +"Pascherette, thy fault was great," he answered, yet in his face was a +look so forgiving, so excusing, that the girl shivered expectantly and +closed her eyes with a happy sigh. + +Yet the kiss was not given. From the great chamber the angry voice of +Dolores rang out. + +"Milo! Where art thou, slave!" + +And the giant tenderly laid Pascherette down again, and ran in answer. + +"Sultana?" + +"Blind, idle dolt! While thou art fondling that serpent of thine, thy +mistress's affairs may go hang! Haste with the treasure, or feel my +anger. While thy useless eyes were mooning on nothing, the strangers +have escaped. They are even now getting sail on the white vessel. Carry +the chests down to the Point as soon as ye may. I will stay them yet, +and they shall learn the cost of flouting Dolores! Hasten, I tell ye!" + +Milo winced at her address; his black eyes, usually holding the utter +devotion of a noble dog, glittered with tiny sparks of resentment; yet +the habit of years could not be lightly cast off, and he bowed low, even +while Dolores had turned her back on him, and picked up a great empty +chest to carry it to the powder store. Here in the flickering light of a +pine splinter the slaves worked feverishly, their abject eyes sparkling +with borrowed radiance from the riches they handled. + +And while they worked, Dolores emerged from the tunnel, flashed one long +glance of derision at the moving schooner, and sped down the cliff to +stop her flight. + +The Feu Follette was poorly enough manned with Peters and his four men. +With the ready help of Venner and Pearse the getting of the anchor and +the hoisting of the heavy fore and main sails was an arduous job, but it +was accomplished under the tremendous urge of remembrance. None wished +to have the experiences of the past days repeated; Peters was anxious to +get his beautiful vessel into safer waters; the Feu Follette's owner and +his guest were doubly anxious to drop those blue hills of ominous memory +below the horizon forever. They gave scant attention to the three great +iron-bound chests that stood between the guns along the waist; getting +clear occupied every faculty. + +The tide setting directly on the Point, with a breeze dead in from +seaward, forced the schooner perilously close to the bar that had been +her undoing before; but, with the lead going, Peters speedily found that +his previous mishap must undoubtedly have been due to clever misleading. +After touching lightly once, and getting deeper water at the next cast +over the lee side, he understood the trick of the extended false Point +and stood boldly along shore. + +And as the schooner gathered steerage-way, hugging the Point closely, +Dolores ran out along the sandy beach and plunged into the sea abreast +the moving vessel. + +"Here's that vixen woman, sir!" cried Peters angrily, looking toward +Venner for instructions. Peters had the helm, and owner and guest stood +against the companion, ready to lend a hand at the sheets, forward or +aft. + +Venner and Pearse stared at the swimmer, then turned and gazed +searchingly at each other. In the face of each lingered a trace of the +subjection they had fallen under; neither could quite so quickly forget +the allurements of this woman. Her kisses had been as sweet as her fury +had been terrible; and the absence of Craik Tomlin was an additional +incentive to memory. + +"Shall we take her away?" asked Venner, avoiding Pearse's eye as he put +the question. + +"Can't you make more sail, Peters?" was Pearse's reply. + +Venner laughed softly, agreeably; and the next moment Dolores hailed +them. She swam swiftly, with effortless ease, slipping through the sea +like a sparkling nymph in her native element. But the schooner traveled +fast, and, though she lost no ground, she gained but slowly. She hailed +again. + +"Rupert, my Rupert!" and finished the cry with a rippling laugh. "Art +stealing my treasure and leaving me?" + +"By Heavens, Pearse, I had forgotten these chests," said Venner +uneasily. Pearse regarded him closely, fearing that Dolores's spell was +yet powerful. He gripped Venner tightly by the arm, leaned nearer, and +said: + +"Venner, so long as that blood-polluted treasure is on your deck, so +long will you be unable to settle your mind. Bid the hands pitch it into +the sea, for God's sake!" + +A lull in the wind slowed the schooner down, and Dolores gained a +fathom. Her fair face was set toward them in a bewitching smile, and she +waved a gleaming arm at them. Venner fought with himself in silence for +a brief while, then with a shudder stepped to the wheel. + +"Get the hands, Peters," he told the sailing-master, "and heave those +chests overboard. Quickly! You shall lose nothing by this, but don't +delay a moment!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +STUMPY FIRES THE MAGAZINE. + + +Milo and his slaves worked frenziedly at their task, his suddenly bitter +spirit flogging them to unremitting haste. In the giant's troubled face +the smoldering spark of resentment had grown to an incipient blaze that +required but a breath to burst into angry flame. + +One great chest was filled with the choicest of the gems in the powder +store; it was set aside in the entrance beside the tapestry, and another +box was opened before the powder-kegs. Little Pascherette had ceased +moaning, but from time to time a choking sob sounded from her alcove +that increased the hard brilliancy of the light in Milo's eyes. The +great chamber was silent as a mausoleum in the intervals between the +clashing and tinkling of gold and stones in the chest; from the outside, +by way of the rock tunnel, came only the sigh and murmur of the crooning +breeze, the softened plash of the tide on the shore, the scream of +wheeling seabirds. All sound of the schooner had departed; there was no +human note in the whole region. + +Then, as the second chest was almost full, and Milo pulled the third and +last along in readiness, from the secret gallery behind the Grove came +the shouts and oaths of men, weary, footsore men, but men with animal +appetites whetted by the day of bloody conflict. They could be heard at +the great door in the painting of the "Sleeping Venus"; not knowing its +secret their way was barred. But Stumpy's hoarse roar could be heard +calling them back to the ledge, and there was a note of menace in his +tired tones. And mingling with his voice was the voice of a woman of the +camp, raised in shrill complaint. Milo stepped to the picture and +listened. + +"I tell ye the fiend has tricked ye, Stumpy!" the woman cried. + +"Tricked me? Have a care how ye talk that way, woman!" Stumpy's voice +replied warningly. + +"Aye, tricked ye and me and all of us! Even now--come to the cliff, and +I'll show ye." + +The scrambling of heavy feet could be heard in the gallery as men rushed +out in answer. How many men Milo could not determine; but fewer than had +followed Stumpy into the forest in chase of their broken foes. The +slaves at the treasure-chests paused in their work, alarm on their +shining faces, looking ever toward Milo for instructions. + +Milo ran back through the great chamber and out by the tunnel to the +cliff, peering around for Stumpy and hoping to see the schooner putting +back. + +Without Dolores he was at a loss; yet he was not ready to leave his +charge to be gazed upon by untried eyes. His breast swelled nigh to +bursting at sight of the schooner. The Feu Follette was but half a mile +away in a straight line from the cliff; she had been tacking against a +light breeze and flood tide around the Point, and while she had sailed +several miles through the water, she had but just gained past the face +of the cliff. And far from returning, she sailed farther and farther +away as he watched, nursed with such skill of sheet and helm as proved +to Milo's seamanly eye that her people would never return of their free +will. And what of Dolores? His condor's vision picked her out as soon as +the schooner. Her gleaming arms and shoulders swept rhythmically over +and over, cleaving the sea easily and smoothly, her lustrous hair +streaming behind her, and the sun glinting brightly from the gold +circlet around her head. She was gaining foot by foot, and Milo keenly +scrutinized the schooner for signs of surrender. There were none. At the +schooner's rail three heads were visible; but Milo knew neither belonged +to Venner nor Pearse. That persuaded him that the schooner was unlikely +to come back. And the even, tireless manner in which Dolores swam +convinced him that she would follow to the end. Yet he would not utterly +believe she had deserted him. He glared around for the men whose voices +he heard now, raised in anger in chorus with the voices of the woman and +her companions. Stumpy stepped out from the grove path with but four men +behind him; and they were in sore plight. Stumpy himself dangled an idly +swinging sleeve that was stained dark-red to the shoulder. A red sear +across his nose and cheek rendered him a demoniacal figure through the +powder, smoke and sweat. And his mates were tattered and cut, their +shirts bore red splashes to a man; their grimed faces and fiery eyes +held the passions of blooded men who see their reward flying from them. + +"I tell ye she's gone for good!" cried the woman who had brought the +news to Stumpy. "See, she's almost there, and three chests of treasure +have gone in that vessel! Her swimming after it is but a part of her +cuteness. Now d'ye believe, fools!" + +The crippled, battle-scarred pirate glared to seaward with red-rimmed +eyes in which flames of revenge started into life. His twisted, warped +life had been spent in fighting and trickery; to-day his work had +culminated in a brave stand for what he thought to be straight and +right; reward he expected, but he had earned it with blood and sweat, +hoping at the last that some of his earlier transgressions might be +atoned for in his loyalty to his mistress. + +He hurled aside the persistent women, who sought some reassuring word +from him, and mouthing rather than speaking a call to his men to follow, +he plunged again into the grove path and stumbled toward the ledge +entrance. Here he clambered painfully to the gallery, cursing to himself +bitterly, never looking back to see if his men followed, intent only +upon one absorbing thing. Revenge was beyond him, since there were left +no subjects for his revenge. He had never seen the great stone at the +chamber portals left rolled aside; could not even now imagine such a +situation. No, if Dolores were gone in truth, and with her the strangers +and the treasure, then it was certain, he thought, that the great +chamber was sealed forever. And he would see into its mysteries, even +though they proved barren now. He knew the way; Dolores had shown him. + +Feverishly hunting for a flint, he tore some threads from his shirt and +frayed them into tow. Then with his cutlas he struck a spark and ignited +his threads, carefully nursing the tiny flame until he could find a dry +stick. This lasted him until a pine torch was found, and then he crawled +along the gallery in search of the powder train. That, he knew, for she +had told him, would burst the rock asunder anyhow; and that would be +enough, for he had guessed shrewdly that the gallery was connected with +the great chamber by some secret egress. + +And who knew? Might not Dolores have taken in her haste but part of her +vast store? Stumpy knew as well as Red Jabez the tremendous wealth that +had been deposited in that chamber of mysteries; for he had been with +the red chief from the beginning; he had seen with his own eyes the +riches of a hundred ships taken in there, and never a thing come out. + +"She can't have bagged the lot," he muttered, fanning his torch into a +red flare. "But she'll pay for deserting Stumpy, or Stumpy's a liar!" + +He found the powder train, and the moisture had dried from it, leaving +only a little line of dry, quick-igniting powder. He was not sure just +where the magazine was; not sure how long the train would burn before +the explosion. So down he clambered again, searching at the great altar +for the water-vessels he knew should be there. Then, with a jar of +water, he returned to his train, and swiftly swept up the dry powder and +moistened it a little, making a rough slow match of it. + +"Now we'll see the sights!" he growled, and went to the end of the +gallery and flung his torch into the train. + +He watched it for a moment, to be sure that it would burn, then stepped +down from the ledge and drew back a safe distance to watch the upheaval. +To what extent the mine was intended to destroy he had no idea. He +simply knew that Dolores had pointed it out to him as a means of defense +should the gallery be carried in the attack. He supposed, therefore, +that it would shatter the gallery. Doing that, it must surely dislodge +or loosen rock enough for him to break into the great chamber with aid. + +The thought recalled his men to his mind, and he saw for the first time +that they had not followed him. He started down the path toward the +camp, shouting to them by name, eager to give them an inkling of the +treat in store. But his hail was answered by another, and down the path +a woman appeared running, her hair flying, and tremendous excitement in +every line of her face. + +"Stumpy! Stumpy!" she sobbed and cried in hysterical intoxication. "Oh, +Stumpy, the great chamber is open, and it's full of gold and treasure!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +MILO CROSSES THE BAR. + + +Milo watched Stumpy disappear down the grove path, and heard him call to +his men to follow. Then he regarded the receding yacht intently for a +moment, and the last vestige of noble devotion went from his face and +gave place to a great and absorbing bitterness. In that instant, the +foundations, pillars, and capitals of his soul shook and tottered; his +universe changed from a thing of golden beauty and heavenly splendor to +a shameful mockery of truth and faith. + +In that moment his thoughts flew back to little Pascherette, and his +great heart yearned toward her. False she had proved, but to what? To +whom? He asked himself these things as he slowly walked back along the +tunnel, not yet knowing what he would do. He answered his own question. +Pascherette had proven false to falsity; she had schemed against the +schemer; and, in the other tray of the balance she had done these things +for love of him, out of a deep and all-powerful ambition to place him, +Milo the slave, in the high place of the wanton ingrate who had deserted +her people. And the thought hurt him now; he had not yet yielded her the +kiss she craved. Even now the little gold-tinted one might be cold in +death, denied that small consolation because of his obstinate heart. + +He ran along the tunnel and burst through the great chamber, cursing the +idle slaves into silence when they cried their helpless queries at him. +And straight to Pascherette he sped, to fling himself down by her side +and seize her tiny, moist hand in frantic appeal. + +"Pascherette!" he whispered with a dry sob. "Little golden one, speak to +thy Milo. Speak, and forgive!" + +The octoroon gave no sign of life, and the giant dropped her hand and +gently raised her pallid face. His lips sought hers in a passionate +kiss, long and yearning; and slowly her eyelids fluttered and opened. +The dark eyes were misty, yet that longed-for kiss had brought back her +fleeting spirit to recognize her man. She closed her tired eyes again, +with a little sign, and the small, pale lips formed the words: "I am +content, Milo, my god." + +The giant bowed his head over her silent face, and his black eyes +searched for a returning flicker of vitality. It was gone forever. +Pascherette was dead; and Milo laid her head down gently, and drew back +to stare at her with growing rebellion and horror. What gods could there +be to use him thus? He leaped to his feet with arms flung upward. + +"Hah, gods of earth and sea, witness Milo's penitence!" he said +hoarsely. "To Dolores I have given the worship that belonged to ye and +ye have taken terrible atonement. Pity me!" + +He paced the small alcove nervously, seeking light where no light was. +Then the harsh shouts of Stumpy's men resounded through the chamber, and +he stepped outside in alarm. For it was not yet possible for him to +discard the usage of years which forbade intrusion in that secret place. +He saw Stumpy's four men standing open-mouthed in the doorway beneath +the yellow lantern, gazing ludicrously at the magnificence of the +furnishings. The slaves at the powder store stood where he had left +them, idle and aimless, but with an open chest at their feet. This now +attracted the pirates' attention, and with a stamp and a shout they +roared through the great chamber, their faces awork with newly aroused +avarice. + +Just for one second Milo pondered staying them. But his soul had soured; +he uttered a grunt of scornful disgust, and waved a hand at them, +muttering: + +"Revel, ye dogs! Plunge thy hands deep. 'Tis all thine, and the fiend's +blessing go with it!" + +He returned to his dead Pascherette and knelt beside her, patting her +cold hands and speaking to her softly and tenderly. Out in the chamber +the pirates had hurled aside the slaves, and, flinging open the chests, +were glaring with wolfish eyes and dripping jaws at the bewildering mass +of treasure revealed. + +Their noise irritated Milo. He went out again to stop them. And he saw a +pirate snatch up a glittering tiara and place it on his head with a +roaring oath. He saw another snatch the bauble off; and in a breath the +pirates were at each other's throats; cutlases flashed and a savage +fight began at the moment the women stole in to see the mysterious +place, and one of their number ran to bring Stumpy. + +The giant glowered at the snarling men as at some repulsive beasts, +horrified that they should thus desecrate the quiet of his Pascherette's +death-bed. He was not the Milo of old now. His memory had flown back +through the years to the time when he was a youth of position and great +promise in his own land; when, instead of being the cast-off servant of +a beautiful ingrate, he numbered his own servants by hundreds. And a +great dignity stole into his ennobled face. He softly picked up the dead +girl, and advanced toward the rock tunnel. + +Stumpy met him at the door, and the crippled pirate's eyes burned with +the newborn lust of loot. Stumpy made as if to stay the giant with +questions; but he saw the snarling fight at the end of the chamber and +caught the glitter of jewels. With the stumbling speed of a charging, +wounded bull, he rushed in to join battle. + +Running women brushed against Milo in the passage; all the camp's living +people had caught the fever. The giant strode on, until he stood in the +rugged rock portals and gazed once more over the sea. The schooner had +moved but slightly since he last looked at her; he could see Dolores's +head still advancing, and very near to the vessel now. The breeze had +lulled, perhaps preceding a shift of wind; and the visible people on the +deck of the Feu Follette appeared to be running back and forth in +indecision. + +At Milo's right hand the great rock sat on its ledge, ready to fall at a +touch, and his brooding eyes flashed to it with terrible meaning. +Inside, the great chamber resounded with the clash of steel, the shouts +of furious human beasts, and the shrill cries of women urging them on; +for there must be victors, even to such a sordid fight, and to the +victors, spoils. Where victors and spoils are, there harpy women await +them. + +Milo gazed long and passionately into the face of his dead; then he laid +her softly down outside the rock and arose with a fierce light +irradiating his face. + +"Dogs, who would thus break the sleep of my beloved, I give ye good for +evil!" he muttered. "Treasure ye crave: treasure I give ye, and none may +take it from ye!" + +He turned, put his hand upon the great rock and started it from its bed. +And as he moved the mass, the mountain rocked and crashed with the +thunder of the bursting powder-magazine. + +Down came the great rock, pinning Milo beneath it, threatening in its +final fall to crush him and the body of his love. His great arms shot +out and up, every muscle on his colossal frame stood out like ropes, his +back cracked with the tremendous strain. He stiffened his knees, bit +into his lip until the blood gushed; and a groan burst from his breast +as he felt his stout knees stagger. + +His bulging eyes glared ahead over the sea; into the air flew a thousand +fragments of shattered rock; they fell and thrashed the sea into foam a +mile from shore. Rocks fell upon his already overwhelming burden; his +knees bent, and the blood trickled from his nostrils. And with his fast +ebbing breath he breathed his valedictory, fixing his stony eyes upon +Pascherette as upon his deity. + +"Gods of my fathers, receive my spirit into thy halls. Let thy swift +justice overtake the cause of this upheaval; and receive with my spirit +the spirit of the one who loved me." He fell to one knee, and a great +sob shook him. The rock was falling in a shower about him; it rang and +crashed on the gigantic stone that was crushing him. He bent his gaze in +anguish afresh on the dead girl, now almost buried under stone and +earth, and murmured: "Pascherette, I come! I see beyond the blue ocean +and the golden horizon the throne of my gods. Come, golden one, let us +go. There will our faithfulness meet just reward!" + +He pitched forward upon the dead girl, and the great rock crashed down, +building them a tomb grand as the eternal hills. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE TOLL OF THE GODS. + + +Venner's order to heave the treasure-chests overboard was not given +without a pang of regret. It was scarcely obeyed without threats; for +the sailing master had been bitten by the treasure fever before his +owner and guest came on board. Had they not appeared when they did, the +schooner had gone without them, and Peters had already seen a golden +vista ahead of him. He hesitated now, and Venner left the wheel vacant +to urge him. + +"Over with it, I say! At once! Here, Pearse, lend a hand here, man, +before that witch's great eyes mesmerize us again. See, she smiles yet, +and comes nearer." + +Reluctantly the seamen raised one iron-bound chest to the rail and +poised it there. From the water astern rang Dolores's throaty laugh, +even and full breathing, as if she had not swam a fraction of the +half-mile she had covered. + +"Foolish Rupert!" she cried, never relaxing her stroke. "Why waste the +fruits of thy pains? Hast looked inside then? Nay, take me on board, and +let us look together. Thou wilt not see Dolores drown, I swear. Then +look once more into my eyes, my Rupert!" + +She laughed again mockingly, alluringly, and Pearse turned away with a +shudder, not daring to cast a glance in the direction of Venner. + +"Throw the stuff over, I say!" cried Venner hoarsely, and gave the chest +a push that sent it into the rippling sea with a thunderous splash. And +again that mocking laugh rang out astern; it was nearer, and Dolores's +beautiful face was turned up to them with triumph in every feature. She +had seen the struggle going on in her two intended victims; if she could +but gain to within whispering distance of either of them, surely she +would never let them escape her. + +"Come, take me on board, my Rupert. I have a secret to tell thee, but +thee alone!" she cried, and spurted swiftly, gaining abreast of the +main-chains. + +But the eyes of Venner and Pearse were fixed in astonishment upon the +tall cliff they had left; their eyes stared amazedly, and they stood +like statues, hearing none of her seductive words. + +"What do ye see?" she demanded, frowning up at them. + +A score of sharp splashes in the water around the schooner startled her. +She suspected they were hurling missiles at her, and one struck her +arm. She turned swiftly and her face darkened with fury. Then more small +objects fell about her, and one struck her arm. She turned swiftly on +her side to seek the source, and in her ears boomed the tremendous crash +of Stumpy's explosion, rolling far over the sea, reverberating from the +shores and making the air quiver like a solid thing. + +A great mass of rock hurtled overhead, missed the schooner by scant +feet, and Venner shouted in horror: + +"Throw her a line, Pearse! Here, quickly, before she is crushed by such +a rock as that one!" + +The sea was shattered into foam for fathoms around, and every face on +the Feu Follette stared over the rail in helpless astonishment. But on +the face of Dolores glowed a smile of triumph. She feared nothing of +earth or heaven; among the flying rocks she swam on toward the schooner, +smiling up at them, waiting for the rope that meant victory to her. + +And in the brief space before the rope hurtled out, down from the +heavens plunged a high-flung piece of granite fair upon Dolores. She +seemed to sense its shadow, and in the moment it struck her she half +sank, breaking its force. But it followed her down. The mass struck +between her gleaming shoulders, and she flung up her arms in despair, +turning over and over with the impact, then floating unconscious close +by the side of the white schooner that had been her goal. + +"God! Get her aboard!" gasped Pearse. "She's done for. Yet we cannot +leave her there for the sharks, like a beast!" + +Venner and Peters were already trying with boat-hooks to catch Dolores's +tunic. Pearse threw a line over the girl and drew her nearer and the +hooks took hold. They drew her up the side with a care that amounted to +reverence, for in her unconsciousness she was more beautiful than ever, +her fine features molded in dead white, traced with fine blue veins; the +grace of her form was that of a lovely sculpture now, lacking vitality, +but possessing every line of perfection. The blow that had overtaken her +had failed in its terrible threat to crush her. + +"Lay her in the companionway on the lounge," said Venner. He ran to the +saloon and brought up wine. He bathed her temples and wrists with the +liquor, and forced some between her blue lips. And Pearse chafed her +hands and patted them, gazing down at her in silent awe. + +"Venner," he whispered, when her eyes refused to open, "we must let this +settle the score against her. It's a terrible end for such a creature." + +"For my part, Pearse, I would give all I have just to see those great +violet eyes laugh at me again; to hear that mocking laugh from her +maddening lips. God, will she never awake?" + +Astern of the schooner the sun was slowly descending to the western +sea-rim, and as the course was resumed after picking up Dolores, the +Point and the cliff gradually drew out across the path of the sun, until +the outlines of the rock and trees stood out black and sharp. On the +cliff-top a heavy pall of greasy smoke hung low about the shattered +pirates' camp; from fissures high up the frowning side spirals of smoke +testified to the wide-spread destruction that followed the blast. + +They looked at the terrific devastation, and again at its nearer victim. +And as they gazed down at her, Dolores's lips trembled in a faint smile, +her great eyes opened wide, looking directly and fearlessly back at +them. + +"I thank ye, my friends; I knew you would take me," she whispered, and +the two men turned away with a shudder. As she had lived, Dolores was +now meeting her inevitable end, bold and indomitable. + +"Where are you hurt?" inquired Venner lamely. "Let me do something to +ease you." + +"Ease?" she laughed as of old, but her teeth clenched upon her lower lip +immediately, with the pain it caused. "I shall ask ye to ease me +presently, good friends. Grim Death has me by the throat already. But +carry me outside. I am stifling in here. Let me see the ocean and the +sky at least in my passage. And I have something to tell ye also." + +On the gratings around the stern, abaft the wheel, they laid her on soft +cushions. She drank greedily of the wine and water they offered her; +she quivered with eagerness to unburden her mind before her thirst was +quenched forever. She motioned them, to bend over her, and began to +speak in, husky whispers. + +"That chest, thou cast it overboard. Dost know what was in it?" + +Both shook their heads. None had seen inside the chests after they came +from the great chamber. + +"I'll tell ye, then, for the peace of your souls and the tranquillity of +your voyage. Lest thy men be seized with a desire for treasure that +shall work ye mischief, have them open the other two chests. Quickly, +for I am faint." + +Venner went to the chests himself and flung back the lids, which were +bolted on the outside and not locked. He stared for a moment, +unbelievingly, then nodded to Pearse. Pearse stared, too, in amazement, +and one after the other the sailors were called to see. They saw two +great strong-boxes filled to the brim with iron chains, broken cutlases, +rusty bilboes, and rock; a fool's treasure in truth. + +"'Twas a trick to set my rascals at odds," Dolores told them when they +returned to her. "To thee, Pearse, I showed my treasure, and I fear that +blast has buried it beneath a mountain. Milo was to take it out. I +cannot believe it can have been taken away ere that powder blew it to +fragments. It was still in the powder store." + +"Yes, I know," said Pearse quietly. "It was that which precipitated the +fight between us three that killed poor Tomlin." + +"Well, if thou still art hungry for treasure, my friends, there is my +store buried where thou knowest, and I shrewdly fear but few of my +people are left. But I am slipping. Stand aside, that I may close my +eyes on the place I called home." + +Dolores ceased speaking and lay, scarcely stirred by her faint +respiration, gazing over the schooner's stern at the sinking sun. The +golden disk was turning to red and across its darkened face the cliff +and Point stood out in sharp silhouette, which grew larger as the great +glowing sun was distorted and enlarged by the refraction near the +horizon. The breeze had changed, and now blew with gentle strength out +of the west, a fair wind for their homeward course, and the strands of +Dolores's glorious hair blew about her face like tendrils about an +orchid of unearthly beauty. + +Presently she stirred again, and now she summoned all her remaining +vitality to raise herself on an elbow. Pearse and Venner leaned closer, +sensing the end in the tremendous brilliancy of her wide, dry eyes. + +She spoke softly, yet with a thrilling note of yearning that choked her +hearers with harsh sobs. + +"Father, I come," she whispered. "If I have failed in obeying thy +commands, I ask forgiveness, for I am but a woman. A woman with +instincts and yearnings, born of the mother I never knew. Thy very +treasures that were to appease me put the yearning more strongly in my +brain. Thy teachings showed me a world of beasts and savagery; thy +treasures gave me dreams of a world peopled by such as I would be. My +mother's blood forced me to seek this other, better world; thy blood +forced me to seek it wrongfully." + +She paused, and gathered her fleeting breath. + +Then, sitting suddenly upright, she flung both arms out to the setting +sun now lipping the sea, and cried: + +"Gods I know not. Yet must there be such, else had I never known the +devotion of a Milo! Wherever ye be, brave Milo, living or dead, commend +me to thy own gods and forgive me for my ingratitude." She seized Venner +and Pearse by the arms as she fell back, and whispered: "In pity, +friends, set my feet toward the west, and launch my poor body down the +sun path as it sinks into the blue Caribbean that was my only home." + +She relaxed with a little shivering sigh, the glorious eyes closed with +a tired tremor, and the spirit of Dolores the beautiful, the wicked, the +tempestuous, winged its way down the mysterious paths of the dark +unknown. + +"Come," said Venner, suddenly shaking off his abstraction, "time is all +too short if we are to render her this last small service." + +"How shall we do it?" asked Pearse doubtfully. + +"We shall send her down her chosen path in a boat. Peters will load the +dingey with ballast, while you and I will lay Dolores out as well as we +may. Bring me that grating, Pearse. We will speed her in the dress she +loved. Her soul would sicken at a suffocating winding sheet. Hurry, for +the sun is half gone!" + +Swiftly they worked, these men who had cause to remember the departed +siren without great love, and they placed her, secured to a grating, +across the thwarts of the dingey, to which the grating was in turn +secured. Then, all prepared, Peters sprang into the boat, bored a score +of auger-holes in the bottom, and as the great red sun set fierce and +blazing behind the black profile of the cliff, the filling boat was set +adrift, straight down the path of the luminary, bound ever westward, +until the sea gods claimed it and its passenger for their own. + +"Farewell, place of ill-luck!" cried Pearce, as the schooner bore away +before the rising evening breeze. "May I never set my eyes on such evil +shores again." + +"Then you will not come back to seek the treasure?" asked Venner, with a +shadowy flicker of a smile. + +"Not for a thousand times the treasure that lies there!" cried Pearse +vehemently. "And I have seen it! The horror of this will haunt me until +my dying day. I only hope God will look kindly upon that poor woman, +that's all." + +"I hope so, too," rejoined Venner thoughtfully. "With a white woman's +opportunities, what a woman she could have been." + +But the gods are inscrutable. Only the warm mantle of the setting sun +gave a hint that Dolores might be even now entering into a place of +eternal rest, where her sins of ignorance and untutored instincts would +not count too heavily against her. The sea is very benign to its elect; +a calm sea in the setting sun received Dolores in arms of infinite +benignity. + + +(The end.) + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original edition have been corrected. In Chapter V, "inscrutaable" was +changed to "inscrutable"; in Chapter X, "Let me show thee they master" +was changed to "Let me show thee thy master"; in Chapter XVII, "could +not enchance your worth" was changed to "could not enhance your worth"; +in Chapter XVIII, "shaking his first at Milo" was changed to "shaking +his fist at Milo"; and in Chapter XXI, "protruding a foot for Tomlin's +back" was changed to "protruding a foot from Tomlin's back".] + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following summary originally appeared at the +beginning of the serial's second installment.] + + +PRECEDING CHAPTERS BRIEFLY RETOLD + +Within his mysterious stronghold, "The Cave of Terrible Things," on the +Maroon coast of Jamaica, washed by the waters of the Caribbean Sea, Red +Jabez, Sultan of Pirates, had just died. + +Dolores, his daughter, "a splendidly lithe, glowing creature of beauty +and passion," "a royal woman conscious of mental and physical +perfection," succeeded her father as tyrant over the motley crew of +Spaniard and Briton, Creole and mulatto, Carib and octoroon, and +coal-black negroes. + +Milo, the giant Abyssinian, who knew no fear and no law save the will of +this capricious creature, served Dolores as body-guard and chief. + +Pascherette, "a gleaming, gold-tinted creature, a miniature model of +Aphrodite," beloved of Milo, was her maid and attendant. + +Moved to mutiny by Rufe, the Spaniard, the pirates had risen in revolt +to loot the rich treasure of the dead Sultan's cave; but supported by +Milo, Dolores had cowed them, no less by her dagger than her threats. + +But discontent rode the soul of the Sultana. She longed for other lands, +other people. With Milo's aid she determined to capture the first sail +that passed her shore, and escape. + +When Rupert Venner and his guests, Craik Tomlin and John Pearce, aboard +the Venner yacht, Feu Follette, passed that way, they were easily +induced to go ashore. + +In the midst of a reception accorded them by Dolores, the party beheld +Yellow Rufe and a band of mulattoes and blacks making for the schooner, +from whose rail shots crackled. + +Venner raised a cry of treachery and called, "Come, fellows!" But the +woman held him as much by her eyes as by her promise: "I shall preserve +thy ship, and give thee back an eye for an eye, if thy men are harmed." + +Then she sprang down the cliff like a deer. + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following summary originally appeared at the +beginning of the serial's third installment. The summary at the +beginning of the serial's fourth installment, if one was present, was +not available when preparing this electronic edition.] + + +PRECEDING CHAPTERS BRIEFLY RETOLD + +On the death of Red Jabez, Dolores, "a glowing creature of beauty and +passion," took over her father's rule of the pirates of the Maroon coast +of Jamaica. + +With the help of her faithful slave, Milo, the Abyssinian giant, she +crushed a rising insurrection among her riffraff subjects, whose +cupidity had been played upon by Rufe, the Spaniard. + +But Dolores was herself the victim of discontent. Loathing her outlaw +subjects and the island, she determined to seize the first boat that +passed her way, and escape with her jewels and her gold. + +When the pleasure yacht, Feu Follette, came that way, she sent Milo and +her maid, Pascherette, to decoy Rupert Venner and his guests, Craik +Tomlin and John Pearse, to the island. + +In the midst of her reception to her captive-guests, she beheld Rufe and +a band of insurgent blacks and mulattoes attacking the crew of the +schooner, while Sancho, whom she had despatched to care for the vessel +while in the harbor, was joining in the attack. + +Then she rushed over the cliff and into the water, and boarded the boat, +followed by her loyal Milo. + +After a long and bloody struggle, the woman's ruse of firing the ship +with a keg of powder won the day, and Rufe and Sancho fled into the +wilderness, while from the schooner's topmast flew the Sultana's own +flag. + +Demanding that the traitors, Rufe and Sancho, be rounded up, Dolores +threw her three guests into chains, while she accused Pascherette of +abetting the treason of Sancho. + +Then Dolores turned to Venner with the offer of her love if he would +sail away with her, having first despatched his friends. When the man, +whose soul was racked with passion for the beautiful black panther, +recoiled from her condition, she left him in his chains. + +Next she dealt with Sancho, whom Pascherette had lured back to the +woman's mercy; and Sancho emerged from Dolores's presence a driveling +imbecile. + +When Milo beheld at this moment the fleeing form of Yellow Rufe, made +distinguishable by vivid lightning, Dolores determined to complete her +punishments. + +The Spaniard was making good his escape when Milo took up the pursuit in +the little sailboat. Dolores and her crew would follow, by the light of +his flares, in the schooner. + +With the untamed soul of a woman who had never known defeat, Dolores +drove her crew and defied the wind and the waves, and the Feu Follette +was liberated from the mud and swung to the gale as the cry rang out: +"There's the flare--and she's burnin' steady!" + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Pirate Woman, by Aylward Edward Dingle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PIRATE WOMAN *** + +***** This file should be named 30057-8.txt or 30057-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/0/5/30057/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Pirate Woman + +Author: Aylward Edward Dingle + +Release Date: September 22, 2009 [EBook #30057] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PIRATE WOMAN *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 413px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="413" height="500" alt="Cover of All-Story Weekly" title="The Pirate Woman by Captain Dingle" /> +</div> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" summary="masthead"> +<tr> +<td colspan="2" style="font-size: 180%; text-align: center; padding-top: 0.75em;">ALL-STORY WEEKLY</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td style="text-align: left;">VOL. XC</td> +<td style="text-align: right;">NUMBER 2</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1918</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<h1>The Pirate Woman</h1> + +<h2>by Captain Dingle</h2> + +<p class="center">Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc.</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p style="margin-top: 2.25em; margin-bottom: 2.25em;">[Transcriber's Note: This novel was originally serialized in four +installments in All-Story Weekly magazine from November 2, 1918, to +November 23, 1918. The original breaks in the serial have been retained, +but summaries of previous events preceding the second and third +installments have been moved to the end of this e-book. The Table of +Contents which follows this note was created for this electronic +edition.]</p> +</div> + +<h2>Table of Contents</h2> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="issuedate"><a href="#Part_I">November 2, 1918</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">I.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE CAVE OF TERRIBLE THINGS.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">193</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">II.</td> +<td class="chapname">DOLORES RECEIVES HER DIADEM.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">196</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">III.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE GROVE OF MYSTERY.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">200</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">IV.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE PIRATES' BARBECUE.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">203</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">V.</td> +<td class="chapname">MILO SIGHTS A SAIL.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">206</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">VI.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE PARTY FROM THE YACHT.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">209</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="issuedate"><a href="#Part_II">November 9, 1918</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">VII.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE ATTACK ON THE FEU FOLLETTE.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">466</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">VIII.</td> +<td class="chapname">DOLORES DELIVERS JUDGMENT.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">469</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">IX.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE SULTANA DECIDES SEVERAL THINGS.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">472</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">X.</td> +<td class="chapname">A REED SHAKEN BY THE WINDS OF PASSION.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">475</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XI.</td> +<td class="chapname">PASCHERETTE UNVEILS HER PURPOSE.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">477</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XII.</td> +<td class="chapname">SANCHO SETTLES HIS ACCOUNT.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">480</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XIII.</td> +<td class="chapname">DOLORES FLOATS THE FEU FOLLETTE.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">488</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="issuedate"><a href="#Part_III">November 16, 1918</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XIV.</td> +<td class="chapname">YELLOW RUFE'S FINISH.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">697</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XV.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE FIRES OF THE FLESH.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">701</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XVI.</td> +<td class="chapname">PEARSE ENTERS THE CAVE OF ALADDIN.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">704</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XVII.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE TREASURE TEST.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">707</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XVIII.</td> +<td class="chapname">PASCHERETTE DEALS AGAIN.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">711</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XIX.</td> +<td class="chapname">WHILE VICTORY HANGS IN THE BALANCE.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">715</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="issuedate"><a href="#Part_IV">November 23, 1918</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XX.</td> +<td class="chapname">DOLORES DEMANDS A DECISION.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">147</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XXI.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE SLUMBERING SAVAGE.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">150</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XXII.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE FLIGHT OF THE FEU FOLLETTE.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">153</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XXIII.</td> +<td class="chapname">STUMPY FIRES THE MAGAZINE.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">155</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XXIV.</td> +<td class="chapname">MILO CROSSES THE BAR.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">157</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">XXV.</td> +<td class="chapname">THE TOLL OF THE GODS.</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">159</a></td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + + + +<h1 style="margin-top: 1.5em;"><a name="Part_I" id="Part_I"></a>The Pirate Woman</h1> + +<h2>by Captain Dingle</h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc.</p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE CAVE OF TERRIBLE THINGS.</h3> + + +<p>A great unrest brooded over mountain and forest; the blue Caribbean lay +hushed and glaring, as if held in leash by a power greater than that +which ordered its daily ebb and flow.</p> + +<p>Men moved or stood beneath the trees on the cliffside in attitudes of +supreme awe or growing uneasiness, according to their kind: for among +them were numbered Spaniard and Briton, creole and mulatto, Carib and +octoroon, with coal-black negroes enough to outnumber all the rest—and +it was upon these last that profound awe sat oppressively.</p> + +<p>Apart, followed by a hundred furtive eyes, Dolores, daughter of Red +Jabez, ranged back and forth before the mighty rock portals of the Cave +of Terrible Things, like some magnificent tigress hedged with foes. +Beyond those portals Red Jabez, Sultan of pirates, arbiter of life and +death over the motley community, lay at grips with the grim specter to +whom he had consigned scores far more readily than he now yielded up +his own red-stained soul. Red Jabez was dying a death as hard as his +lurid life had been.</p> + +<p>Beyond those rock portals none save Jabez and Milo, the herculean +Abyssinian slave, had ever passed. Dolores, next in line, was in +ignorance as deep as her meanest slave, concerning what lay beyond the +great mass of rock which formed the door, and which Milo alone could +move. She knew, as did every one, that the great chamber of Red Jabez +held some vast mystery; she suspected, as did the rest, that it +concealed wealth beyond dreams; deep down in her soul she hoped that +inviolate chamber held for her the means of emancipation; but of this +hope, none knew save herself. For Queen of Night though the white men +called her, Sultana though she was named with fear and submission by the +blacks, though her power was second only to that of Red Jabez, and +barely less than his, a canker gnawed at the heart of Dolores, the +canker of a suspicion that her power was but a paltry power, her freedom +but a caged freedom.</p> + +<p>Somewhere beyond the great ocean that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> stretched away before her eyes +lay a world she knew nothing of; yet since her earliest childhood her +keen mind had told her that the silk with which she was clothed, the +jewels that encrusted her dagger-hilt, the ships whose pillage had +yielded up these things, must come from lands far distant, more +desirable than the maroon country of Jamaica. More, her ears attuned to +the whisper or roar of the sea, the sigh or shriek of the winds, carried +to her the mutterings of men long held in leash, who now saw in their +chieftain's death the realization of their own wild dreams of riches and +release. All these things told her that the great, strange world beyond +the sea-line was something for her to strive for; not for the rabble who +called her queen.</p> + +<p>She paced back and forth, a splendidly lithe, glowing creature of beauty +and passion, every movement a grace, each grace such as befitted a royal +woman conscious of mental and physical perfection. Her hair surrounded +her face and shoulders in a lustrous, rippling cloud, through which +peeped a bare arm and breast stolen from the goddess of beauty; her +tunic of quilted Chinese silk hung from one shoulder by a strap +fashioned from the ribbon of the Star of Persia, and fastened by the +star; her strong, slender waist was girdled with a heavy gold cord that +supported a long, thin dagger, no toy, in a jeweled sheath; the hem of +her single garment rang with gold sequins to the movement of her +smoothly muscular knees; her high-arched feet were protected from thorns +and shells by sandals of red leather.</p> + +<p>As the moments passed, and no sign came from within the cave, Dolores +restrained her impatience with increasing difficulty. The men scattered +around were not of such stuff; they felt the impending crisis settle +heavily upon them, and white and black alike drew together for the +comfort of close touch. From time to time a hardier spirit uttered his +thoughts aloud, yet always with a glance of uncertainty toward Dolores. +They had reason to glance that way; for every man had tasted of the +queen's justice, which rarely erred on the side of mildness; many of +them had experienced her terrible competence to carry out a sentence in +person. Of them all, not one but knew that in Dolores he owned as queen +a woman who need yield nothing of prowess to any man: her knife was as +swift, her round wrist as strong, her blazing violet-black eyes as sure +as any among them. Not a man could ever forget the offending slave whom +she had thrashed with her own hands, disdaining assistance, until the +wretch tore loose and fled screaming to the cliff to pitch headlong into +the shark-infested sea; nor could they forget her unhesitating dive and +terrific struggle to recover him and her completion of the interrupted +punishment when she had brought him back.</p> + +<p>Yet the stress proved too great, even in face of these memories, and a +tall, powerful Spaniard, heavily earringed, handsome, with a swart, +brutal beauty, delivered a scorching oath to the heavy air and exclaimed +fiercely:</p> + +<p>"A curse on this babe's play! Must men stand here like whipped curs +until a slave commands us enter? Come! Who'll follow me past that door? +I'll know what lies behind this mummery if I choke it from old Jabez's +withered neck as he dies."</p> + +<p>The man stepped forward two paces, glaring defiantly at Dolores, waiting +for men to follow. An uneasy shuffling of feet was his only answer for a +moment; then his eyes shifted with cooling ardor at sight of Dolores. +For a breath after he had ceased speaking, the girl stood like a +splendid statue, except for the glitter of her eyes and a slight +quivering of her limbs; it was as if she awaited some response; then her +face relaxed into a contemptuous smile, and her crimson lips parted to +reveal her even, gleaming teeth. She laughed, a rippling little laugh +like the tinkle of steel links, and with a single gliding movement that +permitted no avoidance she swept to within two feet of the now +frightened ruffian.</p> + +<p>"Yes? Yellow Rufe would choke words from a dying man!" she cried. +"Nothing that lives and can stand on two feet is in danger from such as +he. Peace, slavish dog!" she panted, flinging out a gleaming hand and +seizing him by one earring. "Thus I mark curs that seek their food among +the dead!" With the words Dolores's right hand flashed upward, +knife-armed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> and across Rufe's cheek glared a crimson cross; into his +eyes leaped the fear of death.</p> + +<p>"Now go!" she said imperiously, pushing him away. "Let no man forget +that while the life is in Red Jabez he holds thy lives in pawn. When his +spirit goes, ye shall reckon with me!"</p> + +<p>Rufe staggered away, half incredulous that his punishment had fallen +short of death. His companions led him apart with many a backward glance +of apprehension at the authoress of his discomfiture, and a deep, sullen +muttering rippled through the crowd. Dolores resumed her solitary pacing +without another thought for the hardy rascal she had so swiftly and +effectively softened. Her eyes were ever bent toward the great rock; her +thoughts were centered on a vague, mysterious instinct which whispered +to her that with her first admission into that frowning cavern the +mantle of fierce old Red Jabez would fall upon her, and with it would +come power that a Czar might envy! A Czar's power, indeed, but with all +of a Czar's cares and more; for Czar never ruled over subjects like +these.</p> + +<p>A sudden hush fell upon the place; the mutterings ceased as if tongues +were stricken stiff. Rufe, with his head now enwrapped in crossed +bandages, stared toward the great rock with a wavering expression in his +smoldering eyes, an expression that hovered between reluctant +submission, reawakened cupidity, and dawning hope. Dolores stood +motionless, imperious in every line and feature, her heavy eyelashes +veiling the eagerness in her eyes, her red lips curved in royal +indifference.</p> + +<p>The great rock was turning.</p> + +<p>Slowly, yet with the flawless regularity of a millwheel, the mass of +stone was rolled upward and to one side; it rested at last on a ledge, +balanced perfectly, ready to fall again at the touch of a finger; and in +the aperture appeared the human agent of its opening.</p> + +<p>Milo, the giant Abyssinian, guardian of the rock, custodian of the Cave +of Terrible Things, bone of contention for the jealous and terror of the +strongest, filled the entrance with his colossal frame and looked out +with a calm dignity that made the whites cringe with hatred. Slowly, +with stately grace, the giant advanced until he stood before Dolores, +and in his coal-black eyes shone the light of limitless devotion. He +knelt, kissed the sequins on her tunic's hem, then, with both hands +pressed to his forehead, he bowed his face to the earth at her feet.</p> + +<p>"Rise, Milo," said Dolores, gently, and her breath caught painfully as +she spoke. She knew what the slave came for; every man in that community +of pirates, wreckers, escaped slaves, and convicts knew as well as she. +All had awaited this moment, knowing when it came that the mystery of +the cave would be a mystery no longer to at least one of them: all knew +that the summons meant the passing of the old pirate who had brought +them together, ruled them with blood and iron, and forced from them a +homage none of them would render to his Maker.</p> + +<p>"My Sultana, it is time," said Milo, rising and waiting. He needed to +say no more.</p> + +<p>"Lead me to my father, then," replied the girl, and stepped after the +giant with sure step and resolute face, giving no heed to the renewed +shuffling and congregating of her people, nor to Rufe, who again stood +out before the rest and addressed them in fierce tones.</p> + +<p>Dolores entered the great hewn-rock doorway and in spite of her stout +heart and steel will she thrilled in every fiber. At the end of the +frowning passage, whose ruby lamps but accentuated the gloom and +imparted to it an infernal glow, lay the great chamber that only the +chief might enter. What would she find there? Her father, yes, and +dying! Otherwise this summons had never come. The death must be upon him +now; the fierce old sea-king had held his throne-room inviolate through +many bouts with the grim Reaper, knowing his own strength to conquer. +But now he had called, and Dolores sought the unknown with a curiosity +that beat down fear.</p> + +<p>Behind her a heavy thud echoed along the rocky walls, and the outer +light was cut off by the falling of the great stone. In a moment Milo +stood beside her and, taking her hand in his, led her along the utterly +invisible floor until she stood before a massive door.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> Her feet sank +into the pile of heavy carpets; her nostrils quivered to the delicate +odors of burning spices; at the top of the door a great jeweled lantern +cast a rich, yellow light down the panels, and the girl gasped +involuntarily at the sight revealed to her. Each panel was formed of +scales that overlapped like a serpent's; the scales were roughly +hammered gold and silver, richly chased, and studded thickly with +gems—without any conjecture she knew them to be precious vessels that +should have graced an altar, split, perhaps with a bloody cutlass, and +beaten out into irregular plates to gratify some grim humor of the +terrible old corsair in the long ago. Neither hinges, handle, lock, nor +latch appeared on the surface; apparently the door was solidly embedded +in the mighty rock itself. The giant laid a hand on the side of the +door-frame, and Dolores waited with impatience for admission. For all +her schooled self-control her eyes glinted with astonishment when Milo +stood aside and bowed low, saying:</p> + +<p>"Enter, my princess!"</p> + +<p>Without a sound the massive door had vanished, sliding up and out of +sight in the dark recess of the roof, leaving smooth, steel-lined slots +at sides and bottom that reflected the polish of scrupulous care. +Dolores stifled her surprise, and moved toward the heavy velvet hangings +which still barred her way. These, too, were swept aside with no visible +effort, and the girl stood on the threshold of the chamber of mystery.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">DOLORES RECEIVES HER DIADEM.</h3> + + +<p>In a great canopied bed, taken from some rich looted Indiaman, Red Jabez +lay motionless as an effigy in stone. His tall, powerful body was +sharply outlined in coverings of silk and rare lace; the arms and crest +of a ducal house were worked into the pillows that supported his massive +head. His drawn, haggard face was surrounded and all but covered with a +great mane of vivid red hair; his silken shirt, wide open at the neck, +revealed a massive chest, whose tide of respiration had all but ceased +to run. Only his eyes, fierce yet, held token of lingering life; it was +as if the vital spark was concentrated into one final blaze of +tremendous brilliancy.</p> + +<p>The fierce eyes moved swiftly at Dolores's entrance, and one might have +said a film of tenderness swept for an instant over the hard glint in +them. It was gone as swiftly as it came, and the stare settled +unwaveringly upon the stupefied girl. For stupefaction had gripped +Dolores in that first entry into the great chamber. Her wildest dreams, +and they had been at times fantastic, had never showed her anything +measurably approaching the scene that smote her eyes now. For the moment +death, Red Jabez, her destiny, everything melted into the visionary +beyond and left her capable of no volition.</p> + +<p>The great bed stood in the center of a vast cavern; sides, roof, floor, +every inch of the rock itself bore proof of the handiwork of hundreds of +cunning craftsmen; but the furnishings filled Dolores's eyes to the +exclusion of all else. Divans and chairs, cabinets and tables carried +the mind far away to the realm of emperors and kings; vases from China +and Greece stood on stands of boule-work; a tall ebony-and-ivory +clock-case, in which ticked sonorously a masterpiece of Peter Hele, +stood between two gorgeous pieces of Gobelin tapestry. And around her +and above, Dolores's amazed eyes lighted upon gems of the painter's art +such as few collections might boast. The entire ceiling was covered with +a colossal "Battle of the Amazons," by Rubens, each figure thrown out in +startling distinctness, full of voluptuous life and action; the walls +were mantled by vast golden frames holding the best of Titian, Correggio +and Giorgione, Raphael and Ribera. And jewels flashed everywhere; +cunningly placed lamps, themselves encrusted with the reddest of rubies, +the subtlest of green emeralds, flooded walls and furnishings with a +soft yet searching light which seemed to be carefully calculated to +accentuate those things whose beauty demanded light, yet to leave the +eye unwearied.</p> + +<p>"The hour has struck, my Sultana," said Milo anxiously, and Dolores +shook off the spell and approached the great bed. Red<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> Jabez closed his +eyes as she leaned over him, and his lips now alone gave evidence of +life. The girl, reared among the wildest of desolate isolation, knowing +no softening ties of family, her impulses and emotions those of a +beautiful animal, and increasingly so because of her station among the +rabble that called the dying man chief, stared down at her terrible +parent without a trace of visible regret: rather in her eyes shone the +triumph of a victor about to enter upon a conquered kingdom. But the red +pirate was speaking, and she bent her ear to catch his words. It +required no physician's knowledge to perceive in his damp face all the +signs of imminent dissolution.</p> + +<p>"Dolores, my traverse is run," whispered Jabez. The effort all but stole +his breath. He paused; then summoning all the tremendous will that had +dominated his frame when surging with strength, he told what he had to +say in short sentences, nursing the flickering spark to force his +speech. "Never leave here, girl. Let no man go, either. The world has +forgotten me and all of us; but memory is tenacious—it will revive at a +hint; every throat that pulses with hot life here—yes, my daughter, +even your fair throat—was measured years ago—a rope awaits every one. +But here—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, father?" Dolores shivered in the pause; the silence chilled her. +The giant Abyssinian stood at the head of the bed, and now moistened the +dying lips with wine. Red Jabez strained convulsively, snatching at his +throat, and resumed with weaker voice.</p> + +<p>"Here I have been king; here you are queen; all these things you see, +and many more, are yours; life and death are in your hands to give or +withhold. Keep the steel hand, though you wear the glove, Dolores. You +have learned power; with the greater power you take from this chamber, +and with Milo, let nothing, no man, stir your fears. Keep this chamber +as I have kept it; it is your strength; when danger threatens to beat +you down, here you will find—"</p> + +<p>The fluttering whisper ceased. The old pirate lay rigid. Dolores, having +heard so much, yet so little, hovered over the bed in an ecstasy of +unsatisfied hunger for more; Milo stood by, a magnificent statue in +living bronze, his eyes set in a steady blaze on the face of his master. +Once more the blue lips moved. Dolores darted down with eager ear, her +hands clasped as if in supplication.</p> + +<p>"Milo—tell," came the whisper, and with it went up the soul of Red +Jabez to face a tribunal more dread than any earthly judge his body had +eluded. And the tall clock ticked his knell.</p> + +<p>Dolores flung herself down on the bed, patting the dead face with +nervous fingers; but she was dry-eyed, no filial despair raised tumult +in her breast, her pleading was for the impossible—for the dead lips to +speak—and when she was refused her plea, she sprang from the couch in a +paroxysm of royal fury:</p> + +<p>"Now, by the powers of evil, he shall lie uncoffined until those +secretive lips read me the riddle they have half told!" she cried, +pacing between bed and wall with uplifted arms and hard, glittering +eyes. She suddenly paused in her wild walk, turned swiftly, and reached +the bedside with the same subtle, gliding sweep that had carried her +before Yellow Rufe; it was a characteristic movement with her—a +compound of the gliding dart of the tiger-shark and the silent-footed +pounce of its jungle brother. Milo roused from his dejection and sprang +from his knees with amazing promptitude, but he had yet to round the +bed-foot when the splendid fury stood panting over the corpse.</p> + +<p>"Speak!" she cried, shaking the coverlet savagely. Milo, with horror in +his shining face, gently removed her hand, then stood before her with +bowed head, his cavernous chest heaving wildly.</p> + +<p>"Fool! Leave me!" she snapped, and struck the slave with all her savage +force on the cheek. Milo's face turned gray for a flashing instant, then +the doglike devotion that filled his heart shone through his eyes, and +he knelt at the furious girl's feet, his head to the ground. In a moment +he stood up and, laying a hand reverently upon Dolores's shaking +shoulders, he gazed deep into her eyes. She shivered again at the +uncanny hint of volcanic might effused by the giant—volcanic, yet +quiescent for the moment. His lips opened to speak; and she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> sprang to +the reaction. Now a fresh fury seized her at the slave's temerity; she +flung off his hand, and snatched forth her dagger.</p> + +<p>"Strike, Sultana," said Milo simply. He drew aside the strap of his +leathern tunic, baring his heart. "Strike, but first suffer thy slave to +release thee from this tomb."</p> + +<p>"Release? Tomb? What talk is this?" gasped Dolores, her dagger held +poised aloft, her lips quivering.</p> + +<p>"A tomb it is if thy servant falls, Sultana. None save I can open the +great door. Close it? Yes, any might close it. Come, I will lead thee +out of this awful presence; then at the gate thou shalt send Milo to his +master who loved him."</p> + +<p>Slowly Dolores slipped her dagger into the sheath, and her face was +bowed in confusion. All her life, the giant slave had tended her, +guarded her steps and her sleep, taught her the exercises that had made +her feared by all the turbulent crew outside; and she was now permitted +the saving grace of remembrance. She gave him her hand, and allowed him +to place it upon his head, always his favorite means of expression when +she followed an outburst of rage with contrition; and in softer tone she +begged for an answer to the riddle that had been left with her.</p> + +<p>"Come, Sultana," Milo said, once more laying a hand on her shoulder, +this time without resentment from her. "Thy father, the Red Chief, left +much to be told; I will tell thee all, but not now. Patience, princess," +he pleaded, catching the warning glint in her eyes, "dost thou hear +nothing? Listen attentively—no, not in here, outside—bend thy ear to +this tapestry; 'tis before a cunning sounding stone through which voices +may well be heard on the cliffside. Listen."</p> + +<p>Dolores listened with bad grace, for she regarded this as a subterfuge +of the giant's, and resentment was very ready to rise in her again. But +in a moment her indifference vanished; she grew alert; her body tensed, +and her limbs quivered; the glitter of a queen in righteous anger +lighted her eyes, and she raised an unnecessary hand to impress silence +upon the slave.</p> + +<p>"Hast hear this before now?" she demanded in a vibrant whisper.</p> + +<p>"Since thou entered, Sultana. It could be nothing but rebellion; yet was +I loath to burden my chief with this trouble in his hour of passage. But +I know now that it has risen to heights which demand swift action; +therefore I have made thee aware of it."</p> + +<p>"'Tis that villain Rufe again!" muttered Dolores, still pressing her ear +against the tapestry. The murmur of a hundred voices came clearly to +her, and above all sounded the high-raised shout of one who harangued +the rest. At periods the murmuring became a howl, and the triumphant +note in it left scant room for doubt as to the nature of the address. +The girl, faced with the responsibility of decided action, no longer +able to depend on the wisdom and terrible power of Red Jabez, stepped +from the wall with panting heart and parted lips, but with no trace of +fear. Uncertainty moved her; uncertainty as to the resources of the +great chamber, whose mysteries had scarcely begun to unfold for her ere +the curtain was dropped again. Her stout spirit decided for her.</p> + +<p>"Come, lead me out, Milo," she ordered, drawing herself royally erect +and slipping her dagger around nearer her hand. "We must cool that +rabble before the fire spreads further. Take a weapon, open the door, +and follow me."</p> + +<p>"It is the decision of a fit daughter of my chief," replied Milo, his +great frame expanding to the bounding energy that surged through him. +Unknown to her, his eyes had never left Dolores while she was making her +decision; now joy and ardor suffused and transfigured him. Slave he was, +yet it was he who looked the royal part in that instant.</p> + +<p>"Wait but a breath," he said, and reached in two gigantic strides a +massive oaken chest heavily fastened with wrought iron. Lifting the lid +with reverence, he took out a plain gold circlet and returned to +Dolores.</p> + +<p>"Thy father bade me make this and keep it until thou wast my Sultana, +indeed," he said. He raised the heavy, dull-gold band, and placed it +upon Dolores's brow with the courtly homage of a born noble. It fitted +to perfection—as indeed it should, since the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> loving fingers that had +fashioned it had crept around the girl's sleeping head many times to +that end—and feminine vanity would not permit Dolores to ignore the +fit. She stepped over to a long gilt-framed mirror, and her beautiful +face grew dark and her violet eyes dusky at the glorious reflection that +gazed out at her.</p> + +<p>"It is well, Milo; I thank thee," she smiled. "Now to scatter the rats +that gnaw at my walls. Lead out quickly."</p> + +<p>Milo entered the passage, raising the plated door and letting it fall +after them. He disdained to carry a weapon; but Dolores was content, for +she had witnessed what those huge hands could do. As they approached the +great stone at the entrance, the sounds outside rang through the +corridor, and the sharp reverberations that accompanied them at +intervals told of an assault on the rock itself with pikes, crowbars, or +other smaller rocks. Milo stooped to the sill of the rock, and placed +his hands beneath it.</p> + +<p>"Stand away," he whispered, and strained his arms. "Let thy servant go +out and silence this clamor—"</p> + +<p>"Open quickly!" she interrupted him, imperiously. "It is not for the +slave to precede the sovereign. Peace, and open."</p> + +<p>Her hand was on her dagger, her head was raised proudly; every inch and +line of her figure irradiated splendid strength and surety; Milo heaved +at the rock, and smiled blissfully. This was indeed how he had dreamed +of his Sultana when she should come into her own.</p> + +<p>He heaved steadily, and the great rock rose from one side, rolling up +and up until it balanced on the ledge; but Milo knew there was some +agency at work that hindered the raising of it; never before had it been +a task to bring sweat to his brow, and now he dripped from every pore. +The rock refused to balance without his hand upon it, and he dared not +take his shoulder away to look over the top lest it fall and crush him. +He cast an appealing look toward Dolores, who was impatiently waiting +for him to stand clear, and she stepped past him to the outside. She was +greeted with a roar of derision that echoed far down to the sea.</p> + +<p>"Peace, dogs of the devil!" she cried with one hand upraised. A roaring +guffaw answered her. Then a burly ruffian, one-eyed and marked by a +great cutlas-scar that ran from his chin across his broken nose and +ended somewhere among the roots of his hair, stepped forward with a +smirk of confidence, and made a mock curtsy.</p> + +<p>"Queen o' the pirates, we salute ye!" he said. Then threw away all +pretense, and swore a ripping curse to the destination of his soul. +"Come, my girl," he shouted, "the game's played to a finish. Th' old +buck is dead, an' we want some o' them pretties he hid away inside. +You're a nice gal, I don't deny, and we ain't going to harm ye if ye +don't hinder us; but we ain't playin' kings an' queens no more. Come +now, let the big feller take us in, and say no more about it, for have +our fling, we will."</p> + +<p>The mob had edged nearer, until now they surged around the entrance so +close to Dolores that she felt the breath of the leaders. She noticed +with sharp wonderment that Yellow Rufe was not among the foremost; but +she was given no time to surmise, for the mob pressed on until she was +forced either to risk an advance or give ground. A little shock rippled +through her when she turned swiftly to see how Milo fared, and found him +gone. The mob saw it, too, and seethed about her with hungry faces.</p> + +<p>"Come on, lads!" they howled. "Milo's gone inside to open up the loot +for us." A grimy hand snatched at the girl's tunic, and in a flash the +entrance was choked with fiercely striving shapes.</p> + +<p>With a gasping cry of fury Dolores struck aside the bold hand, and with +a panther-spring she was upon him. One slender, brown hand, strong as a +steel claw, gripped his throat; the other hand gripped a glittering +dagger that swept like the arrow of fate to his heart and dropped him a +log at her feet. Just for a breath the crowd paused in awe; then +hoarsely growling they packed forward again, and Dolores found herself +fighting desperately against men maddened into steel-armed wolves, +thirsty for her blood in payment for that split. She more than held her +own by sheer skill and sup<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>pleness for a space; but assailed from all +sides save the back she speedily felt her limbs growing heavy and +awkward, and a cutlas sang above her bent head when her foot had failed, +leaving her without guard or avoidance.</p> + +<p>Then she knew that she had been permitted to win her spurs. For the +threatening cutlas was caught in mid air by a huge bare hand, wrenched +from its owner's grasp, and returned point first into the assailant's +breast. And Milo's deep voice rang in her ear:</p> + +<p>"Step into the passage, Sultana, and swiftly. Have a care for the body +on the floor, but tarry not. To pause is to die!"</p> + +<p>She felt herself drawn inside, the battle seemed to leave her isolated, +the passage was as still as a cloister after the turmoil outside, and +she stumbled along in the dim red glow, barely avoiding tripping over a +body on the floor which a glance showed her to be a corpse. This was the +man who had tried to crush back the rock door on Milo.</p> + +<p>Dolores spurned the body with her foot, and abruptly turned back, in a +rage to think that she had permitted the giant slave to order her into +skulking security. She halted as swiftly as she had turned; for in the +aperture at the end of the passage the huge form of Milo stood, both +hands raised, and in them a cask was poised. A queer, spluttering sound +at first puzzled Dolores; then she made out a short, hanging fuse +depending from the cask, and it spluttered as it dwindled, flinging +sparks around the giant's bowed head until the point of fire seemed +ready to disappear in the bung-hole.</p> + +<p>"Treasure for dogs!" roared Milo. "Divide it among thee!" The great rock +thudded down as the cask hurtled out into the mob; the next instant the +cavern shook and quivered to a terrific explosion; a moment after the +earth might have been dead for all sound in the passage; yet another +moment and the outer world rang with cries and shrieks, curses and +entreaties, and Milo bowed low to his mistress and said:</p> + +<p>"Now if my Sultana deems fit, it is time to show this scum of the earth +their sovereign."</p> + +<p>"Wait, Milo," replied Dolores, shuddering slightly at sight of him. The +giant was streaked and splashed with blood; for in those moments when he +stood defenseless before casting his infernal machine, a dozen cutlases +and knives had sought his life.</p> + +<p>"Pardon thy slave," he returned, sensing her meaning. "I will go thus. +'Twere not good that these dogs should know their wounds can hurt. Such +scratches are nothing. They are paid for in full."</p> + +<p>"It is well. Lead out again, good Milo, and fear not for me. With thou +beside me I am armed in proof."</p> + +<p>Again they emerged into the air, but now a deathly silence received +them. Silence broken only by the rustling of garments, as a withered old +crone shambled forward and cast herself at Dolores's feet.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE GROVE OF MYSTERY.</h3> + + +<p>Dolores stood still, sweeping the scene of destruction with a gaze of +flinty penetration. The groveling crone at her feet affected her like +something unclean, and she spurned the old woman with her foot, stepping +aside with a gesture of disgust. Then she raised her right hand, and +cried with bitter scorn:</p> + +<p>"Come, my brave jackals! Come to the feast prepared for thee." She +lowered her hand and with a contemptuous smile indicated the gruesome +results of the explosion of Milo's awful bomb.</p> + +<p>On the edge of the forest the hardier rascals had halted; at her word +they glared loweringly at her and the impassive giant at her back; from +the shadow of the trees yellow and brown and black faces peered in +quivering terror; but none responded to her command to approach her. The +old woman on the ground alone made audible reply, and her slavish +whining enraged Dolores. With a stamp of her sandaled foot she tore from +her waist the gold cord, slipped off the dagger sheath, and fell upon +the wretched old servitor with a shower of blows.</p> + +<p>"Silence, old cat!" she cried, and the blows fell heavily. "Up with +thee, and away. Go quickly, and make ready the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> altar in the Grove of +Mystery. Cease thy bleating, old witch, and summon thy shaky wits +against the ordeal I shall put thee to. Some one among ye stirred up the +rising which resulted as ye now see. That one I shall know before +sundown, and he shall bitterly repent him. Away!"</p> + +<p>Dolores was astonished at seeing no sign of Rufe, but outwardly she +showed none of her astonishment. A more vital consideration was present +in the disobedience of the motley crew who as yet made no effort to come +to her call. Drawing herself fully erect when the old woman departed, +she again stretched out her hand and cried:</p> + +<p>"Dogs of Satan! I await your homage. Red Jabez lies dead: yet his spirit +lives in me, your queen. By so many breaths that ye flout me, by just so +many torments shall I have ye torn. Come, dogs. Kneel!"</p> + +<p>A hoarse murmur went up from the forest edge, and first one by one, then +in knots of half a score each, the negroes and half-breeds slunk into +the open and approached her with eyes full of panic. The whites, not so +susceptible to abstract influence, still hesitated, drawing near to each +other in growling consultation. Dolores gave them no sign, though she +watched them keenly from under her lowered lashes. She gave her +attention to the line of abject creatures who filed slowly past her, +each one stopping to grovel in the dust at her feet and passing on. +These Milo halted near by and herded into a shivering, frightened mob. +And Dolores's cool disregard of the whites had its calculated effect. +One by one they stepped out into the open as had the colored men; the +more timorous, or superstitious, came first, some wearing shamed grins, +others palpably impressed by the example of the others and shuffling on +their way uncomfortably. Last of all came the bolder spirits, and these +wore faces intended to express contempt, or at least sarcastic +indifference; but the faces changed invariably on closer approach to the +queen. Memory proved a stubborn master; in every man's breast +remembrance clamored to them to have a care how they bore themselves +before this beautiful fury they called queen.</p> + +<p>Still Yellow Rufe came not.</p> + +<p>When all had knelt, and all had been herded by the giant Milo in two +separate parties, the number was tallied, and of the whites, besides +Rufe, seven were missing. One lay inside the passage; of the rest there +were remains lying about the rocky wall to the cavern that might be +three men or six—human discernment could never decide which.</p> + +<p>Dolores faced her mongrel subjects again and her dark eyes blazed with +fire, her beautiful face was dark with surging blood, every line of her +lithe figure quivered as she spoke:</p> + +<p>"I seek the dog who stirred ye up to mutiny!" she cried. "Yellow Rufe, +if it be he, is not among ye, nor is he one of these carrion scattered +on the ground. If it be some other villain, him I will know before the +sun has stretched my shadow to the cliff. Deliver him up to me, and he +alone shall repay. Disobey, and every biting dog among ye shall swiftly +learn the price of disobedience. I wait."</p> + +<p>The sun was fast setting, and already the shadows had grown long. Five +minutes at most would see the shadow of Dolores's head at the base of +the great rock, and the blacks started whimpering with apprehension. +Among the whites a tremendous quiet reigned; but sullen brows here, +snarling teeth there, gave hint of their interest in the sun's progress. +Still no man spoke. Rather they looked at each other questioningly as +the minutes flew, as if the culprit were indeed not among them.</p> + +<p>But Dolores was wise beyond her years, wise with a wisdom bred of her +volcanic existence in such a station, and she refused to be hoodwinked +by the apparent absence of the man she sought. Her shadow touched the +rock, and without another second of hesitation she turned toward the +forest fringe, walking with majestic carriage and looking neither to +right nor left. She simply uttered one short sentence: "To the Grove!"</p> + +<p>Every man with dark blood in his veins followed her like a sheep, for +terrible things had been witnessed in the Grove of Mysteries: things far +beyond the understanding of such men. The sullen whites hung back<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +again, for their colder blood was not impregnated with the fears and +superstitions that exerted such tremendous sway over their colored +fellows. Still Dolores gave them never a look; she walked on, and the +forest closed behind her, as if she believed her footsteps followed by +every foot in the unruly crew.</p> + +<p>It was Milo who constituted her dependable rearguard. Milo was there, +and Milo would see to it that no skulker declined his queen's command. +There lay the reason why Dolores so placidly turned her back to men +whose dearest ambition would have been realized by the plunge of steel +between her shoulders at that moment. Milo walked around to the rear of +the hesitant mob, and without a word gripped the hindmost in his two +great hands and hurled him bodily over the heads of his mates in the +desired direction.</p> + +<p>"Swine!" swore a harelipped Mexican, whipping out his cutlas. "I'll see +your black heart for that!" and furiously made play to avenge insult to +his sorely handled fellow.</p> + +<p>The black giant turned as calmly as if his mistress had called him, and +seized the fellow's cutlas hand in one huge fist, crushing bone and +steel into gory pulp without visible effort. His lips never opened, his +tremendous chest was ruffled not one whit; Milo's eyes alone gave +warning of what he might do if occasion arose; and fooled by his obvious +carelessness, the white men closed around him, knives and cutlases +drawn, frantic for his life.</p> + +<p>They should have known better. Their lessons had been many and vivid; +but not a man of them all was of the caliber to learn from a slave. Milo +kept hold of his man's hand, and at the scrape of steel leaving +scabbard, he brought up his free hand and grasped the fellow's left +wrist. Then, springing aside with the resistless impulse of a charging +buffalo, he gained a clear space, and began to swing his victim by the +wrists.</p> + +<p>One complete circle was made with the human club, then a catlike ruffian +watched his chance and darted in with murderous knife at Milo's breast +while the dreadful club was at his back. Cool as a mountain spring, the +giant immediately let go his man, letting him fly far behind him like a +stone from a catapult. In a twinkling of an eye, the great hands that +released the one captive closed afresh on the new assailant in front, +and now the giant gave no further grace. His fingers tightened on the +man's throat and the desperate face went black. Then, keeping the fellow +ever before him, he suddenly flung him into the air by the waist, +shifting holds with tigerish swiftness, and caught him by the ankles as +he came down. He whirled the unfortunate wretch once, and three men went +down under the terrible blow; the rest scattered with furious howls, +bespattered with the blood of their comrade; but one more sight of the +unruffled giant cowed them; none attempted further knife or sword-play. +Then Milo smiled scornfully, and uttered: "Go!" and they went to the +forest like jackals before the lion. The giant saw them on their way, +and tossing his fearful weapon over the cliff, strode after them, an +awful embodiment of relentless, all but limitless strength.</p> + +<p>The forest lay hushed and dim beyond the fringe; whispering leaves and +crackling twigs sounded sharp as a shower of stones in the stillness. +Great trees reared their majestic heads to mingle their foliage and shut +out the light; every creeping, flying, walking creature seemed awed into +a vague murmuring that was deeper than silence. The Grove of Mysteries +was a semicircular space of cool, mossy sward, bowered in great trees +and tangled vine screens; its background was the bare rock of the +cliffside itself—actually, though unknown to the rabble, the outer +rocky wall of the great chamber—and against this stood the altar.</p> + +<p>The old woman had made use of her skinny limbs to good effect, impelled +by a fear that had become terror. The altar was resplendent in silk and +velvet, fashioned for an altar very different from this; but in place of +the vessels usually associated with so sacred a piece of furniture, the +Altar of the Grove was embellished with a mosaic of skulls and bones +surrounding a complete skeleton which held its head in one grisly hand.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>In the hollow eye-sockets glowed a weird fire that darted forth at +irregular intervals like glances of demoniacal hate; at the altar foot a +great censer erupted a dense cloud of pungent smoke that rendered the +altar and those about it still more vague and ghostly. And the glade was +full of cowering, slavering blacks and half-breeds, whose superstitious +terrors reached high tide with each succeeding swirl of smoke or +outflash of eye-socket fires.</p> + +<p>Dolores went directly to the old woman, who stood in cringing +subservience with a plain white garment in her hands. This she placed on +the girl's shoulders, fastening it at the bosom with a small skull of +jade stone whose grinning teeth were pearls, and whose eye-sockets were +empty with an awful blackness. The gold circlet was discarded, and in +its place Dolores placed on her head a turban formed from a stuffed +coiled snake, whose neck and head darted hither and thither on cunning +springs with her every motion and gesture.</p> + +<p>To this awesome place came the herd that Milo drove before him; and not +a man among the hardened crew was hardy enough to carry his bravado into +the Grove. Blacks and whites alike, no matter what their inmost thoughts +might be, yielded to the spell of the place the moment their feet trod +the sward and the congregation settled into the places allotted to them.</p> + +<p>Dolores glided out in front of the altar, and eyes glittered, dusky +throats went constricted and dry with terror when she stirred up the +brazier and was hidden for a moment in the rising volume of blue smoke +in which flashes of devilish light played incessantly. Milo stepped up +behind and above the altar, and as the smoke reeked about him vanished +seemingly into the face of the cliff. There, in an unsuspected outlet to +the great chamber, was the key to much of the magic with which Dolores +kept her turbulent crew on the borderline of fear. She flashed a glance +holding much of anxiety after her giant servitor, and busied herself +about the altar to gain time.</p> + +<p>She had received from his hands as he stepped up the effigy of a man in +black wax, and now she advanced with hand upraised for silence. It was +unnecessary: the silence of the dead prevailed in the Grove. With the +image held aloft Dolores was a magnet that drew all eyes inevitably. Six +inches tall, the image was a cleverly modeled composite of every type in +the motley band; and every man realized this. Placing the effigy on the +altar, Dolores seized from the brazier a glowing coal with her bare +hands and placed it behind the figure. Then she flung both hands high +and her vibrant voice pealed through the Grove.</p> + +<p>"Regard all men the voice of the gods! By this sacred fire shall this +image be melted; and when it is gone, out of its many likenesses shall +remain the shape of him who stirred ye to mutiny against me. That shape +I shall show ye by the power of my will. Lest ye disbelieve that I have +this power, behold! Look for proof in the smoke behind me!"</p> + +<p>As she spoke she stirred the incense to a dense cloud of smoke, and her +blazing eyes, turned from her people, peered through the reek for a +reassuring sign from the rock, for what she now demanded of Milo called +for superhuman swiftness and surety. As the seconds sped, she kept the +smoke swirling thickly, and her voice rang out in a weird incantation +that kept the spectators trembling with the growing suspense.</p> + +<p>Then a triumphant note entered her speech; the smoke rose thicker for an +instant, then dissolved; and as it vanished, high on the rocky cliff, +framed, as it seemed, in the solid rock itself, stood the grim, cold +figure of the dead Red Jabez.</p> + +<p>In this, her grave extremity, Milo the strong, Milo the slave, more than +all, Milo the faithful, had not failed her.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE PIRATES' BARBECUE.</h3> + + +<p>A moment of ghastly hush prevailed, then the Grove shook from sward to +tree-tops—pandemonium broke loose and all were in turmoil.</p> + +<p>No need now to wait for the verdict of the wax image; no further +shifting of brazen glances, or winking of knowing eyes. Shrill voices of +terrified blacks, hoarse bel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>lowings of the hardiest rascals who had +ever kissed a dripping cutlas, the throaty roar of men who had played +willing lieutenants to the ringleader: all pealed up to high heaven for +the culprit to come forth and taste of the queen's justice rather than +wait for her vengeance.</p> + +<p>"Rufe! Yellow Rufe!" they howled. They howled it until the forest echoed +with the word.</p> + +<p>"Peace, Devilspawn!" cried Dolores, covering the crowd with an +all-embracing smile of utter scorn. "Think ye I need to hear the name? +Go, all of ye! Fill your swinish skins with liquor, and trouble me no +more this day. When I will that Yellow Rufe appear, here he shall be +drawn, whether he will or not. And in your carousal let this thought be +with ye: Ye are dogs and slaves of dogs; by my will ye live, at my word +ye die. The Red Chief is dead; I am your law, your queen, owner of your +bodies and souls! Let any of ye seek to imitate Yellow Rufe, and Milo +shall pick your limbs apart as if ye were flies. Go now; there is rum +broached, and wine; make a barbecue, and fill yourselves to bursting +like the vultures ye are!"</p> + +<p>"Hello, lads, that's your sort!" roared a purple-faced ruffian with a +hang-lip. "A right proper gal is that. Give her a huzza and crack yer +pipes, lads!"</p> + +<p>"Bravo, Hanglip!" bellowed another of the same kidney. Spotted Dog had +lost part of an ear, and the same knife had seamed his flabby jowl into +the likeness of a bloodhound's cheek; his deeply-pitted visage completed +the ensemble, and no other name would have fitted him as well. "Bravo, +old cutthroat! Let her play queens an' fairies, if she wants to. Here's +for th' jolly grog, lads. Hey, Stumpy, start a cheer for th' pretty +wench!"</p> + +<p>So had the spell of the Grove left them immediately they smelled the +fleshpots. But Dolores still held the altar; and Stumpy, having a keener +memory perhaps than most of his fellows, took the warning that flashed +from her angry eyes. He shivered slightly as his gaze met hers, then, +hopping forward on his one good leg and club-foot, he swung a knotty +fist against Spotted Dog's creased jowl and growled:</p> + +<p>"A turn wi' that poison tongue, Spotted Dog. All hands, too, hear me +talkin'. Here's a royal feast spread for us, an' th' spreader's queen o' +th' pirates! Don't ever ferget that, lads. I ain't hankerin' fer what +Rufe'll get. Away wi' you, now, an' I'll slit th' winepipe o' th' dog as +says disrespect to th' queen."</p> + +<p>And so the rascals trooped down to their hut-village. Noisily, +profanely, full of horseplay and ear-burning jests; but never a voice +spoke any word that failed in its homage when Dolores was the theme.</p> + +<p>Snugly settled around the great rock door, the pirates' village looked +out from a broad level platform over the darkening evening sea. In the +center, its rear abutting on the rock itself, stood the great council +hall and the dwelling of Dolores. In front of this black slaves busily +heaped a great bonfire; torches were thrust into iron rings on doorpost +and tree-trunk; noisy ruffians tramped into a cool cave in the rock and +trundled forth casks and horn cups; while Sancho, the Spaniard, bent +over a whetstone, giving his knife a final edge against the arrival of +the meat.</p> + +<p>A venomous devil was this Sancho, and his contorted face, with the +missing eye covered by a black patch, worked demoniacally in the +gathering darkness with each leaping flame of the ignited torches. The +hand that clutched the knife was a thing of horror; two fingers and half +the thumb remained from some drunken brawl to serve the Spaniard in +future play for work or debauch; and the man, crouching low over his +stone, made a picture of incarnate hate that had no humor in it.</p> + +<p>"Where's th' flesh?" screamed Sancho, looking up, his mutilated thumb +running creepily along the knife-edge.</p> + +<p>"Whet your tusks, lads, here's the blessed manna!" squealed Caliban, a +hunchbacked terror, who kept his maimed carcass secure by virtue of his +viperish temper, coupled with an uncanny skill of the cutlas. "Milo's +our man! Huzza for Milo!"</p> + +<p>Out from the trees stalked the giant Abyssinian, and the shadows and +torchlight distorted him to grotesque proportions. He walked as if his +weight was nothing; yet on his great shoulders he bore a half-grown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> ox, +its feet hobbled, its tongue hanging from its panting mouth. Straight to +the fire he stepped and cast his burden down, turning again without a +word and going back to the rock portals.</p> + +<p>"Meat for men!" screamed Sancho, crouching again, knife in hand.</p> + +<p>"For men!" echoed Caliban ferociously, and whipped his cutlas out. +"Stand clear!" he howled, and Sancho dodged aside. The little terror's +blade sang through the air with a wicked whistle; it curved high over +Sancho, then flashed down and plunged through the throat of the ox, +pinning the beast to the earth. And when he recovered his breath the +Spaniard swooped upon the prize, and his knife completed what the dwarf +had well begun.</p> + +<p>Then began an orgy that must render description bald and colorless. +Casks were broached by knocking out the heads; long horns of cattle were +filled to slopping over with rare wine or powerful rum; and then up +leaped Hanglip on to an unbroached cask, cup in hand, and bellowed a +toast that set the trees, the sea, the skies clamoring with rasping +applause.</p> + +<p>"The next vessel as heaves in sight, lads! May her sails be silk, her +masts be gold, and her great cabin full o' rum, with a pretty wench +sittin' atop o' every keg!"</p> + +<p>From the fire came the odor of roasting meat, and the black night came +down outside, making of the small circle where the pirates sprawled a +blotch of infernal light, peopled with infernal shapes. But a sprinkling +of faces a shade less evil leavened the mass; for to the feast came +trooping the women of the camp: of a kidney with the men—yet women, +with women's beguilements and softnesses.</p> + +<p>Dolores sat alone in the great chamber, careless of the noise outside, +her beautiful face dark with somber passion. Beside her chair Milo had +placed her treasure chests; hers now, through the death of the terrible +old corsair who had amassed them. Idly she had heaped the table with a +glittering collection of gems that an empress might well have found +interest in; but Dolores frowned as at so much dross, for her thoughts +were far away. The filmiest of lace and silken shawls, jeweled +slippers, gossamer-gold head dresses, pearls and rubies from India and +Persia—all lay in confusion at her hand, and aroused no spark of joy in +her breast. From time to time her brooding eyes flashed and fastened +upon a priceless Rembrandt "Laughing Cavalier" on the wall opposite; +they flashed again when her gaze shifted to a colossal Rubens "Rape of +the Sabines"; her face lighted for an instant when her fingers in +groping closed upon a cobwebby golden net, scintillating with cunningly +wrought jeweled insects caught in the meshes, which had once graced the +all-powerful head of Pompadour.</p> + +<p>"Where such things are, are better!" she whispered vehemently, clenching +her strong, slender hands fiercely. "Where such are fashioned and worn +there are people worthy my power. My people! Pah!" she burst out +passionately. "My people? Dogs! Cattle! Brutes without souls! There—" +she flung a hand impetuously toward the "Laughing Cavalier"—"there is +the pirate who should call me queen! There"—with a gesture toward +Rubens's great canvas—"are men that I would command. Here, I must stay, +why? Because a dead man willed it so. May I wither eternally if I make +not my own laws. Milo!"</p> + +<p>She clapped her hands, and in a moment the giant was before her, +reverent awe in every line of his huge body.</p> + +<p>"Sultana?"</p> + +<p>"Are my beasts well fed?"</p> + +<p>"They eat like crocodiles, guzzle like swine, Sultana."</p> + +<p>"See that the liquor flows freely, Milo. And a word in thy ear. We shall +go from here as quickly as the fates will send a ship. Let no sail pass +henceforth."</p> + +<p>"Lady, that may not be—"</p> + +<p>"Silence! Give me no may not! When I, Dolores, will to go, who shall +stay me?"</p> + +<p>"Death lies beyond the horizon for thee as for all of us, Sultana. +Pirate the Red Chief was last of the band; every man who calls thee +queen is under sentence of death; the pillage of a hundred ships lies +here. Here is safety. The Red Chief's law—"</p> + +<p>"Peace! I am the law! Seek me that ship—and quickly. Shall I live among +such carrion, when the world is peopled with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> such as those?" she cried +with a sweeping gesture toward a life-size "Three Graces," by Correggio, +epitomizing feminine grace indeed.</p> + +<p>"Thou art fairer, Sultana," replied the giant simply; and the girl +flushed warmly for all her moody dissatisfaction. She smiled kindly upon +the slave, and said more softly: "Thy devotion pleases me, Milo. Yet is +my will unchanged. Seek me that ship. I will go from here. Stay, if thou +wilt, or art afraid."</p> + +<p>"Lady," returned the giant, "when the Red Chief, thy father, took me +from the slave ship he gave me liberty—liberty to serve him. He has +gone; my care is now the queen, his daughter. Going or staying, Milo +remains thy bodyguard. Pardon if I offended thee; thy father desired +what I have told thee. But the ship. This evening, at sundown, a sail +leaped in sight beyond the Tongue."</p> + +<p>"This evening! And ye said no word of it?" cried Dolores, blazing with +fresh anger. She leaned forward in her chair as if crouching for a +spring.</p> + +<p>"It passed as swiftly as it appeared, Sultana. No other eye save mine +saw it; the men know nothing—"</p> + +<p>"It is well, Milo. I had forgotten thy eyes were twice as keen as any +other man's. Keep that condor's vision of thine bent to seaward, and +tell no man of what comes into view. Bring me the news; I shall know how +to keep my rascals in hand. Now go and send to me a woman to serve me: a +young woman, nimble and deft; give the old woman to the cooks for +scullery drudge."</p> + +<p>"A woman here, Sultana?"</p> + +<p>"Here! What bee buzzes in thy great head now?" The giant again looked +grave; the girl's impatience surged anew.</p> + +<p>"Sultana, don't forget that, save thee and me, servant of the great +chamber, none may enter here and go alive?"</p> + +<p>"Now by the fiend, enough!" blazed the girl. "Again, I am the law! Wilt +have it imprinted on thy great body with my whip?"</p> + +<p>Milo made a low obeisance, departed without further speech, and in a few +moments ushered in from the bacchanalian revels a maid for his +mistress.</p> + +<p>"Pascherette will serve thee well, Sultana," he said, leading the girl +forward. He saw approval in Dolores's face and departed, his luminous +black eyes unwontedly soft and limpid.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">MILO SIGHTS A SAIL.</h3> + + +<p>Day broke through a silver haze, and as the blue sea unrolled to view, +far down to the southeast, flashed a pearly sliver of sail lazily +drawing in to the coast. It was the merest streak of white against the +sky, and none but Milo's sharp eyes could have seen it. Even at that +distance, and indistinct though it was in the mist, the giant detected +the three masts crossed with yards that proclaimed the vessel a +full-rigged ship. He gazed long and earnestly, to assure himself of the +ship's progress, then hurried along the mountain toward the village.</p> + +<p>He strode with the free stride of a perfect creature, swinging from the +hip and covering the ground at a common man's running pace. His vast +chest heaved and fell easily and rhythmically, the golden-hued skin +rippling and flashing in the rising sunlight; every line of limbs and +torso was the outward and visible sign of abounding health; the straight +black hair falling to his shoulders framed a keen, powerful face of +Semitic mold, in which the high brow and calm, fearless eyes belonged +rather to one of the blood-royal than to a slave. And rightly, too, for +Milo, the giant, was of princely line in his own land, and his present +servitude was an accident that had yet failed to rob him of his +birthright of dignity.</p> + +<p>He came abreast of and above the haven where lay the stout sloop and +boats of the community, and the sounds of noisy industry about the craft +brought a frown and a sneer to his face. It reminded him too vividly of +his actual station, and violently dragged him back from the realm of +visions he had allowed himself to indulge in. The pirates were busily +overhauling their gear, filling water casks, calking dried-out seams, +and sluicing opening decks with copious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> streams of water, just as they +were used to do in the palmy days when Red Jabez kept them gorged with +pillage.</p> + +<p>Milo hurried faster, for he feared they too had sighted his ship, and +sprang down to the shore to accost surly Caliban.</p> + +<p>"Here, Milo old buck, stick yer beak into this, lad!" screamed Caliban, +thrusting forward a brimming horn of wine. The giant declined +impatiently, waving a hand toward the activity afoot.</p> + +<p>"What, won't drink luck, hey?" cried the dwarf, emptying the horn +himself. "Ain't got the news yet, hey?"</p> + +<p>"News? What news can such as thee have that I am not told?" demanded +Milo contemptuously. Caliban scowled viciously at his tone, but the +giant's hands were strong, and the little ruffian loved his warped life. +He flung down his horn and retorted: "We're to windward o' ye this time, +Milo me lad. Th' queen bade us be ready for a lamb headed this way, an', +sure enough, there comes a craft now, a'most in sight from here. Small +fish, true, but sweet after so long a spell o' famine."</p> + +<p>Milo knew that the ship he had seen could not possibly have been +detected from the village. It must be yet another craft, and, without a +word, he bounded back up the cliff and scanned the waters closer +inshore. There, sure enough, lay a beautiful white schooner, her paint +dazzling to the eye, her decks flashing with metal, her canvas faultless +in fit and set and whiteness. She was still five miles distant and +slowly edging along the coast, as if indifferent to her tardy progress. +The giant noted her exact position, then presented himself to Dolores.</p> + +<p>The girl was luxuriously submitting to the skilful attentions of +Pascherette; her wealth of lustrous hair enveloped her like a veil, +rendering almost superfluous the filmy silken robe she had donned. But +at sight of Milo all her feline contentment fled, and she thrust the +maid from her and stood up to receive his report.</p> + +<p>"A ship?" she flashed.</p> + +<p>"Two, Sultana. The men make ready now."</p> + +<p>"The men? Dolt! Did I not tell thee to keep such news for me?"</p> + +<p>"They saw the small vessel while I was beyond the Tongue. They have not +seen the ship I saw, nor have I told them. It is a great ship, lady; +theirs is but a small, poor thing."</p> + +<p>"I will see it." Dolores suddenly remembered the maid, whose presence +she had ignored. Pascherette stood apart, a small, fairylike French +octoroon, dainty as a golden thistledown; her full red lips were parted +in eager inquisitiveness, and her slim, small body leaned forward, as if +to catch every word; but at sight of her Dolores burst into knowing +merriment, for the girl's eyes told her story. They were fastened in +intense, burning adoration, not on the mistress but on Milo, the giant +slave.</p> + +<p>"La-la, chit!" Dolores cried; "keep thy black eyes from my property." +But more weighty matters than a maid's fluttering bosom demanded her +attention, and she commanded sharply: "Milo, summon the men to the +council hall at once. Let none be absent. Go swiftly!" Milo went, and +Dolores flashed around on Pascherette again: "And thou, hussy, take this +clinging frippery from me and give me my tunic. And, mark me, girl, thy +eyes and ears belong to me. Thy tongue, too. Let that tongue utter one +word of what those eyes see, those ears hear, and it shall be plucked +from thy pretty mouth with hot pincers. Remember!"</p> + +<p>Dolores put on her tunic and swept out to steal a long look at the white +schooner before entering the hall.</p> + +<p>Into the council hall the pirates came trooping, tarry, wet, soiled with +the estuary mud as they were, and stood in a milling mob awaiting speech +from Dolores, who entered from the rear and scanned their faces closely. +Shuffling feet and whistling breath would not be stilled, even in her +presence, for their appetites were already whetted for a victim, and the +fumes of the previous night's debauch lingered. They glared at the girl +and cursed impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Hear!" commanded Dolores with an imperious gesture, and every sound was +muffled, not stilled. "Hear, my brave jackals! For long ye have hungered +for employment fit for the royal corsairs ye are. Now the meal is to +hand." The hall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> reverberated with the clamor that went up. Cutlases +scraped from their scabbards and swished aloft; bold Spotted Dog +snatched out his great horse-pistol and blazed into the floor, filling +the place with acrid smoke and noise. Dolores's eyes flashed angrily; +she governed her fury, and went on when the uproar subsided: "Your boats +are ready?"</p> + +<p>"Ready and rotting wi' idleness!" roared Hanglip.</p> + +<p>"And ye purpose wasting powder and shot on some paltry craft of the +islands! Wait, my brave lads, I have better game at hand!"</p> + +<p>Now the crowd was hushed in earnest, for none of them saw more than a +frolic coming from such a small craft as the schooner. The girl went on +to tell them of the big ship that Milo had seen, and she painted it a +rich West Indiaman, loaded to the hatches with rum and powder, gold and +jewels, delicate meats and—with emphasis which she carefully cloaked +yet made vivid—dainty ladies, no doubt.</p> + +<p>"Take ye the sloop, then," she commanded, "and bring me no tale of +failure. Ten miles southwest from the bluff she lies becalmed. Let no +man return without tribute for me. Go now!"</p> + +<p>With a whoop the evil ruffians tumbled out, hurling themselves pell-mell +down to the shore, and splashing out to the boats. Their sloop, a long, +beamy Cayman-built craft, of eighty tons and twelve murderous guns that +were cast for a king's ship, could be handled by four men or a hundred. +She carried fifty men now, and she sped out of the estuary before the +faint breeze with a velocity that spelled certain doom for any +square-rigged ship she ever lifted over the horizon.</p> + +<p>Dolores watched them go with inscrutable face; then commanded Milo to +attend her in the great chamber. Pascherette, not yet over her fright, +hovered tremblingly near, and her mistress dismissed her with a +pacifying pat on the head, flinging, at the same time, a string of +pearls around her neck that brought mingled gratitude, greed, and +conceit into her sparkling eyes.</p> + +<p>"How stands the schooner now?" Dolores asked when the girl had gone.</p> + +<p>"She drifts slowly, Sultana. There is little wind. Yet she ever comes +nearer."</p> + +<p>"Milo, that is my ship!" breathed Dolores fervidly. "I have jewels and +silken trash, the richest in my store, which my father told me were +taken from such a vessel. A yacht, he called that craft. 'Tis sailed for +pleasure; trade never soils the holds of such craft; men who sail such a +vessel as that which now hovers near us are of the kind from which comes +such as that!" Once more she indicated the "Laughing Cavalier," and now +her form and face were filled with surging ambition strengthened with +ardent hope.</p> + +<p>"How goes our sloop?" she asked abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Swiftly, but with the dying breath of the wind. By noon she will be +swinging idly, Sultana."</p> + +<p>"Who of the boldest rascals remain with us?"</p> + +<p>"The noisiest dogs have gone. Sancho remains, for Stumpy cracked his +head last night in a brawl. The others here are but cattle!" The giant +uttered the words with bitter scorn.</p> + +<p>"Then, at noon, Milo, we move to secure my ship!" Dolores cried with +gleaming eyes. "Set slaves to move out the false Point and anchor it a +cable-length off the true. I will have a plan then to lure the schooner +on. We must not let her escape, Milo!"</p> + +<p>"Pardon, lady, I know a way!"</p> + +<p>"And that?"</p> + +<p>"I will swim to the schooner and command them to thy presence."</p> + +<p>Dolores smiled whimsically, for she was too wise to be ignorant of the +fact that such men as were in that schooner must first be caught before +they might be commanded. Yet the giant's plan suggested another to her.</p> + +<p>"Hear my plan," she said. "That chit—Pascherette—she's a dainty minx! +Does she swim?"</p> + +<p>"Like a conger, Sultana!" Milo's face lighted warmly, and Dolores +shrewdly guessed then that the petite octoroon's regard for the giant +was not altogether unrequited.</p> + +<p>"Then carry her abreast of the vessel,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> quickly, and bid her swim out to +it. Let her use some of the cunning that is in her pretty little head, +and make them wonder what else our island has to offer in dainties. +Then, ere evening, I shall have work for thee that shall complete what +Pascherette begins. Command the minx to bring forth all her fascinations +and allurements. Nay, friend, have no fear for thy sweetheart. I warrant +thee she can care for herself, if she will. Go! It is my command!"</p> + +<p>Milo departed, and Dolores went out to the Grove, climbed nimbly to the +cliff-top, and sat down to watch. She had a clear view of the schooner +now winging lazily along three miles away and a mile off shore; the +shore, from the point where her rascals were even now towing out a great +mass of interlaced trees and foliage planted upon stout logs to form a +false point, right along to abreast of the schooner, lay immediately +beneath her eye; the blue sea glittered and flashed under the hot sun, +unruffled by wind, and only bursting into a long line of creamy foam, +where it licked the golden sands. The tall palms nodded languorously, +their deep green heads faintly chafing like sleeping crickets; the +tinkle of the sands came up to her ears like tiny bells.</p> + +<p>Dolores followed with her eyes two swiftly moving figures on the shore +path, hidden from the ocean by a mass of verdure, and she smiled +cryptically. The giant Milo strode on his way like the embodiment of +force; at his side tripped Pascherette, her glossy black crown barely +reaching above his waist, her tiny hand hidden completely in his great +fist. And she kept her bright eyes raised to his great height all the +while, satisfied that her little feet should trip, perhaps, if only her +eyes tripped not from his face.</p> + +<p>Presently they stopped, and Dolores stood up alertly. There was but a +moment's delay, while Pascherette bound her hair more securely; then, +with a flirting hand-wave, the little octoroon darted from Milo, +wriggled through the bushes, and ran lightly down to the sea. In another +moment her small, black head was moving rapidly toward the schooner, her +golden skin flashing warmly in the sun as her arms swept over and over +in an adept stroke that carried her forward with the speed of a fish.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE PARTY FROM THE YACHT.</h3> + + +<p>The schooner yacht Feu Follette swam sluggishly along shore, her lofty +canvas flapping in the faint air. On her spotless quarter-deck, Rupert +Venner, wealthy idler and owner of the vessel, lounged in a deck-chair a +picture of the utter finality of boredom. His guests, Craik Tomlin and +John Pearse, made perfunctory pretense of admiring the lovely coast +scenery along the port hand; but their air was that of men surfeited +with sights, tired of the languorous calm, <i>blasé</i> of life.</p> + +<p>The schooner's appointments typified money in abundance. From forecastle +capstan to binnacle she glowed and glittered with massive brass and +ornate gilding; along the waist six burnished-bronze cannon stood on +heavily carved carriages, lashings and breechings as white as a shark's +tooth; over the quarter-deck double awnings gave ample clearance to the +swing of the main boom—the outer of dazzling white canvas, the inner of +richest, striped silk-and-cotton mixture. The open doors of the +deckhouse companion revealed an interior of ivory paneling touched with +gold, and hung with heavy velvet punkahs. The walls were embellished +with exactly the right number of art gems to establish the artistic +perception of the owner and to whet the expectation for more yet unseen. +But, with all this, the Feu Follette housed a discontented master and +discontented guests.</p> + +<p>"Oh, for a breeze!" grumbled Pearse, breaking in on the frowning +silence. "How much longer are we to drift around these stagnant seas, +Venner?"</p> + +<p>"The very next slant of wind shall wing us homeward," replied Venner +dreamily. "I, too, am sick of the cruise and its deadly monotony."</p> + +<p>Again silence, marred only by creak of gear and flap of idle sails. The +schooner barely moved now, though the western sky held promise of a +breeze later on. Then came a cry from one of the negro crew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> forward, +and its tenor stirred the party into mild interest.</p> + +<p>"De debbil, ef 'tain't one o' dem marmaids! Oh, Cæsar!"</p> + +<p>A ripple of panting laughter alongside brought Venner and his guests to +the rail in haste, and gone to the windless heavens was their <i>ennui</i>. A +gleaming, gold-tinted creature, a miniature model of Aphrodite surely, +arose from the blue sea and climbed nimbly into the main channels and +thence to the deck, where little pools of water dripped from the radiant +figure. She shook her small head saucily, and heavy masses of raven-wing +hair tumbled about her, provokingly cloaking the charms so boldly +outlined by her single saturated tunic of fine silk.</p> + +<p>"Who in paradise may you be?" ejaculated Venner, while his friends +stared with unconscious rudeness.</p> + +<p>"I? I am Pascherette!" laughed the small vision, and her black eyes +sparkled impudently.</p> + +<p>"Pascherette!" echoed Tomlin, bewildered. "Does Jamaica hold such +beauties?" He awkwardly brought forward a deck-chair, while Pearse stood +by in speechless amazement. Venner, as better became the host, ordered a +steward to bring a wrap for the astounding visitor, but the girl laughed +provokingly and declined both.</p> + +<p>"It is not for such as I, fine gentlemen," she said, and her sharp eyes +were roving busily about the schooner, appraising values like a +veritable pirate. "Keep thy courtesies for better than I."</p> + +<p>"Better than you, girl?" Venner's tone was incredulous. He was taking +mental stock of the priceless pearls about Pascherette's dainty throat. +"To be found here?"</p> + +<p>"If not here, where shall ye find such a one as my mistress?" +Pascherette retorted saucily.</p> + +<p>"Your mistress?"</p> + +<p>"Without doubt. I am but a slave, my lady is the queen, Dolores."</p> + +<p>"A queen—a white woman?" stammered Venner.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Venner, let us look into this!" exclaimed Pearse with unconcealed +curiosity.</p> + +<p>"Just what we have prayed for!" Tomlin supplemented eagerly. "Anchor, +Venner, like a good fellow. A jaunt ashore will brace us all up."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" objected the owner, albeit with a good trace of +inquisitiveness himself. "The breeze will come by evening; and who knows +what this coast harbors? A bad name sticks to this shore."</p> + +<p>Pascherette had wandered forward, and between sly glances aft and keen +scrutiny shoreward, she flung seductive smiles broadcast at the grinning +crew, prattling prettily to officer and man alike, as if she were indeed +a stranger to the ways of shipboard. While she made her rounds the party +aft entered into a warm dispute; their curiosity was whetted, but not +sufficiently in Venner's case, to whom the safety of the yacht was +paramount just then. They wrangled for half an hour, and the schooner +drifted on until she was within a mile or so of the outflung false +Point. Then they were again startled out of their self-possession—this +time by a cry from the girl who leaned over the bulwarks a picture of +ardent admiration for something in the water.</p> + +<p>Double awnings and snowy hammock-cloths restricted the view shoreward +from the quarter-deck chairs, and surprise as deep as that which greeted +the girl surged through the disputing three at a great splashing over +the side, accompanied by the boom of a voice that must come from a +powerful, free-breathing chest.</p> + +<p>"Room for Milo, servant of Dolores!" the hail rang out, and by the same +means as Pascherette had used, up climbed Milo, to stand motionless +before the white men, an astounding and awe-inspiring shape.</p> + +<p>"Another slave of the mysterious queen?" demanded Venner, when recovered +from his astonishment. "It gets interesting, gentlemen. And what is your +errand, Goliath?" he inquired of Milo.</p> + +<p>"I know no Goliath. I am Milo. I come to summon ye to the presence of my +queen," returned the giant with as much unconcern as if he were inviting +the pirates to a barbecue.</p> + +<p>A titter of amusement passed over the three yachtsmen. It was tinged +with resentment, though, and only curiosity, aroused by shock upon +shock, prevented<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> an angry rejoinder to Milo's speech that could only +have ended one way: in physical damage to three idle gentlemen of wealth +and pleasure.</p> + +<p>"A summons, hey?" scoffed Tomlin. "Your queen values her rank, I think." +A dangerous gleam crept into Milo's eyes, and Pearse detected it in +time. "Venner," he said quietly, "you cannot let this adventure pass. +Here's every element of sport held up to us. Let us obey this command, +and get at least a thrill out of this humdrum cruise."</p> + +<p>Venner was thinking of many things, and his mind needed little making +up. He had never lost sight of those pearls of Pascherette's; his eye +could not be deceived; they were priceless. And Pearse had not failed to +notice the green jade skull-charm that depended from Milo's columnar +neck, a jade skull with pearls for teeth like the altar brooch of +Dolores. And Tomlin, for all his expressed scorn, was tingling with +ardent desire for such piquant beauty and vivacity as Pascherette's. If +such a creature were the slave, then what could the mistress be? He +assumed a more complaisant attitude, and added his vote: "A good way of +passing away this odious calm spell, Venner. Let us go."</p> + +<p>"Where is this great queen, my Colossus?" Venner asked.</p> + +<p>"I will lead thee to her presence," replied Milo. "Thy boat will take us +there in a few moments. Further on, beyond that point, the ship may lie +safely in the haven."</p> + +<p>Venner called his sailing master, and together they examined the chart. +It showed a sand-bar stretching off the point, a deep-water channel, +narrow but accessible, close to.</p> + +<p>"You can work into that anchorage?" asked Venner.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, if the air don't die away altogether. It seems good ground by +the chart."</p> + +<p>"Then carry the schooner in and bring up. Call away my cutter, and"—in +an undertone—"keep a good watch, Peters, this is an evil coast."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The shrill pipes reverberated under the awnings, and sailors, neat and +trim in white uniforms that contrasted beautifully with their dark +skins, ran to man the graceful white cutter. Pascherette sat in the +stern-sheets, cuddled up like a pretty kitten on a crimson silk cushion, +and Milo stood erect, as firm as if on solid ground, between passengers +and rowers as the boat sped shoreward. As the two craft separated the +schooner stood out in veritable beauty, an exquisite thing of gold and +ivory, pearl and rose. Venner's eyes lighted with pride at sight of her. +Even a long, eventless cruise had not killed the artist in him. He +touched Milo softly on the thigh and said with a smile:</p> + +<p>"Has your queen anything like that, my friend?"</p> + +<p>Milo cast a disdainful glance at the yacht, abruptly turned away again, +and replied shortly: "That is nothing."</p> + +<p>"Nothing!" said Venner. "Then where have you seen daintier work of men's +hands and brains?"</p> + +<p>"Thou shall see. Thy ship is a petty thing."</p> + +<p>"Now, by Heaven, Venner, he has you there!" laughed Tomlin, never +ceasing for a moment from ogling Pascherette, who purred with +contentment and smiled slyly at the frown that came to Milo's face.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, a poor thing!" laughed Pascherette, hugging her knees and +rippling over with amusement. "My mistress is a great queen. +These"—touching her pearls—"thy rigging could be formed of such, if my +queen willed."</p> + +<p>"And in the house of such a great queen, my girl, are doubtless other +things of beauty and worth?" put in Venner with growing sarcasm.</p> + +<p>"As witness this pretty wench!" smiled Tomlin, striving to fix the +girl's capricious attention, which persisted in flying ever to Milo.</p> + +<p>"Patience," returned Milo. "Do ye know of anything of untold worth—my +queen has that which will buy it? Have ye seen a thing of peerless +beauty—in my queen's house are many of its peers! Patience!"</p> + +<p>No word more would the giant utter. Like a bronze statue he stood erect, +guid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>ing the cutter to a small landing with a silent gesture. And as the +boat swept alongside and the yachtsmen began to experience the thrill of +near expectancy, Pearse caught sight of a knot of men loitering on the +nearby slopes, and their appearance startled him.</p> + +<p>"Good Lord, look at those piratical ruffians!" he cried.</p> + +<p>His companions started, and doubt came into their faces. Then +Pascherette arose from her seat and pressed near to Tomlin, with an +insinuating, caressing movement; and that ardent gentleman exclaimed +impatiently: "Oh, never mind their looks! Come on Venner! This is what +I've dreamed of all my life! Come on!"</p> + +<p>Milo touched Pearse's arm, said briefly, "Come!" and that reluctant +visitor stepped ashore; while Venner, after a little twinge of +misgiving, succumbed to his curiosity regarding the hidden glories of +this strange realm, and followed the great black readily enough.</p> + +<p>Up the cliff they followed Milo, Pascherette running ahead and looking +backward ever and again with a seductive gesture of invitation; and in +good time they stood before the council hall, the loitering pirates +staring at them wonderingly, and from them to the graceful white +schooner just then entering the narrow channel.</p> + +<p>"Enter!" said Milo, and stood aside at the open door.</p> + +<p>The interior was dark and awfully still, and the three white men paused +on the threshold doubtfully, regarding each other with half-ashamed +faces.</p> + +<p>"Enter!" reiterated Milo, and curiosity got the better of them, for a +swirl of fragrance eddied out to them, and one by one, until the hall +was dotted with them, ruby and amber lights twinkled before them, +seeming to beckon them on to something mysterious in the shadows beyond +the soft lights.</p> + +<p>"Neck or nothing!" muttered Venner, leading the way. His friends +followed in silence. Then the doors closed behind them; but fear, doubt, +unbelief, all went to the winds at the spectacle that slowly unfolded +itself before their gaze.</p> + +<p>"Cleopatra reincarnated, by God!" gasped Venner. His friends could find +no words to express their sensations in that moment.</p> + +<p>Dolores glided out from the heavy hangings behind her chair of state, +and stood, a vision of majestic loveliness, on the dais. Clad in her +short tunic, her hair bound to her brow by the gold circlet that Milo +had made, she had calculated effects with the art of a Circe. Her +rounded arms and bare shoulders, faultless throat and swelling bosom, +radiant enough in their own fair perfection, she had embellished with +such jewels as subtly served to accentuate even that perfection. Upon +one polished forearm a bracelet was pressed, a gaud formed from one +immense emerald cut in a fashion that forced one to doubt the existence +of such a cutter in mortal form. About her neck a rope of exquisitely +matched black pearls supported a single uncut emerald which might have +been born in the same matrix with that on her arm. Her red leather +sandals were fastened, and her ankles crisscrossed, with such bands of +glittering fire as a goddess might have stolen from the belt of Orion.</p> + +<p>These things were revealed gradually by cunningly manipulated light +effects until Dolores blazed out entire before her stupefied guests. +They, seeking for relief from the spell, sought in her face some answer +to the riddle; but her expression was that of a being apart: +tantalizingly, inscrutably indifferent to their presence. Then Milo +advanced, prostrated himself before her, and reported his errand done. +"Rise, Milo, and I thank thee," she said, and her soft, yet vibrant, +voice sent a thrill through her waiting guests. Dolores waved a hand +toward the door. "Send Sancho in to me at once, Milo, and do ye watch +for the return of my wolves."</p> + +<p>The giant went out; yet the calm face of Dolores gave no relief to the +three yachtsmen; uneasiness began to sit heavily upon them, and it was +not lessened by the entry of Sancho, for such an awful impersonation of +evil in one man they had never seen before.</p> + +<p>"Sancho," Dolores commanded him, "it is my will that the vessel now +entering my haven be cared for as mine. See to it!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>"The lads are hungry, lady; it is long since they tasted such—" Sancho +snarled his protest with wickedly curling lips that revealed ragged +yellow fangs. Dolores stared him down with blazing eyes, held his gaze +for a breath and uttered: "Go! See to it! Thy life is the bond!" and +Sancho slunk out like a whipped cur.</p> + +<p>There was an uncanny hint of dynamic force in the girl's swift +assumption of authority, and Tomlin found his throat very dry despite +the fact that he was drinking greedily of her beauty. Venner stole a +look at Pearse, and saw in that gentleman a reflection of his own rising +uneasiness. And then, at that instant of shivery doubt, Dolores smiled +at them; and in that same instant three men, with immortal souls, forgot +everything of the world and affairs in the mad intoxication of her +charm.</p> + +<p>"Welcome, sirs," she smiled, and stepped down to offer each a hand in +turn—not in handshake, but with an air that said plainly homage was due +to her; and whether he would or not, each of her guests raised the hand +to his lips with reverence.</p> + +<p>"What is your pleasure, lady?" asked Venner quietly. He was resolved to +show his friends the way into this magnificent creature's intimate +confidence; and the resolution promised interesting developments, for +each of his friends nursed a similar one. There was, even now, less of +comradeship in the looks with which the friends regarded each other. If +Dolores detected this, she made no sign. She gave a hand to Venner, led +him to the door, and smiled invitation to the others. They followed +hungrily.</p> + +<p>"I will give thee food and wine," she said; "then I have much to say to +thee. I have commanded that thy ship and thy men be cared for; to-night +ye are my guests. Come! But first give me thy swords. Thou'rt with +friends." They complied dumbly, dazed by her radiant charm.</p> + +<p>They stepped outside into the glaring sunlight; a light breeze was now +singing in the tall palms and making silvery music of the wavelets along +the shore; far away to the southwest a sliver of sail was in sight, and +to a practised eye could be made out as the pirate sloop returning. +Dolores glanced swiftly around, seeking some evidence that her commands +to Sancho were being obeyed; but she saw no man—no figure save the +ancient crone she had discarded and sent to the drudgery of the kitchen. +With a keen sidelong glance she saw that the schooner was heavily +grounded on the Point; a second glance told her that her guests were +thinking little of the schooner, for their eyes never left her face. But +notice was forced upon them, and the reason for the camp's desertion +impressed upon her, by the weird, drawn-out scream of jubilation that +issued from the old woman's withered throat an instant before her old +eyes gave her sight of her mistress and froze the cry at her lips.</p> + +<p>"Ha, ha, ha!" she shrieked, waving skinny arms. "That's the way Red +Jabez taught his lambs! Flesh your blade, my bully Rufe, and bring me +some of the meat!"</p> + +<p>Abruptly Dolores's guests swung around to follow the direction of the +old woman's arm, and the girl darted a look of fury at the scene. Out +from the point poured Yellow Rufe and a horde of strange mulattos and +blacks, and shots crackled from the schooner's rails. On the little bay +two boats filled with Sancho and his men pulled frantically toward the +fight, and the haven rang with howls of gleeful anticipation. Venner +uttered a smoking oath, and clutched Tomlin and Pearse by the arms.</p> + +<p>"Come fellows!" he cried. "This is treachery!"</p> + +<p>"Treachery? Ye wrong me, sirs!" Dolores's soft voice halted them. They +stared at her, and she gave them back look for look until she saw the +blood surge back to their faces and their eyes lose their hardness. Then +she laughed, low and sweet, and waved them back.</p> + +<p>"Wait. I shall preserve thy ship, and give thee back an eye for an eye +if thy men are harmed. Trust me, will ye not?" She paused a moment to +thrill them with her eyes; they stayed. They she sped down the cliff +like a deer.</p> + + +<p class="continue">TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="Part_II" id="Part_II"></a>The Pirate Woman</h1> + +<h2>by Captain Dingle</h2> + +<p class="center"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[Pg 466]</a></span>Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc.</p> + +<p class="continue2">This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2.</p> + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE ATTACK ON THE FEU FOLLETTE.</h3> + + +<p>By means of the floating blind the Point had been carried out across the +narrow channel until its edge rested on the bar; and the schooner lay +with a heavy list broadside on to the hard sand. Yellow Rufe and his +followers, runaways from the pirates' camp, maroons banished from their +homes for crimes against their fellows, rebellious slaves, and what not, +splashed through the shallow water and stormed the Feu Follette by way +of the jib-boom and head-rigging, while Sancho urged his boats on toward +the vessel's quarters.</p> + +<p>Dolores, uncertain yet as to Sancho's motives, but in no uncertainty as +to Rufe's, paused but to look around for Milo as she leaped down the +cliff. The giant was even then engaged in thwarting an inclination on +the part of the yachtsmen to follow Dolores, for, her spell gone for the +moment, Venner felt all an owner's solicitude for his property. But Milo +had been well schooled;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[Pg 467]</a></span> he knew how to play upon little weaknesses; +Pascherette had told him, if he had not seen for himself, how +amorousness and cupidity formed the key-note of character in the +visitors; and now he used the knowledge to the fullest extent. The +little octoroon appeared as Dolores watched; she had hastily attired +herself in dry clothes, a single garment more filmy and daring than that +she had worn to swim aboard the schooner, and from her mistress's store +had borrowed jewels that transformed her into a beautiful little golden +butterfly.</p> + +<p>Dolores saw all this in a flash; she saw Pascherette take capable charge +of the three men, led them away from the cliff, and then Milo advanced +to the steep path. Turning swiftly to resume her career, Dolores uttered +a shrill, piercing cry that the giant understood perfectly, and she +plunged into the sea as he bounded down the slope to her support.</p> + +<p>The schooner's crew were already hard pressed; but they fought like men, +led courageously by Peters, the sailing master. As Dolores cleft the +sparkling water, speeding out to them like a gorgeous sprite of the +waves, men tugged at gun-tackles to swing a piece around to rake their +own decks, for Yellow Rufe and his ruffians had swept the forecastle +clear of defenders. And Dolores reached the vessel, climbed over the +low-listing rail nimbly as a jungle cat, at the instant when Sancho's +boats hooked on to the main-chains and took the crew in the rear.</p> + +<p>The pirate queen stood for a single long breath to grasp the scene in +its entirety. Panting slightly from her exertions, her blazing eyes and +heaving breast rendered her a figure of bewildering and awful +loveliness; and the Feu Follette's men paused in the fight out of sheer +amazement.</p> + +<p>Sancho's gaze fell on her the moment his evil head topped the rail, and +into his eyes crept an expression of detected insubordination. He sought +Yellow Rufe, but Dolores had seen all she needed to apprise her that +this was a concerted attempt to flout her authority. Then Rufe's hoarse +roar went up, and the tide of struggling men surged anew, and Sancho, +plucking up heart, rejoined with a scream.</p> + +<p>"Into the sea with the dogs!" he cried. "'Tis such a craft as Jabez +would love to see ye carry."</p> + +<p>The fight rolled aft, and Dolores was left standing alone by the midship +shot-rack. She singled out a few of her men by name, and commanded them +to rally to her side; then, seizing a cutlas from the deck, she glided +tigerishly to the main companionway, down which the pirates were now +driving the beaten crew, and the men she had picked out were shorn of +all indecision as Milo leaped on board with a bull-throated shout and +gained her side.</p> + +<p>"Sancho! Rufe! Have done with this play!" she cried, placing herself in +front of the blood-hungry horde. "Dogs, fall back! Have ye no memory +that ye forget how Dolores strikes?"</p> + +<p>Milo had picked up a handspike, and with it across his breast he bore +back the scowling rascals, smiling the while himself with quiet +contempt. But one, hardier than the rest, ran to the skylight, dashed in +the glass with his boot, and cried with outflung arm:</p> + +<p>"A plague upon her and her strokes. See yonder, lads—her cunning +trick—our sloop comes back empty-handed, as she well knew it would—and +here lies to your hands work that the Red Chief had reveled in. Down +with her and the big bull! Below is loot fit for bold fellows."</p> + +<p>Without moving from where he stood, Milo pivoted around, the heavy +handspike—six feet of true ash—rigid as a bar of iron, took the +overbold pirate at the base of the skull and spilled his brains into the +breach he had made. Growling with fury, a man from Sancho's crew sprang +to avenge the stroke with steel, and his blade creased down Milo's +sturdy ribs before the giant had recovered from his own swing. And with +the hissing slit of ripping skin Milo's debt was paid for him. Dolores, +agile as a panther, reached the pirate with her cutlas pointed, and the +steel hilt rang against his breast-bone.</p> + +<p>But in the momentary pause in her vigilance, a score of Rufe's ruffians +burst past her and poured below into the saloon, where renewed sounds of +combat told of the ferreting out of the beaten crew.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[Pg 468]</a></span>"Milo, follow me!" cried Dolores, springing down the stairs herself, +careless whether her wavering half-dozen followed or stayed. Her whole +soul was sickened with the fear that this vessel, the long-wished-for +means of her release from what had become a hateful bondage, was in +danger of destruction at the red hands of Rufe's undisciplined dogs. And +swiftly approaching on the freshening evening breeze her sloop grew +momentarily clearer to the eye; it was easy to fancy she could hear the +howls of disappointed rage pealing up from her deck; it needed no second +sight to determine the side those humiliated pirates would take, when +they hove alongside another prey which promised at least a taste of +coveted loot.</p> + +<p>In the brief time since the pirates' entry the schooner's saloon had +become a place of desolation. All the magnificence of unrestricted cost +was there; and all the beauty of artistic selection; and over all was +the mark of the beast—blood and torn hangings, corpses and splintered +panels, chaos and sulfur smoke as the pillage started. Dolores sought +out through the smoke a breathing man in the uniform of the yacht, and +swiftly placed her lips to his ear, her mind made up to a terrible +expedient to save this vessel for herself.</p> + +<p>"Tell me quickly—where is the magazine?"</p> + +<p>The man opened his agonized eyes, saw that splendid blazing face close +to his own, and shook his head loyally. He would give his master's +enemies no assistance.</p> + +<p>"Speak, fool!" she hissed, shaking him. They were alone by the great +table-leg on the red-stained carpet. "I would defeat these sharks! Where +is the powder?"</p> + +<p>The man looked into her eyes again, and she smiled at him. It was +enough. He weakly pointed to a stout door on the starboard side, forward +of the sailing master's stateroom door, beyond which the sound of axes +already resounded. The owner's and guests' quarters were filled to +overflowing with ravenous wolves tearing and ripping in a frenzy of +pillage. At the after-end of the saloon a pirate stood over a great +cask, issuing jugs of liquor to such of his fellows as found time amid +the riot to drink. Milo gripped his handspike, waiting for a command +that should send him like awful Fate into the thick of the murderous +mob.</p> + +<p>"Milo! Bring me a powder-keg from that magazine!" Dolores said, still +crouching low and hidden beneath the smoke-pall. The giant entered the +room, shattering the lock with a lunge of his shoulder, and returned +bearing an unopened keg of cannon powder.</p> + +<p>"Place it upon the table." Then the girl rose to her feet with eyes +glittering coldly and lips pressed to a tight line. "Find me a lighted +brand—swiftly!" she said, and when the giant snatched up a splinter of +dry wood, lighting it at the steward's brazier in the little pantry off +the saloon, she swept majestically aft to suddenly confront the roaring +ruffian at the wine cask.</p> + +<p>"Milo, hurl this liquor cask away!"</p> + +<p>Milo picked up the heavy barrel as a man might pick up a cushion, heaved +it above his head, and flung it like a cannon-shot at the door, behind +which rang the greatest noise, while the pirate, whose care the wine had +been, gaped like a stranded fish.</p> + +<p>"Now this dog!"</p> + +<p>The man followed his cask before his mouth closed from his astonishment; +but as he flew his leathern lungs performed their office and warned the +pillagers of peril. Out from cabins and storerooms poured the rascals, +gorged with fine wines and delicate foods seized in their pillaging; +steamy with blood not yet dried on their bestial faces. And when the +great saloon was full, Dolores raised her torch above her head and +blazed out at them:</p> + +<p>"In five short breaths this vessel carries all thy black souls to hell! +Skulking rats, swim while the breath is in you!"</p> + +<p>The torch came down, Milo smashed in the head of the keg, revealing the +terrible contents, and as if in grim jest he snatched up a sprinkling of +the powder and flicked some grains into the flare of the torch. If there +had been any doubt as to the deadly earnestness of Dolores, there could +be none now, for sparks crackled and spit in fearful nearness to that +open keg. Men stampeded for the stairs, hurling each other down in their +frenzy; but Yellow Rufe and Sancho<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[Pg 469]</a></span> lingered. Theirs had been the +gravest fault; if they fled, it must be only to do penance some other +day; if they forced Dolores's hand, at least she and that scornful giant +must die the death also. They stood their ground, staring defiantly into +her expressionless face.</p> + +<p>Dolores spoke no word more. Milo stood like a bronze figure of Doom at +her side, his noble face expressionless as hers. Between them stood that +keg of terrible possibilities. The girl lowered the torch until the +flame all but licked the wood of the keg; a dropping piece of charred +wood fell audibly against the side. Sancho's breath caught painfully; +Yellow Rufe's bloodshot eyes wavered. Still they held on.</p> + +<p>"Milo, I give thee freedom!" said Dolores in a low, distinct voice that +carried to their ears like the sound of a silver bell. "Farewell, +faithful friend!"</p> + +<p>The torch swept around, fanning to a blaze in the eddying air, then +darted toward the keg. And with a yell that echoed on deck and far out +over the sea, Yellow Rufe and Sancho turned and fled, fighting with each +other, as had their less bold fellows, for the precious air of safety.</p> + +<p>Dolores laughed contemptuously, flung the torch aside and bade Milo +trample it out, then she, too, ascended to the deck to view her victory. +The sea was dotted with swimming men, the beach was full of running men, +terrified men made the cliff resound with their cries. Then, sure that +the schooner was free of foes, Dolores looked toward the sloop, now +within hail of the schooner and coming fast with sail and sweeps, while +her crew stared over the low bulwarks in puzzlement as to the reason for +the hasty exodus from the strange craft.</p> + +<p>"Here, Milo, is fresh fare of trouble. Hast brought my own flag?"</p> + +<p>"Here, Sultana," replied Milo, taking a carefully folded silken banner +from a pocket in his leathern tunic.</p> + +<p>"Hoist it, then, at the main! Perhaps Hanglip and Caliban, Stumpy and +the rest of my brave jackals, will forego their expected meal at sight +of it. And send forth a shout for slaves; this vessel must be cleansed +and her people's wounds attended to."</p> + +<p>Up at the schooner's lofty main-truck the Sultana's private flag +fluttered out; the mark and sign of Dolores's ownership. And while three +anxious yachtsmen on the cliff-top waited for her return, a hundred and +twenty hungry and thirsty baffled ruffians on the sloop cursed her +vehemently in their hoarse, dry throats.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">DOLORES DELIVERS JUDGMENT.</h3> + + +<p>On the level sward before the village the three yachtsmen paced back and +forth in an ecstasy of apprehension. Pascherette had left them, after +playing them like fish with her own charms and a hinted promise of +Dolores's favors as bait; and the moment they were alone Venner shook +off the spell in a resurging determination to attend to the safety of +his vessel in person.</p> + +<p>"Follow me, Pearse; come Tomlin!" he said. "We are three mad fools to +stand here while these pirates loot and wreck the Feu Follette!"</p> + +<p>Tomlin shuddered as he started to follow. Pearse kept silence, but did +not hesitate. But they had not stepped ten paces before they realized +fully the completeness of their helplessness, for Venner, first to +attempt the path down, was brought to a halt by a musket leveled at his +breast, the musketeer showing only his head and shoulders above the +cliff edge. And as Tomlin and Pearse came up, they, too, were abruptly +halted in like manner; and a grinning Carib motioned each back with an +unspoken command which was none the less inexorable.</p> + +<p>They returned to their first positions, and resumed their nervous walk, +condemning themselves as utter idiots for venturing unarmed into such a +nest of vipers at the urge of curiosity, novelty, feminine attraction, +greed—whatever their motives had been. And here Dolores came upon them, +while all about them swarmed the disgruntled pirates from the sloop, and +those of the mutineers whose abject fears warned them to take whatever +punishment their queen chose to mete out rather than to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[Pg 470]</a></span> escape only to +be brought back to endure penalties immeasurably more terrible.</p> + +<p>Yellow Rufe and Sancho were not minded to stay, however; they had +vanished; and Dolores's keen eyes noted this the moment she surveyed the +scene. She walked swiftly to the door of the council hall, turned to +face the mob, and lifted an arm for attention. Then fell a hush full of +anxiety or terror, according to the degree of culpability in the +consciousness of her audience.</p> + +<p>"Summon every creature in the village," she cried, "and let no man or +woman dare to leave this place until ye hear my thoughts concerning this +day's work!"</p> + +<p>Men scattered eagerly through the huts, calling by name all who were not +present in the crowd, and presently more of the community came out, +their faces mostly reflecting the terror that was in their souls; for +none might ever foretell the moods of their queen. Inscrutable as night, +her eyes were like pools of violet shadow wherein lurked promise or +threat of unimaginable things; every line of her face and form was a +line of a riddle that could prove in the solution either magnificent +generosity, fearless justice, or implacable vengeance: like the +lightning, Dolores struck where she willed, and in what fashion she +chose; it was useless to attempt avoidance.</p> + +<p>Venner and his friends looked on curiously, a feeling akin to awe +pervading them at the increasing evidence before their eyes of the power +wielded by this splendid fury, they had yet to know. When all were +present, except those whose activities on the schooner had already +procured them a passport to another world, Dolores swept the crowd with +a penetrating glance and called for Milo, who appeared from the rear of +the council hall laden with chains and bilboes which he cast down at her +feet. Then the angry impatience of the disappointed sloop's crew proved +too intense, and Caliban bounded to the front, squealing shrilly:</p> + +<p>"The fiend may take you with your irons! Shall we, men who followed Red +Jabez through a sea of blood, cower to a woman of such soft mettle? +Dolores, queen or woman or wench, it is for you, not us, to explain. +Lads—" he shrieked, flashing about and haranguing his companions—"back +me in this. We will know why the sloop lacked powder; why to-day's work +has brought no reward!"</p> + +<p>The deformed little demon stepped back to the crowd, and paced to and +fro with feverish gestures, scowling blackly at every turn that brought +him face to face with Dolores. The packed mob milled and murmured, some +afraid, many of Caliban's mind yet not daring to openly support him. +Venner and his friends sensed the thrill of it, for their brief +experience of the pirate queen left them in slight doubt as to the +outcome of Caliban's speech. Dolores herself stood motionless for a full +minute after the hunchback ceased his defiance, and under her lowered, +heavily lashed eyelids the dark eyes seemed to slumber; only in her lips +was any trace of the alertness that governed her brain, and those +scarlet petals, which seemed to have been plucked from a love flower in +the garden of passion, slowly, almost imperceptibly parted, until the +dazzling teeth gleamed through in a smile that none might yet determine +whether soft or terrible. And as the seconds heaped suspense upon +suspense, the overbold Caliban was seized with a choking fear that he +was to pay the price. Then Dolores spoke, slowly, quietly, almost +soothingly; and those of her hardened ruffians who thought they knew her +best hung on her words in shivery uncertainty.</p> + +<p>"For those bold words, Caliban, my father had stripped thy poisonous +skin from thy putrid flesh. Yesterday thy queen might not have proved +more merciful. Yet do I know how thy disappointment chafes thy brave +soul, and because of that thy rash speech goes unpunished." The hush +intensified, for the leniency of Dolores was little less to be feared +than her fury. A smile of ineffable radiance broke over her beautiful +face, and she extended her right hand and said, still in the same slow, +even voice: "Come, Caliban. Thou art worthy of my mercy. Kneel, that I +may know thy heart is right."</p> + +<p>Now the suspense reached its climax. Somewhere behind those softly +spoken words surely lurked some awful, cunningly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[Pg 471]</a></span> cloaked threat. +Caliban went white, ghastly; his brave tongue stuck to his palate, and +the thin lips slavered with growing panic.</p> + +<p>"Come, Caliban!"</p> + +<p>The girl's command was uttered no louder, her expression was unchanged; +in her glorious eyes gleamed no trace of anything other than benign +forgiveness; she remained motionless as before, with her rounded arm and +shapely hand extended in a manner that revealed their every perfection.</p> + +<p>"Come, Caliban!"</p> + +<p>Again the words fell from her smiling lips, and now the quivering +hunchback obeyed, drawn irresistibly by her magnetism, sick with dread +of the stroke he in common with all his mates expected to fall.</p> + +<p>"Kneel! See, I give thee my hand to kiss," Dolores said, and smiled upon +the cowering wretch with a tender brilliance that sent a tremendous +flutter through the hearts of the three yachtsmen.</p> + +<p>Caliban knelt and took the proffered hand, then at her word he stood +before her, scarcely certain yet that his head was solidly established +on his shoulders. She motioned him to stand on one side of her, then, +aglow with warm color, she addressed the puzzled throng:</p> + +<p>"My bold sea tigers, the ship that escaped thy sloop is but one ship. +The seas are full of such. Yet, until to-day, how many have ye been +forced to let go because of thy poor equipment in craft? Thy sloop, how +small, how old—yet what rich prey escaped thy guns since the Red +Chief's swift brig laid her bones here? None! Yet ye complain because I +prevented thee destroying the beautiful schooner the gods have this day +sent to us!"</p> + +<p>Now the purport of her speech struck home; the seemingly soft-brained +weakness that had forbidden the rape and pillage of the schooner stood +in part explained. And as the light filtered through thick skulls and +shone upon all but atrophied brains, a deep muttering swelled into the +embryo of a throaty cheer that needed but one look of encouragement from +Dolores to spring into noisy life. As for Venner, his expression was +reflected in Tomlin, and both in Pearse; and awakening or resurrected, +fear was the keynote of all.</p> + +<p>"The vampire means to suck us dry after all!" whispered Venner hoarsely. +His friends could only squeeze his arm in mute sympathy. They harbored +no doubts at all.</p> + +<p>Dolores went on:</p> + +<p>"With such a vessel as this"—pointing to the schooner—"that Indiaman +to-day had never shown heels. And more, how think ye my store is +replenished? Dost think I tap the rock for wine? Does Milo crush the +granite and bring forth meat for thy hungry bellies? Are my treasures +kept at high tide by snatching the colors from the sunset? Fools!" she +cried, and for a moment passion conquered her calm. "In that schooner +are wines that will make thy hot blood living flame; meats that will put +teeth into the throats of the toothless; treasures fit for thy queen's +treasury. And more to thy hand, my brave jackals, those pretty pieces of +ordnance, which the sun even now paints with liquid gold, will outrange +the guns of a king's ship." Pausing, she bent upon the murmuring crew a +look of blazing majesty; then concluded with a vibrant demand: "Now dost +know why thy queen withheld thy senseless hands from witless +destruction?"</p> + +<p>Her question was scarcely heard before the answer came. From a hundred +rusty throats pealed a huzzah that rolled out over the sea and sent the +sea-birds squawking with fright to more peaceful surroundings.</p> + +<p>"Dolores! Dolores! That's a queen for the tribe of Jolly Roger!" howled +Hanglip, and tumult rang again.</p> + +<p>The girl raised her hand, and silence fell once more.</p> + +<p>"Hear my judgment upon such of ye as are not of thy mind," she cried, +and now the smile had gone; her eyes flashed and the words fell red-hot +from her scornful lips.</p> + +<p>"I demand no tales from thy mouths. Hiding among these woods Yellow Rufe +and Sancho, he of the one eye and the mutilated hand, think to ward off +my vengeance. By meridian to-morrow I command those traitors to be +brought to me. Fail in this, and ye shall see that Dolores can be +terrible, too."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[Pg 472]</a></span>The crowd took this as a dismissal, and broke into parties to scour the +woods. Only slaves and women remained, and Pascherette ran to her +mistress's side and whispered, with a sidelong look of coquettish +allurement at Venner and his friends.</p> + +<p>"Something about to happen!" Venner whispered, hoping that it might +prove something in recompense for his day of stress. Dolores cast a look +of cool indifference toward them and told Milo:</p> + +<p>"Put these strangers in separate chambers, Milo. Iron them securely and +look to it well. Thou art answerable for them."</p> + +<p>No more. She took Pascherette and departed.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE SULTANA DECIDES SEVERAL THINGS.</h3> + + +<p>There was a moment of cruel amazement for Venner and the others when +Dolores had gone; then Milo, approaching with his irons and chains, +awoke the captives to resistance.</p> + +<p>"No chains for me, by God!" shouted Venner, crouching to ward off the +giant's approach. "Tomlin, Pearse, break for the schooner! I'll hold +this savage. We shall perhaps fail; but by the powers of justice we'll +go down fighting on our own ship!"</p> + +<p>He sprang at Milo as he spoke, and his friends hesitated. Milo, without +haste, without change of countenance, dropped his irons and reached +Venner with great deliberate strides. And in that momentary hesitation +Tomlin and Pearse were lost with their host; for the giant stretched out +one tremendous arm, seized Venner by the slack breast of his shirt, and +lifted him from the ground, flailing with both hands like some puny +child in the grip of his nurse.</p> + +<p>Milo spoke no word. He gave no more attention to Venner's futile blows +than to the whispering of the sands of the shore. But bearing ever +toward the other two men, now seemingly paralyzed out of all volition by +the awful exhibition of strength, he reached out with his free hand and +added Tomlin to his capture as he had taken Venner.</p> + +<p>Pearse might even now have made his bid for liberty; but he was no +coward to desert his companions. He uttered a choking cry of mingled +fear and defiance, and rushed in between his friends to swing a heavy +blow with his fist fair upon the giant's unprotected temple. Now Milo +gave sign of interest. He laughed: a deep, rumbling, pleasant laugh of +appreciation for the courage that prompted the blow; but he never +blinked at the impact, nor did he attempt to avoid another blow that +came swiftly. Simply putting forth a greater effort of muscle he swung +his two captives apart, held them at arm's length while the sinews of +his mighty chest and beamlike arms writhed and rippled like snakes, and +rushed upon Pearse with the terrible resistlessness of an avalanche. A +shower of blows pounded his face and breast as he closed, then he +laughed again; this time triumphantly; for Pearse was enfolded between +Venner and Tomlin in a hug that spelled suffocation did he persist in +his struggles.</p> + +<p>The swift conquest had taken but minutes; none but a few women of the +camp had seen it; and they, well used to such scenes, simply chattered +and smiled pityingly, not with pity for the men, but for the futility of +their resistance. Milo, scarcely breathing above normal, called loudly: +"Pascherette!" and gave his prisoners another quieting squeeze.</p> + +<p>Pascherette was with her mistress. She did not answer, and Milo called +again: "Pascherette!"</p> + +<p>The other women drew near, and on many a wickedly fair face shone a +light of hope that its wearer might serve in Pascherette's place, no +matter what the errand; for it was not the <i>petite</i> golden octoroon +alone who had sighed for love of the giant.</p> + +<p>"Pascherette is with the Sultana, Milo. Let me answer for her," spoke +out a dark beauty whose sparkling eyes held the craft and wisdom of a +harpy.</p> + +<p>"I—" and "I—" came other voices, and the women gathered around. "What +do you need, good Milo?"</p> + +<p>"Open three chambers behind the council hall. In each must be a +fettering ring. Make speed. Go!"</p> + +<p>The women ran, and Milo made his capture more complete. Flinging the +three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[Pg 473]</a></span> men down, breathless and numbed from his grasp, he swiftly +clapped leg-irons on them one after the other, then stood up, holding +the long chains together in one huge fist until the women cried out that +the chambers were ready.</p> + +<p>The bruised and subdued yachtsmen were placed in their separate cells, +fettered to great iron rings, and left to cogitate over their probable +fate. They were not even permitted the solace of intercourse; but as +each grew more accustomed to the gloom inside, he discerned that it was +no part of the plan to permit him to hunger or thirst, for a subtle +gleam of ruby light shot into each small room from an unseen source, +intensifying gradually and touched with its infernal radiance a small +tabouret on which stood a silver flagon and a dish of the same metal +containing meat.</p> + +<p>Milo went to the great chamber in the Cave of Terrible Things when the +doors had closed on his prisoners, and presented himself to Dolores. He +found Pascherette prostrate on the floor before the queen, whimpering +and sobbing with terror. Over her Dolores stood like Wrath in person, +her beautiful face distorted with passion, fire blazing in her eyes, her +breast heaving tumultuously. In her hand she held a cat-o'-nine-tails—a +dainty, vicious, splendid instrument of terror—formed of plaited human +hair of as many shades as thongs, studded with nuggets of gold instead +of lead—and none the less terrible for that—set in a cunningly carved +handle of ivory. And as Milo entered, she held the whip aloft in a +quivering hand, and cried to Pascherette:</p> + +<p>"Speak, or I flay thee, traitor! What wert telling the villain, Sancho?"</p> + +<p>Pascherette whined and cringed; she could not, or would not speak. The +whip quivered, was about to fall on those dainty bare shoulders, when +Milo, uttering a choking cry, flung himself forward and took the blow on +his face. Dolores started back, a thing of fury, as Milo cast himself at +her feet, his head on the ground, and said with submission:</p> + +<p>"Spare the child, Sultana. Let my back bear her penance. She is faithful +to thee."</p> + +<p>Dolores halted an instant between redoubled rage and mercy; then she +flung down the whip with a hard laugh, seated herself in the great +chair, and bade Milo and the girl rise and come to her.</p> + +<p>"Milo, thou'rt a fool!" she said. "Were thy brain as great as thy great +heart the world might well be thine. I tell thee, child or no child, +that chit is woman enough to have bound thee her slave. She is woman +enough, too, to hold secret converse with my foes. Do thou speak to her +now and learn for me what traffic she had with Sancho the morning after +I took her as my handmaid. I give thee scant time; if I learn it not +swiftly neither thou nor she shall leave this chamber alive!"</p> + +<p>With her giant beside her, Pascherette's fears subsided in part. She +peered up at him shyly and stepped closer to him, as if to seek actual +shelter from the storm that threatened her; but her frightened, +dependent demeanor was scarcely in accord with the new light that +glinted in her sharp eyes when she dropped them from his face again. +There was cunning and craft in them; the brazen assurance of a thief +whose conviction is prevented by a lucky mishap.</p> + +<p>She spoke rapidly, for his ears only, and her face drooped in an access +of confusion that, beautifully simulated, satisfied Milo and sent a warm +thrill into his honest breast.</p> + +<p>"Pascherette says she only gave Sancho his answer," Milo told Dolores. +"He had demanded her for his mate."</p> + +<p>"A pretty tale!" cried Dolores impatiently. "If that be all, why so +fearful of telling me, girl? Why did Sancho, who well knows the price, +join Rufe against me?"</p> + +<p>"I was afraid," murmured Pascherette with a pretty shiver. She summoned +a rosy blush to her piquant face and added in a still lower whisper: +"Thy anger terrified me, Sultana. My tongue was tied. And Sancho did +what he did in rage, in jealousy against Milo."</p> + +<p>The giant drew himself more erect, and his face became transfigured. If +in his great heart there remained any room after his devotion to his +mistress, cunning little Pascherette occupied it all when she uttered +the half-admission that Milo was her man.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[Pg 474]</a></span> Dolores regarded the pair +silently; her expression changed slowly from irritation to query; from +unbelief to amusement, and after a moment's reflection she smiled +without softness and said:</p> + +<p>"Milo, I would do much for thee. For double dealing I have no mercy. If +thy love-bird would have me believe, if she is ought to thee, bid her +seek Sancho and bring him to me. Let her bring him at her own hands +before my hunters run him to earth, and I forgive thee both. She has +fooled thee; she can fool Sancho."</p> + +<p>Pascherette lighted up with something higher than hope: it was +certainty; and while it made Milo happy it did not escape Dolores, whose +dark-violet eyes once again became fathomless pools in which none might +read her thoughts. She waved them from her presence, and they went out +together, leaving her sitting motionless until the hangings fell behind +them. Then she sprang up, ran to a great mirror, and stood for many +moments regarding her lovely reflection.</p> + +<p>"Yes, thou art beautiful!" she apostrophised. "Beautiful as an artist's +dream. And for what? To queen it over these beasts! To be called +Sultana, and to be in truth a caged eagle. Of them all, who save loyal +Milo may I trust? Of them all, where is one whose blood mixed with mine +could produce aught but devils! Yet I must slink away in the night like +a whipped cur, or leave behind these treasures which alone can secure me +station in the outside world." She began to pace the great apartment, +oblivious of her surroundings, conscious only of a surging rebellion +against even the small necessity of biding her time. The day's +happenings on the schooner had shown her clearly the explosive condition +of her crew; she had no mistaken ideas that for her to load up the +schooner and sail away was simple. Further, she detected in recent +events a growing unrest among the band, the cause of which she had but +begun to fathom. Even now, through the tapestry sounding-stone, her +keenly attuned ears caught a note in the cries of returning woods +parties that told her how precarious was her sway over some of the more +turbulent spirits.</p> + +<p>"Before me they cringe like the dogs they are," she muttered, halting +again at the mirror. "Behind my back they snap like wolves. They shall +have their lesson quickly—such a one as the boldest of them shall +shriek mercy." She gazed intently into the mirror, as if she would read +therein an answer to her unspoken longing; then her eyes grew dark and +hard; her round, strong chin set stubbornly, and she whispered +intensely: "Pah! Cattle! They shall not alter my will to seek my +rightful place in the world of the white man! What avails it that in my +veins runs my mother's noble blood, the red chief's fiery courage, if +this nest of soulless brutes is to witness my life and my end? Among +those three white men is one who shall release me. They—ah, they are of +a whiter, cleaner mold! Theirs is the blood that matches mine! Let them +show me which is the stronger. He shall mate with me, and I will make +him a king indeed, even in his own land."</p> + +<p>Dolores stepped back panting. Then she controlled herself and began to +put on garment after garment, jewel after jewel, all of superlative +magnificence. Every moment she glided to the great mirror; as often she +tore off a garment or a jewel, flung it down impatiently, and seized +others from her boundless store. At last she stood clad like a fabled +daughter of old Bagdad; a robe of shimmering silk reached her ankles, +outlining every grace of her splendid figure; upon her head she had set +a tiara, priceless with gems whose fire dazzled even their wearer; on +arms and fingers, ankles and toes, lustrous rings and bracelets made +flashing lightning with her every movement; at her girdled waist was a +dagger whose sheath could have ransomed a prince.</p> + +<p>She stood like a statue, except for the rise and fall of her breast; her +eyes glittered at her gorgeous reflection in the mirror. Then suddenly +her expression changed, her lips parted in scorn, and with a savage, +tigerish gesture, she tore off her splendors. She stood once more in her +simple tunic of knee-length, sleeveless, beauty-revealing; and picking +up her dagger with the gold cord she knotted it about her waist and +again regarded herself closely.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[Pg 475]</a></span>And where before she had looked upon a gorgeous woman, royally clad, +weighted with gems formed by man's art, now she gazed into the limpid, +fathomless eyes of a living goddess—royally clad in her own peerless +loveliness, crowned with a wealth of lustrous hair in which the gleams +of gold outshone the tiara she had discarded. And her face lighted; a +delicate flush overspread her cheeks; the full, luscious red lips parted +in a veritable Cupid's bow; and she laughed a rippling, heart-warming +laugh that brought the small, even teeth glistening into view.</p> + +<p>Dolores was satisfied at last. Without further hesitation she hurried +along to the rear of the chamber and emerged into the Grove of Mysteries +by way of a door known only to herself and Milo. From there she made her +way silently and darkly toward the council hall.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">A REED SHAKEN BY THE WINDS OF PASSION.</h3> + + +<p>Rupert Venner sat on the floor of his prison, tugging at his chains with +an absent, aimless, all but perpetual motion; for he had long since +convinced himself that his fetters could not be broken or loosed. The +ruby light that had shown him the food and wine placed for him had faded +away to the faintest red glow which scarcely sufficed to reach the +tabouret. That mattered little; Venner had eaten when he was hungry, +drunk when dry, and knew the position of the flagon and dish to the +ultimate inch. He was not caring about the light. His mind was filled to +the exclusion of all else with his plight and the predicament of his +schooner.</p> + +<p>"Confound me for a fool!" he mused aloud, gritting his teeth savagely. +"Led by the nose by a saucy little chit who knows how to display her +charms as well as her pearls!"</p> + +<p>He pondered over his situation with growing irritation; for he knew only +too well that his release could never be obtained by bribery; his keen +sense of values told him that neither in the yacht or at home could he +match the treasures he had already seen on the persons of Dolores, and +Pascherette, and the other women of the camp. Yet he tried to console +himself that after all these things might be displayed for his +impression; might in fact be the entire store of the pirate queen, +displayed for one gaudy, overpowering effect.</p> + +<p>"That's it!" he cried, striking fist to palm. "Just a theatrical trick. +That little jade, Pascherette, will sell her dark little soul for +diamonds or pearls, I'll wager, and she shall sell me liberty. Then I'll +see the queen creature, gaining entry by the same medium, and we shall +see if cultivated wits are not a match for this wild beauty."</p> + +<p>With something very like a smile of resignation Venner stretched himself +on the floor and composed himself to rest. He was quite certain that +Pascherette could be reached through his jailer, whoever that might +be—Milo or somebody else—and the entire plan seemed to him beautifully +simple and infallible. He dozed, awoke, dozed again, and the ruby light +seemed to intensify each time his eyes opened. Gradually the shaft of +light grew so strong that, focused on his closed eyes, it forced him to +full wakefulness; and now he stared hard at it, blinking, hypnotized by +the trembling radiance that seemed to shoot out from the main shaft +until a great moving circle of light appeared before him. And out from +the midst of the light stepped Dolores, bewitching, irresistible, +smiling down upon him with a tenderness that filled him with awe.</p> + +<p>Amazed, dazzled, the man sat up, quivering with a sensation that rippled +at his hair-roots and sent the blood singing to finger and toe-tips. And +Dolores, with one forefinger at her scarlet lips to enjoin silence, +glided toward him with her inimitable grace, and knelt before him +shaking her head and starting him on the way to intoxication with the +touch of her wonderful hair.</p> + +<p>"My friend, I grieve that thou art here," she said, and her glowing eyes +thrilled him afresh. "Wilt thou believe that it is necessary for a +while?"</p> + +<p>"Necessary?" repeated Venner, dazedly. He strove hard to burst into +angry protest, but his tongue refused to utter the harsh words in the +face of such a creature of beauty. "I don't understand why it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[Pg 476]</a></span> +necessary at all, lady. It is no choice of mine, or my friends, that our +schooner is aground and we are your prisoners!"</p> + +<p>"Ah, my friend, thou shalt understand," she answered, and laid a hand on +his shoulder, making his senses swim with the fragrance of her breath. +"But this is for thy ears alone. Thou wilt respect my confidence?" +Venner nodded, wondering if, after all, the adventure might not turn out +well. With Dolores so close to him that he could hear her tunic rustling +to her deep, even breathing, that her loosened hair continually brushed +his face, he would have nodded assent had she offered him a piece of +charcoal for his immortal soul. "Then listen, man of my own people. A +longing gnaws at my heart—this heart that beats under thy hand"—she +took his hand with a swift movement and pressed it to her breast—"a +longing to go far from this place and these brutish people, to thy land +and the land to which I belong.</p> + +<p>"And now must I say why thy ship is here? It is because I have chosen +thee, my friend, to free me from this detestable bondage." She paused +for a breath, leaning closer to him, then asked with a sudden grip of +his hand at her breast: "Wilt take me out into thy world?"</p> + +<p>Venner shifted uneasily beneath her blazing eyes. His soul was in +torment with the touch of her; yet somewhere back of his trained brain +lingered a spark of wit not yet extinguished along with his other wits +by her spell. He lowered his gaze and said:</p> + +<p>"Was there need to murder my crew, wreck my vessel, and fling me and my +friends into these cells? Could not you, who are queen here, board my +schooner yourself and ask a passage?"</p> + +<p>"The murder of thy crew was not of my seeking. And thinkest thou I would +go from here leaving behind my treasures? Or dost fancy my rascals would +permit me to carry them away? No, friend, it is not so simple. The man +who aids me to attain my desire must be strong and wise and true. He +shall mate with me, and my treasures shall be his. That is why I have +chosen thee."</p> + +<p>"That requires thought, lady," returned Venner, half-heartedly. "I would +assist you in getting free from this, since you wish it; but as for +mating or marriage, why, there is a woman at home waiting for me."</p> + +<p>"Woman!" Dolores cried with scorn. "Woman! I am Dolores!" She swayed +toward him, her arms went about his neck, and slowly, slowly her +glorious eyes fastened on his, her moist, warm lips sought his in a kiss +that dragged at his soul's foundations.</p> + +<p>"Canst refuse me?" she laughed softly, drawing back her head and peering +at him from under lowered lids. "See, I trust thee utterly!" Snatching +her dagger from the sheath she placed it in his right hand; then, with a +key from her girdle, she unfastened his chains and swayed back, still +kneeling. She clutched the single shoulder-strap of her tunic, tore it +from her bosom, and flung both arms wide apart. "See!" she whispered, +and Rupert Venner flung away the dagger, stumbled to his feet, and swept +her into his crushing embrace while she abandoned herself to him with a +long, quivering sigh.</p> + +<p>"By the gods!" he swore hoarsely, "show me what I have to do. Wonderful, +wonderful Dolores!"</p> + +<p>"Patience," she smiled, resting her head on his breast. "First tell me +thy name. What shall thy Dolores call thee?"</p> + +<p>"I am Rupert. Call me slave!"</p> + +<p>"Rupert. It is a name to love. Slave? Nay, it is I who shall be slave to +thee. But patience again, Rupert. When we two go from here, there can be +no other to share our secret; none save the slaves that I shall place in +thy ship to replace thy dead crew. Thy friends may not go. They must not +live to see thee go!"</p> + +<p>Venner shivered, and drew back, holding her at arms' length and staring +at her in horror.</p> + +<p>"What are you saying, Dolores?" he gasped. "My friends are to die?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and by thy hand, my Rupert. For how else may I know thou are +worthy to be mate to a queen?"</p> + +<p>"Now, by Heaven! Witch, siren, whatever you are, my madness has passed!" +he cried. "Not for the key to a paradise peopled with such as you would +I do this!" He stepped aside, picked up her dagger, and glared at her +with steely eyes.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[Pg 477]</a></span>Dolores laughed at him: a low, throaty little laugh that went clear to +his brain and set it on fire again. Yet, nerving himself against her, he +stood erect, dagger in hand, and met the blaze of her dusky eyes +bravely. He shivered violently when her rich voice thrilled his tingling +ears.</p> + +<p>"Hah, my Rupert, thou'rt not yet tamed. Let me show thee thy master!"</p> + +<p>With the words she reached him with her subtle, tigerish glide, swiftly, +startlingly, and with the dart of a cobra her hand gripped his which +held the dagger. Her warm body again pressed closely to him, her red +lips, parted still, almost touched his cheek; her hair smothered him +with its fragrance; and while his senses swam her supple muscles tensed +to living steel wire, her grip tightened and twisted at his wrist, and +the dagger was wrenched from his fingers. Then leaping back, laughing +mockingly now, Dolores slipped the dagger into the sheath, snatched up +the chains from the floor, and flew upon him with a deadly pounce that +bore him back to the wall.</p> + +<p>Aroused from his numbness, Rupert Venner fought back furiously, +humiliated, and ashamed. Whether he would or not, he forgot all his +chivalry, and strove to meet this appalling woman with strength against +strength; but in Dolores he met a thing of wire and whipcord where +moments before had been a creature of warm softnesses; a being of feline +agility, and devilish skill that reflected the devilish skill of her +teacher, Milo. The chain-links tinkled and clashed against their swaying +bodies, but she never let them fall; they hung from her girdle; her +hands were free; and she had both his wrists in a grip that outrivaled +the irons. Laughing, ever laughing, her hot breath playing over his +face, she placed one foot behind one of his, surged toward him heavily, +and, when his arms would have involuntarily gone out to preserve his +footing, she subtly twisted them back and up from the elbows, until she +rested against his chest with her bare arms tightly about his body.</p> + +<p>Now her head, with the gold circlet about the brows, pressed hard +against his chin. Her hair was in his mouth, tendrils of it stung his +eyes, but the gold band numbed his flesh and bruised the bone. Upward, +ever upward, she forced his chin until his neck was cracking with the +strain and he choked for breath. Then she suddenly relaxed. Her arms +left him, her wickedly lovely face once more smiled into his starting +eyes, and she took the chain from her girdle with leisurely swiftness, +falling to her knees at his feet.</p> + +<p>"There, my friend, thou art back in thy place!" she said, snapping on +his ankle irons. "Spend the night in thought, good Rupert. To-morrow I +shall come to thee again for thy decision. Now, pleasant dreams, +my—lover!" she whispered, suddenly slipping her arms about his neck +again and pulling his head hard against her panting breast. She softly +kissed his hair, then pressed back his head and kissed his lips long and +passionately.</p> + +<p>"Good night, beloved!" she said, and passed out of the room, leaving +behind the echoes of a rippling little laugh that set Venner's blood to +leaping.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">PASCHERETTE UNVEILS HER PURPOSE.</h3> + + +<p>Milo and Pascherette stood outside the rock portals of the great chamber +after their dismissal by Dolores, and the giant's face wore a look of +perplexity which was not reflected in the little octoroon. If her task +was difficult, Pascherette seemed not in the least disturbed; rather in +her sharp eyes lurked something of bravado at having escaped her +mistress's anger so easily. And this expression perplexed Milo.</p> + +<p>"Art sure of thyself, Pascherette?" asked the giant, ill at ease for his +little companion.</p> + +<p>"Why not?" she laughed, peering up at his troubled face impudently. +"Thinkest thou Pascherette is a fool?"</p> + +<p>"No, thou art not a fool," replied Milo slowly. He laid a heavy hand on +her shoulder, turned her around to face the faint light remaining, and +gazed hard into her bright eyes. "Thou art not a fool, little one. But +Sancho—is it so simple to find him?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[Pg 478]</a></span>"Big, childish Milo!" she cried with a laugh that had no joy in it. +"Dost think I feared that verdict of Dolores? No. I fear her whip only. +My flesh creeps even now at thought of my poor shoulders hadst thou not +appeared in time. Sancho? Pah! I can find him easily enough."</p> + +<p>"Then, child, was there nothing in thy traffic with him save what I +heard from thy lips?"</p> + +<p>Pascherette looked down, tapping the sand with her tiny foot, and her +breast fluttered in agitation. Then she slipped her hand into his, +looked up shyly yet ardently into his eyes, and replied swift and low:</p> + +<p>"Milo, my love for thee must be my defense. I did have traffic with +Sancho, to the end that we—thee and me—might use him to our advantage. +Wait!" she cried, when he would have spoken, "hear me. Canst not see +Dolores's cunning intention? She goes from here, carrying her treasure; +what will she do with thee, once safely away? Will she carry thee always +with her, to be marked because of thy great stature? No, Milo, thy life +will pay for her desertion of her people, and she will laugh at thy +passing. And why should it be? Here, thou and I can rule these cattle as +she never could. With Sancho's deserters, and Rufe's followers, I can +give thee a band that will force the treasure from her greedy grasp, and +make of her what she has made of thee and me—a slave!"</p> + +<p>"Girl!" Milo's deep voice vibrated with passionate horror. "Cease thy +treason, or I crush thy wicked heart in these two hands. Dolores is +mistress of my soul—my body is but the slave of that."</p> + +<p>"Pish!" retorted Pascherette, contemptuously. "She has thee dazzled, +Milo. Say, dost thou not love me?" she demanded, standing tiptoe and +thrusting her piquant little face under his gaze. "Look in my eyes, and +then tell me another woman owns thy soul!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I love thee," replied Milo, with simple earnestness. "I love thee; +yet will I kill thee ere Dolores suffers ill through thy scheming. Have +done with this talk. I hate thee for it!"</p> + +<p>"Love—and hate!" she laughed metallically. "Loving me, still thou hast +room to love another better. Hate and love! Thou great fool, it cannot +be!"</p> + +<p>"Pascherette, I love thee. Thou'rt entangled in my heart-strings. When I +hate thee, it is because of that love, which will not brook treason in +thee. Again, I love thee, golden girl; but, forget it not, I worship +Dolores as I worship my gods!"</p> + +<p>"Then wilt thou not seek her power for thyself?" whispered the girl +subduedly, awed for the moment by his tremendous and solemn earnestness.</p> + +<p>"Little one, bring Sancho as she bade thee. He has merited punishment. +Yet tell him the Sultana will be just. His punishment will but fit the +fault. Afterward we two will talk together, and I shall teach thee +loyalty. Go now, bring thy man to the council hall. I shall await thee. +Stay, I shall come with thee, for the woods are dark, and a storm +threatens."</p> + +<p>"I go alone, Milo. He will fly from thee. Have no fear for me; the woods +are safe, and the storm is in thy great head only."</p> + +<p>The girl turned, kissed her hand airily, and ran into the gloom of the +forest. And as she went she laughed again harshly and muttered: "The +great clod! His worship overtops his love. But I shall make love overtop +worship yet, my giant! Such a man—a slave? Not for a thousand +Doloreses! Wait, Milo; wait, my mistress!"</p> + +<p>The evening breeze had strengthened as darkness fell, and its breath was +hot and sultry. As Pascherette plunged deeper into the woods, the heavy +boom of the seas along shore died away and gave place to the softer, +more vibrant hum and murmur of the great trees. The track, little more +than a line of flattened underbrush, vanished before she had gone fifty +yards; but the little octoroon was no stranger to nocturnal rambles, her +keen eyes, and, keener still, her sense of direction, led her unerringly +through the shades toward the rearward spur of the granite cliff. +Creepers and hanging mosses brushed her face and limbs; alone she might +have ignored them; but there was a quality in the sighing and rustling +about her that seemed to give voices to the ghostly fingers that +touched<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[Pg 479]</a></span> her, and to support her courage as well as to warn Sancho of +her coming, she thrilled forth a merry little snatch of song:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ho! for the Jolly Roger lads;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ho! for the decks red-streaming.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A pirate's lass is a well-lov'd lass,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And there's gold through the red a gleaming!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ho! for a cask in the fire's red glow;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ho! for the heaps of plunder.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There are showers of pearls for the pirates' girls—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The rain from the corsair's thunder!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>At the end of her song Pascherette halted, listened, then called softly:</p> + +<p>"Sancho! Thy Pascherette calls!"</p> + +<p>Silence prevailed for several moments, and she called again, fearing +that her voice had gone astray amid the increasing confusion of the +trees. Then came a lull in the wind, the lull that always punctuated the +gathering of such tropical storms as now threatened; and in the hush she +heard voices—uncertain, disputing. Then Sancho growled, close to her +ear:</p> + +<p>"Art alone, jade?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Sancho!" she cried, darting into the gloom to the sound of his +voice and flinging her arms about him. "I have feared for thee, my +Sancho. Now I fear no more, for all is well."</p> + +<p>"Well?" the pirate growled suspiciously. "Hast left thy hot-blood +mistress, then?"</p> + +<p>"No, Sancho. It is better for thee even than that. I have made thy peace +with Dolores. She has forgiven thee, and wishes to tell thee so."</p> + +<p>A fervid curse burst from some one yet invisible, and Sancho leaned back +to catch some whispered words. Then he, too, ripped out an oath, and +gripped Pascherette tightly by the arm.</p> + +<p>"This is a trick, little devil! Don't you value that pretty little head +more than to trifle with me?"</p> + +<p>"I trifle with thee? Thou art mad, Sancho!" she cried. "Did I lie when I +said I loved thee, then?"</p> + +<p>"The fiend knows! I know 'tis plaguey risky for thee if thou didst!"</p> + +<p>"Unbeliever!" whispered Pascherette with thrilling emphasis. "Shall I +tell thee again, in language even thy stubborn soul must believe?"</p> + +<p>The girl suddenly glided inside his arms, flung up her hands, each +clutching a mass of her glossy, scented hair, and enmeshed his +disfigured face. Then, straining upward from her small height, her rosy, +false lips sought his and fastened there while he staggered as if drunk.</p> + +<p>"There, heart o' mine!" she panted. "Dost believe now? Or must I tell +thee again that with such love as mine proud Dolores cannot hurt thee. +Come! Such a chance will never come thy way again. Man! 'Tis her +confidence Dolores offers thee. Shall it go begging because of thy +madness?"</p> + +<p>"Pascherette!" returned Sancho hoarsely. "I will go with thee. But, +girl, thy heart's blood pours at first sign of treachery! Mark that +well. And tell me now, does Yellow Rufe share in this mercy?"</p> + +<p>"No, Sancho. It cannot be. Dolores has sworn to hunt him down; the woods +are full of men even now, seeking him and thee. Only by going with me +wilt thou escape them and have advantage from my pleading with the +queen." She drew his head down to her ear, and whispered rapidly. Doubt, +then admiration, crept into Sancho's voice as he said: "Dost think it +can be done? Can he gain the sloop unseen?"</p> + +<p>"I will make it easy, Sancho. Bid Rufe have no fear. The storm will be +upon us within an hour. It is dark; there is wind aplenty. With six men +he may win clear; and listen: If he is stout of heart, what is to stop +him taking tribute from the stranger's white vessel?"</p> + +<p>"Lack o' powder, girl," returned Sancho angrily. "Thy mistress keeps us +short of powder, as well thou dost know, lest we become too strong for +her. Who of us has ever seen the store? Not I, by Satan! Canst thou get +powder and shot for Rufe?"</p> + +<p>"Simpleton! Can he not get with steel all he wants from the schooner?"</p> + +<p>"By the heart of Portuguez, he can!" cried another voice, and Yellow +Rufe strode through the bushes.</p> + +<p>"Rufe!" exclaimed the girl, feigning astonishment. Her ears were too +keen not to have caught Rufe's voice in the whispering that had gone +on.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[Pg 480]</a></span>"Yes, Rufe, and obliged to thee, Pascherette. Dost say thou wilt help me +win away?"</p> + +<p>"Gladly, Rufe, for I like well men of your mettle. Follow close behind +Sancho and me. Count ten score after we go in to Dolores with Milo, then +for an hour thou'lt have the sea to thyself. Luck go with thee, Rufe; +thou'lt think of little Pascherette sometimes, I'll warrant."</p> + +<p>A rumble of thunder rolled up from the sea, and lightning played in the +tree-tops. Pascherette turned back toward the camp, and giving no heed +to Sancho save to listen for his footsteps, she ran through the darkness +sure-footed, sure-eyed as a cat. Rain began to fall, and the heavy +foliage thrummed with the growing downpour which yet did not penetrate +to the earth. As they neared the shore, the forest resounded with the +solemn boom and crash of long-sweeping seas outside the bar; the wind +screamed among the huts; all the women and those men who had returned +from their portion of the search were snugly under cover. The place +seemed deserted.</p> + +<p>"Farewell, Rufe," Pascherette whispered at last, when the great black +mass of the council hall loomed against the sky in a lightning flash. +"Count ten score. Thy safety is in my hands."</p> + +<p>Then she took Sancho by the hand, and led him through the plashing rain +to the rear of the hall and called softly: "Milo!"</p> + +<p>"Here. Hast found him?"</p> + +<p>"Take us to the Sultana quickly, Milo. I have told Sancho to trust in +the justice of Dolores."</p> + +<p>"He may well do that," returned Milo. "The great Sultana is ever just."</p> + +<p>"Yes, have no fear, good Sancho. I am Justice itself!" rejoined the +mellow voice of Dolores in person, who had a few moments before left +Rupert Venner. "Milo, I am minded to give Sancho proof of my mercy, +since he already believes in my justice. Open the great chamber. Sancho, +canst guess the honor I propose to do thee?"</p> + +<p>"No, lady," replied Sancho, an awful dryness gripping his throat.</p> + +<p>"Hast ever hungered for sight of the great chamber?" She paused smiling +at the uneasy pirate, who could not answer. "Of course thou hast," she +replied for him. "Which of my rogues has not? I am minded to show thee +this mark of my love, since thy conscience permitted thee to return +here. Hast any fear of the saying the Red Chief uttered? That none might +enter the great chamber and live?"</p> + +<p>Sancho suddenly sprang to life. His face was distorted; when the +lightning flashed it revealed him a ghastly picture of apprehension.</p> + +<p>"I will not go there! I have no wish to see what my eyes are forbidden +to see. I never sought to enter, Sultana. It was the others!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Sancho, the others. That is why I select thee for the honor, +because thou wert patient. Come. I promise thee thy life is safe."</p> + +<p>Dolores passed on toward the great stone, where Milo stood guard over +the opened portals. Sancho, trembling violently, was drawn irresistibly +after her, partly fascinated by her calm strength, partly influenced by +the soft fingers and whispered prattle of Pascherette, who strove to set +him aflame with mention of some of the wonders he was to see.</p> + +<p>He paused at the rock door, glancing around with a vague premonition of +evil; but now it was Dolores's hand that took his; Dolores's rich voice +that lured him on; and he stepped after her, smothering a sob of +resurging terror as the great stone fell into its place behind.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">SANCHO SETTLES HIS ACCOUNT.</h3> + + +<p>In the rock passage the hush was complete. For the space of ten long +breaths Sancho stood quivering under the weird spell of the infernal red +radiance from the hidden lights, while almost invisible ahead of him +Dolores bent to listen to a last moment's communication from +Pascherette. With Milo behind him, and the great unknown ahead, the +pirate's usual fierce courage oozed out through his boots. Yet he was +hypnotized by the vague glitter that shone at the end of the tunnel—the +glitter,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[Pg 481]</a></span> though he knew it not yet, of the great sliding door to the +inner mystery.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the mighty rock reverberated and shook to a Titanic volley of +thunder, and Sancho shrieked with nervous terror. His shriek was echoed +by a rippling laugh from Dolores, and she came back swiftly toward him, +pushing Pascherette before her. She handed the little octoroon on to +Milo, and said, with a kindly pat on the girl's head: "Open, Milo, and +let thy sweetheart complete her good works. Now I shall have none but +faithful friends about me. Pascherette, thou'rt more than forgiven: +thou'rt my good friend. I shall reward thee fittingly when"—she smiled +dazzlingly at Sancho—"I have rewarded Sancho."</p> + +<p>The rock door rolled aside, and Pascherette passed out into the storm. +Sancho's nerves gave way utterly now, and he rushed toward the opening, +screaming: "Let me out! I want air! I want none of the great chamber! +Let me pass!"</p> + +<p>Milo again let fall the rock, pressed a huge hand on Sancho's breast, +and pushed him back, saying: "Peace, fool! Go with thy mistress. Thine +eye will never again witness the like. Go, I tell thee. Dost fear the +Sultana's justice?"</p> + +<p>"Come, Sancho. Thou'lt be a marked man among thy fellows when I have +shown thee what they yearn to see."</p> + +<p>Dolores again took his hand, bent her glorious eyes full upon him, and +Sancho followed her like a sheep, straight to the great door under the +jeweled yellow lantern, where he stood, stupefied with awe at the +barbaric splendors revealed.</p> + +<p>His lips went dry, and he licked them feverishly; his single eye blazed +with avarice; the two fingers and mutilated thumb of his right hand +worked convulsively, as if he would tear the gems and plate from the +door. And Dolores watched him from under lowered lids, her rich red lips +curled scornfully, one hand half raised to warn Milo to open the great +door slowly.</p> + +<p>"Well, Sancho, art better prepared for the greater treasures yet to be +seen?" smiled Dolores. The pirate's blazing eye seemed to dart flames as +the door slowly rose to Milo's touch.</p> + +<p>"Sultana!" he gasped, and his speech would do no more for him.</p> + +<p>"Enter, friend. This is thy great hour!"</p> + +<p>The queen pushed him gently inside, following herself, and Milo let fall +the door again, standing mute and motionless on the inside while his +mistress led the pirate to the center of the great chamber and waited +until his dazzled eye adjusted itself to the subtle lighting effects.</p> + +<p>Pascherette's last whispered communication to Dolores had told her of +Yellow Rufe's intentions; and while Sancho stood in amaze, she bent her +ear to catch the expected sound of voices through the sounding-stone +behind the tapestry. For there the little octoroon was to play a part +for Sancho's especial benefit. The thunder had become all but incessant; +with every crash the great chamber rumbled and echoed eerily; yet +between the crashes, brief as the periods were, human voices could be +heard.</p> + +<p>"Art ready to see my treasures, Sancho?"</p> + +<p>Dolores waved a gleaming arm around the place, indicating with one wide +gesture the glories of the walls and roof. But the pirate's senses +responded more readily to the tangible riches represented by gold and +gems, tall flagons, and jewel-incrusted lamps, littered diamonds and +rubies that strewed the big table.</p> + +<p>"Hah!" cried Dolores, with a low, throaty laugh. "Ah! my friend, I know +thy mind. Milo!"</p> + +<p>Milo advanced with a deep obeisance.</p> + +<p>"Milo, open the great chests for Sancho. Let him plunge his arms to the +elbows in red gold. Then I shall show him that which lies nearest to his +deserts."</p> + +<p>The pirate watched with lips no longer dry, but dripping with the saliva +of greed, while Milo flung open chest after chest, full to overflowing +with minted gold of many nations; looted jewels of royal and noble +houses, sacred vessels and glittering orders, weapons whose hilts and +scabbards, if ever made for use, could only have been used to bewilder +the eye and senses.</p> + +<p>Again the thunder pealed; and in the tremendous hush succeeding, the +voices outside penetrated the sounding-stone in more than a whisper. +Sancho jerked up his head and fear once more shone in his single eye.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[Pg 482]</a></span>"Come, good Sancho," purred Dolores, running her soft hand down his bare +forearm. "Art frightened by petty noises, then? Plunge thy hands deep, +man! All thou canst grasp is thine for so long as thy eye can enjoy or +thy hands fondle."</p> + +<p>Now Sancho's sordid soul surrendered. His greed conquered fear, and he +delved deep into a coffer, chattering the while with frenzy. And now +when the thunder rolled, his ears heard it not. He drew forth his hands, +and a glittering mass of wealth fell about his feet. He glared up at +Dolores, laughing ghoulishly.</p> + +<p>"That is well, Sancho," Dolores said, and took his hand. "Now I will +show thee the rest; and I know thou'lt never tell of it. I trust thee. +Come. Put thy ear to this tapestry, and tell me what thou canst hear."</p> + +<p>Sancho laid his ear to the cloth, and his eye gleamed brightly. Milo +stepped silently behind him.</p> + +<p>"I hear Hanglip!" he gasped. "Is he, too, here?"</p> + +<p>"He is outside the cliff. But whom else canst hear?"</p> + +<p>"I hear Caliban—Spotted Dog—Stumpy—I hear a score as if they stood by +my side! And Pascherette! By the fiend! She has played Rufe a trick! And +me—" He sprang from the wall like a tiger, snatching at his weaponless +belt with slavering fury, to be gathered at once into the remorseless +hug of Milo. And he glared full into the mocking face of Dolores—soft +and generous no more, but the embodiment of awful vengeance.</p> + +<p>For many seconds she stood regarding him contemptuously, until he +subsided helplessly in Milo's grasp; then, motioning the giant to +follow, she passed along and stopped before a life-size painting of "The +Sleeping Venus" in a massive, gilded frame. With one hand raised high at +the side, she turned a pulley-catch, and the great picture slowly fell +forward from the top until it rested slopingly on the floor, forming an +inclined entrance to a gloomy passage, dimly touched by a dark-red glow.</p> + +<p>This was the secret outlet to the great chamber by which Milo had access +to the altar in the grove at such times as his aid was needed to +support Dolores in some exhibition of black magic. She stepped swiftly +along the passage, giving no further heed to the panic-stricken pirate +until Milo had carried and dragged him to where she awaited him. This +was still another dark excavation, running deeper yet into the bowels of +the cliff; and the devilish red glare was here intensified until +surrounding objects were vividly revealed.</p> + +<p>"Now hear the doom of a traitor!" cried Dolores, with haughty mien. +"What! Not a traitor?" she mocked at the pirate's frantic howl of +denial. "Then Dolores has erred, perhaps. There is a test, good Sancho. +Let me see if I am wrong!"</p> + +<p>She signed to Milo, and the giant swung Sancho around until he faced the +deepest recess of the cave. There, swathed in mummy clothes, preserved +by the chemical miracle of the stratum of red earth that formed the core +of the rock, the body of Red Jabez stood erect against the wall, bathed +in the red glow, diamonds glittering where the dead eyes had been. And +on the rock ledge at his feet stood a tall flagon of gold, in which +Dolores had brewed an awful potion for this event. Beside this ledge +stood a low brazier full of glowing charcoal; on a tabouret near by lay +several terrible implements the use of which needed no explanation.</p> + +<p>"Look upon the face of the Red Chief, and drink this draft—'tis his +blood!" she cried, seizing the flagon and thrusting it into Sancho's +hands. "Then, if thy heart held no treachery toward me, thy life and +limbs are safe. But have a care! A lie in thy heart will surely undo +thee. Drink!"</p> + +<p>A splitting thunder-crash filled the place with uproar; a gust of the +tempest from the outer entrance sent the wind swirling in. It was as if +the breath of the storm snatched Sancho's senses back from the +terror-land they had fled to; he ceased his howling, glared defiantly up +at the dead chief, and cried in desperation: "Give me the drink! I fear +neither gods nor devils; why should I fear you, dead man?"</p> + +<p>"Wait!" Dolores laid a hand on his arm, and stayed the flagon at his +lips. "Wait, till I tell thee more. Then, if thou art guiltless, and go +from here with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[Pg 483]</a></span> treasure I gave thee, thou'lt know thy friends and +thy foes.</p> + +<p>"Didst think Yellow Rufe was free? Thou fool! Thy wits are powerless +before a woman's. Did my pretty Pascherette tell him he might go free, +taking my sloop, escaping my vengeance, as thou didst think to? Didst +hear those voices? Then I tell thee, Sancho, that ten-score count, that +Rufe doubtless made in fear and trembling, but sufficed to raise his +hopes. For ere he had gained the sloop and started her anchor, +Pascherette had done her work. The stranger's schooner is full of my +men, waiting for Rufe to come for his booty. Let him take alarm, then +how far may he win? Thou'lt never know, false Sancho, for I have no +doubt of thy treachery. Now drink, if thou darest!"</p> + +<p>"Then, by the fiend, I dare!" shouted the pirate. Something in the tang +of the gale sweeping in from the unseen entrance reassured him of the +existence of the outer world; persuaded him that by taking a desperate +chance he might yet throw dust in the eyes of this terrible woman and go +hence with the secret of the great chamber. "I dare, Dolores! Blood, d' +ye say? What fitter drink for a pirate?"</p> + +<p>He lifted the flagon, took a deep draft in great gulps, so that his +determination might carry him; then his eye sparkled, he took the flagon +from his lips, and grinned at Milo. "By the great Red Chief!" he cried. +"This is justice indeed! I drink to ye, Sultana, and to Milo, ye big +jester!" and finished the drink with a greedy swallow.</p> + +<p>Then the flagon clattered to the ground, Sancho's face went livid, and +his mouth opened wide and loosely, as his body and limbs were seized +with subtle pains. His brain, too, felt an awful numbness creeping upon +it; for the draft had done its work. The rarest of wine from her store, +Dolores had mingled with it a devilish powder that first sapped the +strength, then attacked the brain, and eventually snapped the cord of +intelligence, leaving the victim a driveling imbecile. But that point +had not yet been reached. It would come perhaps in one hour, two, three, +perhaps six—but inevitably it must come. For the present the pirate +was simply in the grip of the unknown, yet having full power to realize, +but not resist, the tangible terrors at hand.</p> + +<p>"Milo, hasten the rest. I shall await thee at the gate. Put forth this +traitor by the Grove outlet, and see to it that he takes with him +neither power to see beauty, to utter treason, or to ever feel again the +scalding touch of coveted gold. Make speed, I command thee, for I hear +my stout trusty ones clamoring for the chase!"</p> + +<p>Dolores disappeared through the secret outlet, sprang down behind the +altar, and ran through the Grove. Beside the cliff were huddled Hanglip +and Stumpy, Caliban, and Spotted Dog, drenched with the teeming rain, +restless with impatience, peering ever to seaward in the lightning +flashes that continually illumined the scene.</p> + +<p>Among them Dolores appeared, suddenly, mysteriously, as coming from the +skies, and after a choke of amazement Stumpy flung a hand seaward, and +shouted above the turmoil of wind and rain:</p> + +<p>"Queen o' Night, thou'lt need thy magic now! See, there flies the +villain!"</p> + +<p>Dolores looked, and smiled disdainfully. The torrential rain beat upon +her bare head and shoulders, causing her to glisten and shine like a +golden goddess; but she heeded it not at all; her eyes sought out what +Stumpy had indicated. And there, in the next lightning-flash, flying +seaward, was the sloop. Rufe had taken alarm, and had foregone his plan +of looting the schooner.</p> + +<p>"Let him go; he'll fly not far," she said calmly. "Come with me to the +great rock, my bold fellows; daylight shall show thee Rufe where I would +have him—paying the price, as Sancho has paid!"</p> + +<p>She glided around the rock, followed by her silent faithfuls, while from +the Grove rang a shriek of mortal agony that sent fierce hearts aquiver +with terror.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">DOLORES FLOATS THE FEU FOLLETTE.</h3> + + +<p>"Hell's breath!" screamed Caliban, as the cry rang out. "Have ye devils +in the Grove, mistress?" Hanglip and Spotted Dog, too, cringed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[Pg 484]</a></span> back in +fright. Stumpy concealed his uneasiness, yet his eyes searched Dolores's +face questingly. None truly believed in the queen's magic powers; yet +none was bold enough to openly avow his unbelief; and the added grimness +of the storm, assisted by the unearthliness of that howl of anguish, +brought the four godless pirates to the verge of superstitious terror.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I keep my devils there," replied Dolores; "and that is the traitor +Sancho answering to them for his perfidy. So watch, and obey me, lest +thy cries, too, go up from my altar!"</p> + +<p>She stood apart at the great stone, listening, and presently Milo rolled +up the rock barrier, and appeared in the gloom, calm and cool as if he +had no association with devils, imaginary or otherwise. A livid +lightning-flash played on his features, and the pirates drew back, +muttering at his black eyes which glowed with red points like rubies in +the heart of twin coals.</p> + +<p>"Milo, there flies Rufe," said Dolores, flinging an arm seaward. Beyond +the false point, in the midst of black seas dappled with rushing +white-horses, under a lowering black sky that seemed to lean down to the +verge of the ocean itself, Rufe's sloop was pictured in the next flash +of electric radiance a thing of desolation and panic. Fully a mile away, +the craft vanished in the pervading blackness between every flash. "I +need thy condor's vision now as never before. Take the swift, small +sailboat, and flares; follow the sloop as long as thy eyes can pick her +out; we shall follow thy flares in the schooner until we overtake thee. +Haste now; Rufe has grace enough!"</p> + +<p>Milo stayed only to get his flare-powder and tinder-box, then +disappeared down the cliff.</p> + +<p>Dolores despatched her four attendants to the schooner, prepared to +follow, then, with an afterthought, halted two of them.</p> + +<p>"Here, Hanglip, Spotted Dog, wait!" She swiftly entered the council +hall, went to the three small chambers, and released her captives from +the ring-bolts. Driving them before her, bewildered by the sudden +emergence from tranquillity to the turmoil of the storm, she gave the +two pirates each a chain, held the other herself, and led the way down +to the stranded schooner. Her motive was not only uncertainty about the +people left at the camp, who might prove susceptible to bribery if not +pity; she also felt a sort of whimsical desire to impress these +strangers with the utter inevitability of her power.</p> + +<p>The Feu Follette lay on the edge of the bar, as she had lain since +stranding, except that with tide after tide her keel had worn itself a +place in the sand, and she was less closely held than before. Of her +rightful crew but five survived the fight; one was the sailing-master, +Peters, and all were imprisoned under jailers in the forecastle. On the +schooner's sloping decks, when Dolores and her party climbed aboard, +were a score of nondescript pirates, besides the crew's custodians, at a +loss to account for the escape of the sloop, and worked up to a pitch of +nervousness where they were only fit for sudden, strenuous action with a +merciless taskmaster. And such they speedily had.</p> + +<p>Dolores ordered her three captives to be taken to the great cabin, and +their chains were fastened to the ornately paneled mainmast which ran +down through both decks and formed the support of a gorgeously furnished +sideboard. Then the companionway was locked on them, and the girl sprang +to tremendous life.</p> + +<p>"Aloft with thee, Stumpy!" she cried, selecting him because after Milo +his eyes were keenest of them all. "Keep thy eyes open for Milo's +flares, and mark well the direction. Hanglip, thou surly dog! Take ten +men and lay me out a good anchor astern, with a stout hawser. Be brisk! +Come aboard in ten minutes, or thy back shall smart."</p> + +<p>Sancho's boat had remained at the port quarter, and into this Hanglip +drove his crew while Spotted Dog with the rest of the men got ready an +anchor to lower to them.</p> + +<p>"Caliban, cast off the gaskets from fore and main!" cried Dolores next. +"Where are thy rascals? Plague take thee, hunchback! Couldst not say +there were not men enough? Below with ye, and bring up the schooner's +people. Have sail on this vessel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[Pg 485]</a></span> before that anchor takes hold, or I'll +flay thy hump!"</p> + +<p>Cursing venomously, the deformed little demon sprang into the forecastle +and drove up Peters and his four men with kicks and blows. They, too, +were bewildered by the tremendous uproar of sea and wind, and went like +sheep to the fore and main masts at Caliban's bidding.</p> + +<p>"Ready for the anchor—lower away!" roared Hanglip in the boat, where +already was piled coil on coil a great hemp hawser.</p> + +<p>"Handsomely, ye dogs, handsomely!" shrieked Spotted Dog in turn. The +anchor sank into the boat to the screeching of tackles and the groaning +of boat-timbers, and was carried out astern.</p> + +<p>"Carry the end aft!" Dolores commanded; the hawser was taken along and +the end passed around the quarter-deck capstan. "Up with those sails!" +cried the girl now, and Caliban's gang sweated at the halyards, while +slackened sheets permitted the booms to swing and present the luffs to +the screaming gale, bearing no resistance. While the boat pulled away +into the darkness astern, carrying the anchor to the full scope of the +cable, Dolores kept her eyes ever aloft, and over the sea, and upon +every detail of the work. Her eyes fell upon Peters, standing in sullen +mood at the belaying-pin which held a turn of the main-throat halyards. +And as the croaking cry of Caliban ordered "Belay!" she called Peters to +her.</p> + +<p>"Thou'rt sailing-master, hey?"</p> + +<p>"I was."</p> + +<p>"Art still, if thy heart is as stubborn as thy face!" cried Dolores, +laughing at his scowl. "Canst sail thy ship now?"</p> + +<p>"I can sail any ship that floats, but neither I nor your sharks can sail +this schooner now," he replied surlily. "Your false marks did their work +well."</p> + +<p>"Then thou'd rather pull a rope than hold a wheel, hey? 'Tis but a +wooden sailor, after all. I hoped such a ship would boast a seaman as +master. I'll show thee seamanship, sheep-heart!"</p> + +<p>Out of the darkness astern came a roar:</p> + +<p>"Anchor's down! Heave away!"</p> + +<p>And from the darkness aloft Stumpy bawled:</p> + +<p>"There she flares! Mother o' me!" The prayer, curse, whatever the last +words might be, were called forth by a paralyzing flash of lightning +that shone over the raging sea like a gigantic calcium-light. The +schooner's deck resounded with superstitious howls, which rose to awed +cries from the weakest as from trucks and gaff-ends glowed and flickered +the blue brush of St. Elmo's fire.</p> + +<p>"Heave away, heave away!" Dolores's voice rang out on the hubbub, +forcing obedience even in face of terror. The capstan went round to the +urge of a dozen pair of fear-stimulated arms; and fathom by fathom the +great cable came in dripping and glistening; fathom after fathom was +heaped on the deck, and still the schooner remained fast. And ever from +aloft came Stumpy's hail, reporting Milo's flare fast fading in the +distance.</p> + +<p>"You can't do it! I knew it!" shouted Peters defiantly.</p> + +<p>"Peace, sheep!" answered Dolores, slapping him upon the mouth. She stood +at the wheel, and no part of the vessel's situation escaped her. She had +yet a trump to play: a hazardous one, truly, but the big one. The big +fore and main sails swung and crashed idly at their sheets, filling the +air with the thunder of their flinging blocks. At each boom a seaman +stood, and each held the double block of a boom-tackle, waiting the word +that now came.</p> + +<p>"Clap on those boom-tackles!" Dolores commanded, and four men flew to +each as it was hooked to the rigging. "Haul away! Boom the sails square +out!" The great sails filled with a crash as the gale took them on the +fore side, flinging them violently aback.</p> + +<p>"You'll pluck the spars out of her!" screamed Peters, in a frenzy now as +his cherished masts whipped and cracked to the tremendous backward +strain. Dolores ignored the crazed man, but a scornful smile wreathed +about her lips, and her dark eyes gleamed. "Out with them!" she cried. +"More hands there! And heave, ho, heave away on the capstan! Burst thy +arms, bullies! Here comes Hanglip and his bold lads to help ye! Round +with her! Out with them! Heave, good bullies!"</p> + +<p>The girl stood by the wheel, a splendid figure of matchless energy and +courage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[Pg 486]</a></span> Aloft the topmasts bent like whips; Stumpy's voice came down +in ever-increasing fear as his perch grew shakier; the great expanse of +canvas, which should have been treble-reefed even in a floating ship +going forward, tore at boom-tackles and earrings, tacks, and mast-hoops, +shaking the vessel to the keel and filling her with cataclysmic thunder.</p> + +<p>"By the bones of Red Jabez, she comes!" roared Spotted Dog, peering over +the side. "Heave, lads, and never doubt the girl again! Fiends o' +Topheth! See her slide!"</p> + +<p>The schooner shuddered from forefoot to sternpost; the big hawser +slipped in through the lead with gathering speed; the groaning masts +imparted an impulse to her that drove her astern like an arrow, and now, +triumphantly, Dolores cried:</p> + +<p>"An ax! Quickly—cut the hawser! Caliban, get a jib loosed! Hanglip, +open the companionway, and bring up my prisoners. I would have them +enjoy the sail."</p> + +<p>A curling sea poured over the taffrail, sweeping Dolores from her feet; +she met it with a ringing laugh, gripping the wheel as her safeguard, +and the moment the ax severed the hawser she gave the vessel a sheer +with the helm, and again her orders rang out:</p> + +<p>"Let go both boom-tackles! Hoist away the jib! Haul the jib-sheet to +starboard, and stand by fore and main sheets!"</p> + +<p>Out of the darkness ahead came the fluttering of canvas, and soon +Caliban's hoarse croak rang aft: "Hoist away th' jib!" The great booms +swung amidships again when the tackles were cast off, and now the +headsail flew up the stay, the restrained sheet to starboard causing the +canvas to fill aback as had the greater sails before. The pressure was +ahead and to one side; the schooner's head began to fall off, then +faster as she gained momentum, and the fore and main sails again began +to thunder at their blocks.</p> + +<p>"Let draw the jib! Bring in the fore sheet; bear a hand aft here, main +sheet, lads, smartly!" cried Dolores, twirling the wheel to meet the +vessel's swift leeward leap. And as the liberated Feu Follette heeled +dizzily to the gale, under full spread of sail, and her owner and his +guests appeared into the storm, Stumpy's cry rang out:</p> + +<p>"There's the flare—and she's burnin' steady!"</p> + + +<p class="continue">TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month.</p> + + + + + +<h2><a name="Part_III" id="Part_III"></a>The Pirate Woman</h2> + +<h2>by Captain Dingle</h2> + +<p class="center"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_697" id="Page_697">[Pg 697]</a></span>Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc.</p> + +<p class="continue2">This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2.</p> + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">YELLOW RUFE'S FINISH.</h3> + + +<p>"How bears the flare?" Dolores demanded, steadying the helm.</p> + +<p>"Three points on lee-bow!" came from aloft.</p> + +<p>"Sing out when we point for it!" Dolores gave the wheel a few spokes, +and at her command the main-sheet was rendered until the schooner fell +off from the wind, and Stumpy hailed: "Steady! She heads fair for it!"</p> + +<p>"Does it still burn?"</p> + +<p>"Aye, blazing bright! And low down, too, for the seas hide it every +moment!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_698" id="Page_698">[Pg 698]</a></span>"Keep thy eyes skinned, and seek for the sloop, too."</p> + +<p>The schooner came to a more even keel as she squared away from the gale, +and the splendid speed of the craft sent a thrill through Dolores, as +through the less impressionable pirate of the gang. Fast as Rufe's sloop +was, this dainty plaything of wealth and leisure sped over the snarling +seas at a gait that promised to overhaul the smaller vessel two fathoms +to one.</p> + +<p>Even Rupert Venner and his friends, shivering with the wet and sudden +change from the cabin to the deck though they were, found much to soothe +them in the glorious sweep and swing of the Feu Follette; much to admire +and envy in the perfect poise and <i>sang froid</i> of the magnificent +creature at the wheel.</p> + +<p>Dolores stood on feet as steady as the great, deep eyes that were fixed +on the compass-card before her. Her heavy, lustrous hair streamed about +her from under the golden circlet; in each lightning flash she stood +out, a thing of wild, awful beauty; the rain glistened on her bare +shoulders and arms, rendering her golden skin a gleaming, fairylike +armor. And the blustering wind caught her wet tunic and wrapped it about +her closely and tightly, revealing every grace and glory of her perfect +body.</p> + +<p>"Saints! Was there ever such a creature?" said Tomlin hoarsely.</p> + +<p>Pearse's face was set and grim; he made no rejoinder. Venner, too, kept +silent; but his eyes held venom as he glared at the speaker. Dolores +suddenly raised her eyes from the binnacle, looked toward them as they +crouched shivering in the lee of the deck-house-companion, and she, warm +and glowing in a flimsy, wet garment, laughed mockingly, and called to +them.</p> + +<p>"I am forgetting what is due to my guests. Do ye feel cold? Will ye go +below?"</p> + +<p>And they, shivering and uneasy as they were, were content to shiver if +only they might not lose sight of her. Their reply was unintelligible; +neither would look at the others; yet their mumbled response was +understood, and the girl laughed again, loud, ringing, and full of +allure.</p> + +<p>"Such courage comes only of true sea stock, my friends! I shall not +forget this fortitude when I have done with the schooner."</p> + +<p>"Flare close aboard!" roared Stumpy; then: "Seize my soul if I see the +boat, though, mistress. Satan! Now the flare's gone out!"</p> + +<p>"Whereaway?" cried Dolores shrilly. Big Milo was out there in the +blackness.</p> + +<p>"Right under the bows!" bellowed the lookout. "Luff, or bear away; ye'll +run him down!"</p> + +<p>And from the raging seas off the lee-bow came the deep, calm voice of +Milo, unperturbed as if on dry land, though no boat was to be seen in +the murk. "Hold the course, Sultana, I am here!"</p> + +<p>And on the heels of the words came a flash from the skies, blazing full +upon the dripping figure of the giant as he reached a great arm up, +gripped the lee-rail, and swung himself on board with the unconscious +ease of a perfect athlete.</p> + +<p>"Thy boat, Milo?" inquired Dolores.</p> + +<p>"Sailed under, Sultana. I have held the flare aloft in my hand while +swimming until a moment ago, when the powder burned out."</p> + +<p>"And Rufe?"</p> + +<p>"The sloop is close by. Thou art sailing fair at his stern if thy course +was not changed to avoid me. His topmast is gone; he sails slowly."</p> + +<p>Then without more ado the splendid human animal clutched a backstay and +swarmed aloft with the agility of an ape, showing not a whit of strain +after his battle with the roaring seas. He reached Stumpy, sent that +numbed mariner down, and searched the waters with his keen vision, +waiting for another lightning flash. And when it came, fainter now as +the thunderstorm receded, his resonant voice boomed down:</p> + +<p>"Broad abeam the sloop lies! She runs before the wind!"</p> + +<p>"Slack away the main-sheet!" cried Dolores, heaving the helm up. "Hail +every minute, Milo!"</p> + +<p>"Shall I send him a shot immediately, lady?" roared Hanglip, at the +schooner's foremost gun.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_699" id="Page_699">[Pg 699]</a></span>"Hold with thy shots, villain! Does Rufe deserve no sport? Stand by with +the grappling-hooks. I'll run him down!"</p> + +<p>"The sloop is dead ahead!" hailed Milo, though none on deck could detect +anything of her in the blackness. Dolores listened intently; then +twirled the wheel, and cried: "I hear her! Ready the grapnels?"</p> + +<p>"Aye, ready!"</p> + +<p>"Then watch—and heave!" she commanded; and with the suddenness of light +the schooner swept around in a swift arc, the black shape of the flying +sloop stood out against the angry sea crests, and the two vessels came +together with a crash of timbers and a rattling of gear.</p> + +<p>A distant rumbling of thunder succeeded a faint flash, and wind and rain +came down with increased fury as if to balance the defection of the +electric element. The darkness of Erebus fell upon the surging vessels, +and men groped at the rails in a blind effort to make out a footing for +boarding the sloop.</p> + +<p>"Follow me; I want Yellow Rufe alive!" cried Dolores, leaving the wheel +and springing to the bulwarks. Instinctively Peters stepped to the +wheel, and as he passed his employer he leaned to whisper in his ear:</p> + +<p>"Let them once leave these decks, sir, and we'll up hellum and away!"</p> + +<p>Venner's eyes glittered at the prospect; but he could not see the faces +of his friends; he could only hear Pearse's low tones beside him, and +the mumbled words indicated no great agreement in the scheme. Uncertain, +his mind confused between desire to escape and desire to see more of +Dolores and her hidden cave of wonders, Rupert Venner hesitated in his +decision; and in the next moment it was out of his power to decide. For +Rufe, in desperation now, met the boarders at the rail, backed by his +half-dozen crazed adherents, and murderous steel glittered dully against +the inky sky.</p> + +<p>"Beat down his cringing curs, but leave me Rufe!" cried Dolores, +opposing her own dagger to the sweep of the pirate's cutlas. And as the +schooner's crew roared at Hanglip's heels, storming over to the pitching +sloop's decks to pursue mercilessly the panic-stricken runaways, the +girl pitted agility and splendid knife-craft against the terror-driven +strength and wolfish fury of the trapped traitor.</p> + +<p>"Hah! Thy black heart fails thee!" taunted Dolores, leaping down from +the rail to the schooner's streaming deck and thus avoiding a whistling +stroke of Rufe's cutlas. The pirate fell forward with the impetus of his +blow, and stumbled in a heap at the girl's nimble feet. "Up, man!" she +cried, leaping back to permit him to rise. "What, art afraid of a woman? +Here, then, I prick thee! Now wilt fight?" She darted her dagger swiftly +downward, and the partially healed cross on Rufe's cheek blazed red +again.</p> + +<p>"Woman or devil, I'll see thy heart for that!" swore the pirate, and +rose with a bound and hurled himself at the girl. She stepped aside +agilely and laughed mockingly at him, while as he again stumbled with +the swing of his avoided blow she darted close, and her knife ripped his +sword-arm from wrist to elbow.</p> + +<p>Mouthing crazily with fury, Rufe leaped backward until his shoulders +struck the rigging, and, seizing his cutlas in his left hand, he poised +it by the blade for a deadly javelin cast.</p> + +<p>Now upon the scene flared a great blaze, and Stumpy's scowling face +appeared at the back of it. He, with readier wit than his fellows, had +sought out a tar-pot and lamp; and at the moment his mistress stood +defenseless before the impeding steel, the club-footed pirate poured +lamp-oil into the tar, and cast the flaring wick on top of all.</p> + +<p>A circle of light spread from wheel to foremast, with Yellow Rufe at the +main rigging in the center of it. The light dazzled him for a second, +and his throw was stayed. The three yachtsmen, huddled in their chains +aft, stared in helpless amazement at the tableau; for such it became, +when the fight stopped for a breath and every man's passion-filled face +was lighted by the red glare.</p> + +<p>"Shoot him down!" shouted Pearse in horror.</p> + +<p>And Venner and Tomlin strove for words without success. Venner was dumb +and sick in face of Dolores's peril. Yellow Rufe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_700" id="Page_700">[Pg 700]</a></span> uttered a grim, +Satanic growl of laughter, and drew back his arm for the cast. His +plight was utterly desperate; he knew death waited for him with +clutching talons, and with his last breath he would reap toll that +should make his name a thing to recall with dread afterward.</p> + +<p>"This for thy witch's heart!" he howled, and his arm quivered. Then out +of the shadows aloft, above the smoky flare, came down the tremendous +shape of Milo, forgotten in his post at the masthead, but never taking +his eyes from his Sultana.</p> + +<p>Like a gorilla he slipped down the backstay with one hand; with the +other hand he reached downward with a swift, sure clutch, and as Rufe's +wrist flexed to cast his javelin Milo's hand gripped him by the neck +from behind and swung him bodily off his feet, while the wide-flung +cutlas flashed through the air and plunged with a hiss over the side.</p> + +<p>"I thank thee again, Milo," said Dolores, slipping her dagger into the +sheath and looking on at Rufe's struggles with the unconcern of one far +apart from the actual conflict. "I wished to take him alive; yet had +almost been forced to cut too deeply. Bring the villain to me. And, +Caliban, get more flares, lanterns, lights, and make us a theater of +justice here."</p> + +<p>She stepped aft, saw Peters at the wheel, and smiled as she realized how +her boarding of the sloop might have resulted.</p> + +<p>"Hah, but it would have availed thee nothing!" she smiled at Venner. "I +read thy heart as I read the stars, friend. Watch how completely Yellow +Rufe pays his debt to me. He has fled me through forest and mountain; +through a sea of howling storm; yet he pays. And thus all men pay who +think to flout Dolores. Keep thy eyes wide, friends, and watch."</p> + +<p>Yellow Rufe was brought before her, and his swarthy face was pallid in +the red light. There was something of the splendid beast about this +fellow, too; a quality that showed even when he faced certain death and +no merciful one. He had run, and when overtaken he had fought; and now +he must pay.</p> + +<p>"Hanglip, to the wheel here!" Dolores commanded. "Six of you bring back +the sloop. The rest attend me! Bring the schooner to her course, +northwest, Hanglip; and, Spotted Dog, rig me a whip at the foregaff-end. +Yellow Rufe, pray or curse while ye may. Thy course is run. There is +nothing left to say. Ten minutes remain to thee."</p> + +<p>The doomed pirate stood in silence while the preparations were being +made; but when Spotted Dog brought down the end of the rope he had rove +through the block at the end of the gaff, and stood grinning +anticipatively before Dolores, Rufe's tongue came loose, and he burst +into a torrent of futile, raving blasphemy.</p> + +<p>"Take the rope end forward, and pass it around the bows, so that the +rope passes beneath the keel," Dolores ordered, and every eager villain +in the band knew now what fate awaited Rufe. The schooner, not being +square-rigged, was badly fitted for the operation of keel-hauling; but +Dolores's inventive brain had devised a refinement of even that +refinement of torture. She waited for the rope end, and when Spotted Dog +brought it aft, on the weather side, passing clear from the gaff to +leeward, under the keel and up to windward, she stood aside so that the +yachtsmen could witness all.</p> + +<p>"Tie his hands, Milo!" she said. It was carried out, in spite of Rufe's +fierce fight against it. "Now place the noose about his throat tightly." +That, too, was done, and now the rope led from Rufe's neck, over the +weather rail, under the schooner, and up to the gaff. Three men stood by +the hauling part of the rope, and at a gesture from the girl six others +joined them. On every face was a little doubt, for none saw exactly what +was coming, least of all Rufe.</p> + +<p>"Now release him!" said Dolores quietly, and Rufe was left standing +alone, his hands tied, but his feet unfettered. He glared around as if +he saw a slim chance yet for life; the hope died the next moment, for +Dolores signed to the men at the rope, they began hauling, and the +terror leaped into Rufe's eyes afresh.</p> + +<p>For a moment Venner and his friends saw what they imagined to be a piece +of grim jesting; but they, as well as Rufe,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_701" id="Page_701">[Pg 701]</a></span> speedily saw there was no +jest in this. For as the rope tightened, and other roaring ruffians ran +joyously to take a pull at it, Rufe was drawn irresistibly toward the +weather rail with a choking drag on his throat. He seized the rail, and +strained with his every sinew to fight that deadly peril; the rope only +tightened more; it was either go or strangle for him; fight as he might, +he was forced to climb on the rail, to aid in his own funeral.</p> + +<p>The yachtsmen turned dizzy with the awfulness of the man's end; but they +could not take their fascinated eyes from the scene. They saw Rufe +topple over the rail with a choking curse, and saw the rope pull him +under the vessel; they saw the rope quiver to the pirates' lusty pull as +the victim was battered against the keel. And they saw the terrible +figure leap from the sea to leeward and fly to the gaff-end as the men +ran away with the rope to a roaring chorus. But they saw no more. Their +eyes refused to look at a repetition of that horror. And Dolores, +watching them keenly, came to them, after giving final orders regarding +Yellow Rufe's body, took their chains in her hand, and said:</p> + +<p>"When again the thought comes to leave me, gentlemen, think well upon +what I have showed thee. Now come below. I owe thee some refreshment +after a night of storm. 'Twill be approaching dawn ere the schooner can +beat back to my haven. Come. I will serve thee with supper."</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE FIRES OF THE FLESH.</h3> + + +<p>In the schooner's saloon the atmosphere was peaceful by contrast with +the hurly-burly outside; yet even here the steep slant of the deck, the +shrill, protesting squeal of working frames and beams, the sullen thud +and swish of racing seas along the vessel's skin, kept the storm ever in +mind: the dizzy plunge of the bows into great gray seas, with its +accompanying rise of the stern and the hollow jar and thump of the +rudder-post in its port, kept the interior humming with sound as from a +distant organ.</p> + +<p>Again chained to the mainmast, the three yachtsmen stood gloomily +regarding Dolores, whose capable, battle-wise fingers now performed a +task more in keeping with her sex and charm. Under the great swing-lamp +in the skylight she leaned over the table, mixing wine in low, stout +cups, spreading a silver salver with food from the pantry. And a +thrilling picture she made in the soft glow of the lamp. The beautiful +face was warm with color; the scarlet lips were slightly opened in a +brilliant smile; intent upon her task, she swayed with superb grace to +the tremendous lurches of the driving schooner, ignoring all outside +affairs.</p> + +<p>Her preparations completed, she placed tray and cups at the end of the +table nearest the mainmast, turned around the deep armchair which had +been the owner's own, and sat down, offering a cup and the tray with a +little laugh of satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"Come, friend Rupert," she said, thrilling Venner again with her vibrant +voice, "thou shalt be first. Eat—and drink. See, for thee I do this." +She raised the cup to her lips, and kissed the brim, fixing her +fathomless eyes full on Venner as she did so.</p> + +<p>He struggled with his feelings for a moment, and hated himself heartily +for even debating his attitude. But he fell, as he had done before, +dazzled by her witchery. His eyes blazed, his blood leaped, and he took +the cup with a mumbled attempt at thanks. Dolores smiled at his +confusion, and in that smile was the allure of a Circe.</p> + +<p>Venner's expression became less tense as he noted the faces of his +fellows; for in their eyes he read jealousy, rank and stark, and it +warmed him to the marrow. In the next instant his warmth rose to fever +heat, and malice twisted his features; Dolores had taken another cup, +and now she offered it to Pearse, with a smile yet more gracious than +before.</p> + +<p>"My silent friend, here's to thee, too," she murmured. His cup she +kissed twice, and presented it carefully so that the place she kissed +was against his lips. "Drink. I have sweetened it."</p> + +<p>As Venner's brows darkened, so did John Pearse conquer his first flush +of self-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_702" id="Page_702">[Pg 702]</a></span>contempt and put on a smile that irradiated his usually serious +face. And Tomlin brightened, too, waiting in what patience he could +muster for his turn, which must come next. To him Dolores turned, cup in +hand, and rising at the same time gave him his wine with a brief: "Here, +drink, too. I must leave thee a while."</p> + +<p>She forced the cup into Tomlin's trembling fingers, gave him never a +glance, but went out of the saloon on her errand.</p> + +<p>When he realized she was gone, Craik Tomlin dashed down the wine like a +petulant boy, and cursed deeply and fiercely. And not until then did +Venner and Pearse awake to the true artistry of the woman; for here, +instead of making of Tomlin a raging foe, willing to plot with all the +power of his alert brain for their ultimate release, she had aroused a +demon of black jealousy in him which promised to set all three by the +ears.</p> + +<p>Restricted as their movements were, they were forced to nurse whatever +feelings Dolores had implanted in them in full sight of each other. And +Tomlin left no doubt as to his feelings. At the farthest scope of his +chain he flung himself down on the slanting floor and crouched there +with dull-glowing eyes bent loweringly upon his friends. Venner laughed +awkwardly, and glanced at Pearse; the laugh died away and left a silence +between them that was vividly accentuated by the manifold voices of the +laboring vessel. For in the swift meeting of eyes, John Pearse and +Venner, host and guest, friends to that moment, saw in each other an +established rival, a potential foe. Involuntarily they drew apart; and +when Dolores returned from the deck she found them spread out like star +rays, having nothing in common except a common center.</p> + +<p>She gave no sign that she noticed them; but her heavy, fringed lids +drooped over eyes brimming with gratification. As she stepped from the +stairs the schooner swung upright, the deck overhead thundered to the +slamming of booms as she came about, and then the cabin sloped the other +way, rolling the scattered wine-cups noisily across the floor. Neither +man looked up; but Tomlin's cup rolled so that it struck his foot, and +he gave voice to a deep oath, terrible in its uncalled-for savagery. +Then Dolores gave them outward notice for the first time.</p> + +<p>With a low, pleasant laugh, she stepped quickly to Tomlin's side, laid a +hand on his sullen head, and forced him to look up at her.</p> + +<p>"I owe thee something, friend," she smiled, and Tomlin flushed hotly +under her close regard. "I treated thee badly in my haste. Come"—she +went to the sideboard, filled another cup with wine, and came back, +kneeling before Tomlin in the attitude of a slave while her big eyes +blazed full into his.</p> + +<p>"Drink, for I like thee best," she whispered, sipping the wine and +putting the brim, warm from her lips, to his.</p> + +<p>And Tomlin drank deeply, greedily, trembling under her close proximity. +He felt her hand take his chain, heard the tinkle of links, and knew, +without seeing, that she had unlocked his fetters and he was free.</p> + +<p>"Now sit here with me, and thou shalt tell me about thy world, my +friend, the world thou shalt take me to."</p> + +<p>Her soft, thrilling voice set Tomlin's blood leaping; and as she spoke +she led him to Venner's great chair and sat him down in it. Then, facing +at the length of the table her other two captives, she stood behind the +big chair, her arms on the top, leaning low to Tomlin's ear, her lips +almost brushing his cheek.</p> + +<p>And she whispered to him musically, seductively; her jeweled fingers +played with his hair; the soft, warm skin of her arms slid over his neck +and face; when, in a frenzy, he reached impulsively for her hand and +gripped it, she laughed yet more deliciously and permitted him to hold +it.</p> + +<p>"Why must you seek another world, Dolores?" Tomlin said hoarsely. "Here +you are queen. Out in the greater world you can be no more. Stay, and +let me stay with you."</p> + +<p>"And would my paltry possessions pay thee for renouncing thy people, thy +home?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Home? People? God! I renounce Heaven itself if you say yes!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_703" id="Page_703">[Pg 703]</a></span>"We shall see, my friend," Dolores sighed, and Tomlin felt her tremble +slightly. "My chief desire is to leave behind me this life of herder to +human beasts. To go into the world whence comes such as thee, Tomlin; to +live among the people who can make such as these"—she indicated the +rich furnishing of the saloon, the sideboard silver and plate, the +stained glass of the skylight.</p> + +<p>"All these things I have, and more—nay, but thy treasures are nothing +compared with what I shall show thee in the great chamber—yet must I +keep them hidden because of the beasts that call me Sultana! Where they +came from, these treasures, must be men like thee, Tomlin, women like +the painted women of my gallery, people with the art to make these +things instead of the brute power to steal them. And there I will go, +and thou art to be my guide."</p> + +<p>"Then, in Heaven's name, let us go now!" cried Tomlin, trying to rise. +She laughed in his ear again, and her soft, warm arms pressed him back +in the chair with a power that amazed him. "We shall go, in good +season," she whispered. "But—" The rest was murmured so faintly, yet so +tremendously audible to his superheated brain, that he drew back and +stared up at her with an awful expression of mingled unbelief and horror +distorting his face.</p> + +<p>"Do you know what you say?" he gasped, and shot an apprehensive glance +toward Venner and Pearse.</p> + +<p>"Surely, my friend," she crooned. "Thyself alone, of those who came in +this ship, may return. If I am desirable, see to it that I can be +pleased with thee." Dolores stood up, bent upon him a dazzling smile, +leaned as if to kiss his lips, then with a tinkling little ripple of +mirth blew a kiss instead and ran up the companion-stairs to the deck.</p> + +<p>Tomlin stood glaring after her as if fascinated. His face, deeply +flushed a moment before, had gone deathly white; his profile, turned +under the lamp toward his companions, showed deeply puckered brows over +stony eyes, lips parted as if to utter a cry of horror. And Venner, +fuming inwardly, had seen enough to recall some of his badly scattered +wits. He called Tomlin by name hoarsely, softly, and exclaimed when he +looked around:</p> + +<p>"Tomlin, shall we three be ruined body and soul by that sorceress? Come, +help us out of these chains, and we will make a bid for liberty. We can +reach Peters and such men as are left, by way of the alleyway to the +forecastle; I know where weapons are to be got, and we'll put our fate +on the cast. Come. Pearse is of a like mind, eh, Pearse?"</p> + +<p>Pearse did not reply at once, and Tomlin saved him the trouble; for, +recovering himself with a shudder, he put a hand on the companion-rail +and started up the stairs with a laugh of contempt.</p> + +<p>"I have no concern with your troubles, Venner," he said. "As for +liberty, I am free as air. I believe patience is the medicine you need."</p> + +<p>Tomlin reached the deck with tingling ears, for even Pearse came out of +his reverie to curse him. But curses or benedictions counted nothing at +that moment. In every patch of light he saw Dolores's devilishly lovely +face; in every swing of the vessel he saw her consummate grace; he was a +thirsty man seeking a spring, knowing full well that a draft must kill +him. He stood alone outside the companionway, wondering at the absence +of people, at the absence of Dolores. A solitary man stood at the wheel; +and, looking around for others, Tomlin noticed vaguely that the black +storm was broken, that watery stars were winking down, and that almost +in the zenith a gibbous moon leaned like a brimming dipper of +quicksilver, ready to drop from the inky cloud that had but just +uncovered it.</p> + +<p>Then voices reached his ears from forward, voices full of wondering +anger, and he stepped out clear of the deck-house and peered ahead on +the windward side. There, two miles away, the land loomed black and +forbidding; and high up, on a crest, a great red blaze leaped and +swirled against the flying clouds.</p> + +<p>As he stood, Dolores ran aft, ignoring him utterly in her haste. Her men +grouped themselves along the waist of the schooner,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_704" id="Page_704">[Pg 704]</a></span> waiting for +commands. The Feu Follette was already doing her best; that is, the best +under such sail as was safe to carry. But there, to windward, and yet +two miles distant, some part of the pirate village was burning, and none +might say yet what part it was.</p> + +<p>The one thing certain was that it could not be the great chamber. That +was of rock; it might be destroyed by an explosion; never by fire. So +there was a ring of exultation in Dolores's tone when she sent the hail +along:</p> + +<p>"Loose both topsails and set them! Caliban, thou small villain, out and +loose the outer jib. Main-sheet here! Oh, haul, bullies! Flat—more +yet—so, belay!"</p> + +<p>Then the girl flung the man from the wheel, seized the spokes herself, +and began to nurse the schooner to windward with truly superhuman art. +Closer yet she brought the graceful craft; closer, until the luffs +trembled and the seas burst fair upon the stem and volleyed stinging +spray the full length of her. And as she drew nearer, the blaze seemed +to diminish and blaze afresh as if fire-fighters were there indeed, but +lacking weapons to fight with.</p> + +<p>"Is it the treasure-house?" Tomlin asked anxiously, stepping beside the +girl. She stood in deep shadow; the dim radiance from the lighted +binnacle touched her face, breast, and arms with soft light, and her +eyes, as they flashed swiftly toward the man, glittered with some subtle +quality that sent a shiver running down his spine.</p> + +<p>"Treasure-house?" she repeated, and her voice was no longer soft and +alluring; it was metallic and menacing. For the second time, first in +Venner, now in Tomlin, she had seen the true source of their +fascination. "No, it is not the treasure-house. It is the council hall, +where thou wert lodged." She snatched her gaze from the compass and +fixed him with the cold, unwinking stare of a snake. "Where thou wert +lodged, my friend who would renounce all for me. Where, had I cared to, +I might have left two of ye, taking with me to safety only the one whose +brains are not afire with soulless gold and jewels."</p> + +<p>Tomlin grew hot and uneasy. "My brain is on fire with your beauty, +Dolores," he returned, trying to force her gaze to meet his again.</p> + +<p>"Prove it to me, then," she replied shortly, and waved him away, +devoting her attention now to making the anchorage, already close to.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">PEARSE ENTERS THE CAVE OF ALADDIN.</h3> + + +<p>Lucky it proved that Pascherette had been left behind when the schooner +sailed after Yellow Rufe. Even Dolores, with all her consummate wisdom, +had forgotten the existence of the old woman she had degraded to kitchen +drudge; still more utterly had she forgotten the relationship existing +between the old woman and the late victim of her terrible vengeance.</p> + +<p>Sancho had called the old crone mother, whether with blood reasons or +not none knew. And at bottom, much of Sancho's rebellion had come of +anger at the treatment meted out to her. And it was Sancho's despairing +cry, when Milo cast him out into the Grove, that brought the old woman +from her concealment in the forest. The awful plight of the unlucky +wretch had aroused in the woman's withered breast a demon of revenge +that knew no limits; and the departing schooner, then barely visible to +her, filled her brain with the knowledge that the strangers who came in +that vessel had been the indirect cause of her Sancho's fate.</p> + +<p>She knew they had been placed in the cells behind the council hall; she +knew nothing of Dolores's last-minute decision that had taken them with +her. She knew nothing as to who or how many were left in the camp; but +she knew, she had terrible and ever-present proof in that moaning, +groping, brainless thing that was Sancho, that her mistress had shown a +leaning toward the strangers at the expense of her own people, and that +she herself might expect no mercy if ever caught. And with the low +animal cunning that served her for intellect she knew her penalty could +be no greater if she struck one blow in revenge before taking to the +woods in final flight.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_705" id="Page_705">[Pg 705]</a></span>Her plan was simple. Watching Sancho for a while, so that she might not +lose him, she searched for dry wood among the drenched underbrush, piled +it against the rear of the council hall, and set fire to it, fanning the +faint flame and feeding it, guarding it with her scanty garments, until +the red tongues shot up in a powerful, self-supporting conflagration.</p> + +<p>Then she had darted back to the forest fringe, found Sancho, and turned +his sightless, blank face toward the blaze so that he might feel the +warmth and guess the cause. But she knew nothing of his cracked brain; +she knew only of his physical agonies; the utter absence of interest in +him when she would have shown him what she had done shook her to the +foundations of her own reason; and her eldritch scream pealed up among +the trees as she flung her arms aloft and cursed the place.</p> + +<p>It was the scream that brought Pascherette out of the hut, where she +sheltered from the storm, to see the council hall in flames. It was the +scream that told the little octoroon where the fire had birth. And +Pascherette, too, believed that the three strangers were still within +the cells. She had plans of her own that required the safety of those +men, at least for a while. And her active brain gave her the solution +before the old woman had ceased to curse.</p> + +<p>Like a small, sleek panther Pascherette ran toward the old woman; she +saw Sancho, too, but instinctively knew that after Milo's treatment of +him he could not be dangerous; ignoring the man, she drew her knife as +she ran, and with a brief, panting, "That for thee, witch!" struck the +old woman down at Sancho's stumbling feet.</p> + +<p>Now she gave all her energies to subduing the fire; and, swiftly +rallying every man or woman in the camp she drove them with blows and +shrill invective to beating the blaze with sodden boughs and wet sand. +She set men with poles to batter down the doors to the cells; but the +doors had been built to oppose that kind of entry. Frantically she drove +the fire-fighters to another place, while she heaped up fresh fire +against the doors in the hope of burning down what could not be burst. +And it was the last up-blazing shaft of fire as the doors fell that +Dolores saw in the moment she brought the schooner to anchor. +Pascherette was emerging, singed and blackened, with dark rage in her +glittering eyes at having found the cells empty, when Dolores and her +crew arrived on the scene with Venner and Tomlin and Pearse in their +midst.</p> + +<p>"What! Pascherette again?" cried Dolores, glaring at the girl with red +suspicion in her face. "Is this thy work? Speak!"</p> + +<p>Pascherette stared in surprise at the three strangers, and her painfully +scorched lips strove to answer. Her throat was dry, and at first words +refused to come. But in the pause, when fifty faces glowered at the +girl, something stumbled across the open in the firelight, and Milo's +sharp vision distinguished it. He went up to Pascherette, with deep +concern in his devoted eyes, and laid a strong arm about her trembling +shoulders. She relaxed toward him, and managed to whisper to him. He +flung out his free hand toward the open space, and cried to Dolores:</p> + +<p>"There is the traitor, Sultana! This is the avenger."</p> + +<p>Dolores looked; every eye was turned where Milo pointed; and the brutal +laughter of some of the hardiest pirates mingled with the groans of the +three yachtsmen, whose escape from a horrible death by fire could not +reconcile them to the staggering vengeance that had overtaken the wretch +who had attempted that death. Bathed in an infernal glow, grotesque as a +creature of a diseased brain, the unhuman Sancho staggered across the +glade and into the darkness of the forest, bearing in his handless arms +a ghastly burden in which the hilt of Pascherette's dagger glittered and +flashed as the firelight touched it.</p> + +<p>"Back! Let him go!" cried Dolores; and a score of shouting ruffians +returned from swift pursuit, leaving Sancho and his burden to pass into +the oblivion of the great forest.</p> + +<p>Milo examined the damage, and reported. The cells were useless now, +except merely to confine captives. They did not fit in with Dolores's +plans thus, and she sent Milo to a distance with John Pearse while she +carried into effect a new fancy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_706" id="Page_706">[Pg 706]</a></span> Her crew had gone to their own places, +to soothe the fatigues of their night's work in carousal; Pascherette +stood near by, gazing at her mistress with mute appeal that she, too, be +permitted to seek alleviation of her own sore burns.</p> + +<p>"Wait, child," said Dolores, seeing the girl's trouble. "I'll cure thy +hurts soon."</p> + +<p>Then she separated Venner and Tomlin, taking each in turn to a vacant +hut. And to each she whispered patience and faith; to each her voice +imparted a renewed thrill. To Venner she said:</p> + +<p>"Thy anger with me was foolish, good Rupert. I did but smile at thy +friends to make thy task easier. Now see; I leave thee unfettered, and +thus." She drew his head down and lightly kissed his hair, laughing with +a little tremor: "Think of what I asked of thee, Rupert. To-morrow I +shall ask thy decision."</p> + +<p>In turn to Tomlin she whispered:</p> + +<p>"The night has been arduous for thee. I was impatient with thee. Thy vow +of devotion to me rang true, though I doubted it at the moment. +To-morrow I will hear what thy heart speaks. To-night, see, I free thee. +For thy own safety, though, do not venture beyond these doors save with +me. My rascals are fierce creatures of jealousy and suspicion. Good +night, friend." Him, too, she left tingling with her kiss, and whatever +others in the camp did that night, two men found sleep elusive and vain.</p> + +<p>Milo brought Pearse to her at her call, and together they went to the +great stone before the chamber. Milo rolled back the rock, while his +expression showed uneasiness. But he had learned his lesson when +protesting against Pascherette's admission to the cave of mystery, and +uttered no warning now.</p> + +<p>Pascherette, in spite of her burns, bent a roguish face upon Pearse as +that puzzled gentleman waited for some word or motion that should give +him the reason for this unexpected favor.</p> + +<p>Still Dolores said nothing. The rock rolled away, and Milo stood aside, +she entered, touching Pearse on the arm as she passed him, and he +followed meekly, Pascherette bringing up the rear with Milo after the +giant replaced the great stone. Then Dolores turned back to Pearse, +under the soft, red glow of the unseen lamps, and flashed a bewildering +smile upon him.</p> + +<p>"Wilt believe now that I love thee?" she whispered, and her lids drooped +over swimming eyes. "Beyond that great door lies the chamber to enter +which costs death. Art afraid?"</p> + +<p>"Lead on," replied Pearse hoarsely. There was no trace of fear in his +voice or in his eyes; but Dolores warmed gladly to the knowledge that +here at last was a man whose thoughts were bent upon her and not on her +chamber of treasures.</p> + +<p>They stood before the massive sliding door of plate and jewels, and here +the human side in John Pearse showed through for an instant. Under the +great, yellow lantern the gold and silver plates, the glowing rubies, +the glinting emeralds, made a picture of fabulous riches that even he +could not ignore. But at the upward slide of the door his eyes left the +richness of it without a flicker; he waited for the heavy velvet +hangings to be drawn, and when Dolores's eyes sought his they surprised +his deep, ardent gaze fastened full on herself and not upon what might +next be revealed.</p> + +<p>"Enter, man of my heart," she smiled, and stood aside to permit him to +pass.</p> + +<p>In the first steps over the threshold John Pearse saw little save a dim, +cool hall, vast and full of vagrant shadows; then, when Milo had +arranged the lights so that they gradually grew in power, flooding the +chamber with mellow radiance, his soul seemed to burst from his throat +in one choking, stupefied gasp.</p> + +<p>"The Cave of Aladdin!" he choked, and stood open-mouthed while Dolores +laughed softly at his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Nay," she reproved. "'Tis the Cave of Dolores. 'Tis mine, and"—she +turned her face up toward his alluringly—"may be thine, if thou'rt a +true man!"</p> + +<p>With shrewd artistry she twisted away as he strove to clasp her, and +there she left him standing, in the midst of untold treasures that every +moment were increasingly revealed to him. Without another glance for +him, or apparently another thought, she took Pascherette by the hand and +led her down the chamber to the great chair.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_707" id="Page_707">[Pg 707]</a></span> Here she busied herself +with salves and lotions to assuage the scald of the girl's fresh burns, +which were more painful than serious. And every moment she was thus +charitably employed her gleaming eyes were fixed upon Pearse from under +concealing lashes; every moment Milo's dusky face was bent upon her from +the end of the chamber with an expression of absolute adoration and +gratitude. For tiny Pascherette was custodian of the giant's green +heart; and honest Milo never sought very deeply for motives. It was +enough for him that Dolores, his Sultana, the being he worshiped as he +worshiped his gods, was ministering with woman's infinite tenderness to +her maid, a creature as humble as himself.</p> + +<p>Pearse, too, even in his intoxication of senses, saw and warmed to this +evidence of real womanliness in one he had small cause to think anything +other than a bewilderingly alluring fury. He could not hide his +thoughts, and Dolores saw them betrayed on his face; Pascherette +surprised the look on her mistress's lovely face that told her the +imperious beauty possessed a heart of living flesh and blood. And +Pascherette shuddered nervously at the fear of what must happen should +that heart ever feel humiliated.</p> + +<p>"Keep still, child," Dolores laughed happily, mistaking the reason for +the girl's shudder. "It is finished now. Thy hurts will pass in thy +sleep. Go to thy big man there, and have him pet thee. I have no need of +thee until I call. Go, take him away. I would be alone with my guest."</p> + +<p>The girl ran to Milo, and together they went down to the gallery beyond +the picture door. Then Dolores set out with her own fair hands wine and +sweetmeats, the confections taken from the yacht, strange and new to +her, but in her mind something desirable to such men as Pearse, else why +had they brought such things? And again using her innate witchery, she +set a chair for Pearse at a distance from her own, where she could look +straight into his face or hide her own, as her fancy dictated.</p> + +<p>"Hast seen the like before?" she smiled, looking at him over the brim of +a chased gold flagon.</p> + +<p>"Never, never, Dolores!" he said, and his eyes blazed into hers. He +moved his chair close to her, and reached for her free hand.</p> + +<p>"What! Hast thou no eyes for these things?" she exclaimed in simulated +surprise, taking her hand away and indicating the wealth around the +walls. "Man, thy eyes are idle; look at those gems, those paintings; +hast ever seen the like of those 'Three Graces,' then, that they have no +interest for thee?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have seen the like, wonderful, wonderful being," he returned +hoarsely. "You I have seen; you, you, I see nothing else but you, +Dolores!"</p> + +<p>She dazzled him with a seductive smile, full of fire-specked softnesses, +and offered him her flagon.</p> + +<p>"Drink, comrade. Drink here, and we shall talk of thee and me, and what +concerns us both nearly. Art sure thy eyes are not blinded by the nearer +beauty?"</p> + +<p>"I am not blind! I never saw with clearer vision!" Pearse cried, taking +the flagon with tremorless hand. "I care nothing for these tawdry +gauds."</p> + +<p>"Ah! Then thou'rt the man. Come, thy faithful soul deserves reward. +Come, I will show thee treasures thou hast not dreamed of yet; and all +shall be thine, with me—at a price."</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE TREASURE TEST.</h3> + + +<p>Dolores gaily took John Pearse by the hand and led him down the chamber +to the dais on which stood the vacant chair of state of the dead Red +Jabez. The great canopied bed still stood there; but it was curtained +in, out of sight, and unused; Dolores preferred her own low couch, with +its strangely beautiful composite furnishings of silk and tiger-skins, +velvet and snowy polar-bear rugs, heaped high with luxurious cushions +that made it a restful lounge by day as well as a sleep-inviting couch +by night.</p> + +<p>Beside the couch, between it and the dais, Milo had set the +treasure-chests, leaving the lids wide-flung, the contents but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_708" id="Page_708">[Pg 708]</a></span> thinly +concealed by silken shawls. The end of a rope of matchless pearls hung +over the edge of one chest carelessly, without apparent motive; yet when +she guided Pearse to the couch and seated him, Dolores scanned his face +with glinting eyes that peeped out through narrow slits. She saw his +look of interest; then his mouth turned upward in a smile that said +plainly: "Here is a theatrical trick to impress me!"</p> + +<p>"Now thy reward is come," whispered Dolores, leaving him with an arch +smile and kneeling before the big chests. She tore away the shawls and +plunged her hands into the glittering hoard to the wrists, flinging out +upon the couch and the floor, upon Pearse's knees and into his hands, +rubies and emeralds, diamonds and pearls, golden chains and ornaments +for the hair in a bewildering, stupendous litter. And, her face turned +from him, her narrowed eyes were fixed upon him, and in their gleaming +depths burned a smoldering anxiety that was nearing impatience.</p> + +<p>For John Pearse cloaked his feelings better than his fellows; he smiled +at the shower of riches, met her questing glance with a smile, and +smiled again with shaking head when she stood before him, aglow with +yearning for his decision, and asked simply:</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Baubles, playthings, Dolores!" he laughed up at her. He seized her +hands, stroked the satin-skinned forearm, and said softly: "These are +not worthy of such a woman as Dolores. These are but the gauds of a +beautiful woman. To fit you, they should be the adornments of a +goddess!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, then thy lips uttered truth!" she cried delightedly. She stooped +swiftly to him, twined her arms about his neck, and laid her warm cheek +to his. "Now I shall show thee treasures indeed, my John!"</p> + +<p>She ran to the one chest yet unopened, and flung away the silk covering. +Here were the gems of the craftsman's art. Stones of unparalleled color +and size were in this chest; but their chief merit lay in their cunning +settings, their consummate delicacy of workmanship. Here the art +collector might find his El Dorado; in all the world such a collection +could scarcely be found in one place. Here were shrines and temples, +carved from single immense stones or pieces of jade; here was a woven +thing of gold and silver, in which the warp and woof lay close as +tapestry, portraying as no tapestry could portray it the fabled valley +of "Sinbad," in which the sands were gold, the sky silver, and the gems +were gems indeed.</p> + +<p>"Is this to thy mind?" Dolores cried, tossing to him a golden ball which +by some amazing internal mechanism played fairy chimes as it whirled +through the air.</p> + +<p>Her lips parted in flushed pleasure at the result of her display, for +John Pearse was smitten with the collector's fever. He missed her ball +through sheer inability to tear his eyes from the other treasures. And +as his brain began to grasp the stupendous truth, to more readily +estimate values, his eyes turned from the more gaudy works of art, and +noticed, for the first time clearly, the pricelessness of many greater +things of canvas and wood, ivory and glass, with which the apartment +abounded.</p> + +<p>"Now thy heart craves my treasures, too, eh?" she chided, gliding to him +and laying a hand on his head. Yet she felt glad of his awakened +interest. It was merely another card she might yet have to play.</p> + +<p>"Astounding!" he gasped. His gaze fastened upon a boule bric-à-brac +stand, on which stood an Aretine vase two feet high, of peerless form +and glaze. The ticking of the great Peter Hele clock drew his attention +to a work of ebony and ivory as scarcely could be believed as coming +from man's hands.</p> + +<p>"Now thou'rt of a kind with thy fellows!" she cried in anger. "Look at +me! No, thy eyes will not deign to seek me now!"</p> + +<p>Pearse snatched his eyes away, and answered her with a laugh that sent +her blood leaping again.</p> + +<p>"My Dolores forgets she demanded my admiration for her treasures," he +said. "What would you have, splendid one? Shall I say these treasures +are still paltry, when I see their countless worth? Still I say you are +the treasure beyond price.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_709" id="Page_709">[Pg 709]</a></span> These are but a little more fitting for you. +That is all. Am I forgiven?"</p> + +<p>He leaped to his feet, seized her hand, and attempted to slip an arm +about her waist. She, lithe as a leopard, slipped from his grasp with a +glad laugh that rippled in a low murmur to his hot ears, and intensified +the glare that had come into his eyes. She failed to see that glare. It +was the glare of greed; stark and utter greed, that counted no cost and +brooked no opposition in driving for its ends.</p> + +<p>"Thou art forgiven indeed!" she replied, panting and disheveled, a thing +of wondrous loveliness. "So far art thou forgiven that I shall put thy +heart to the grand test at once. Of thy fellows none can compare with +thee for scorn of wealth and desire of me. Sit down again, my man; let +us reveal our inmost hearts to each other."</p> + +<p>She told him, keeping him at provoking distance, of her heart-hunger for +the outside world, the world of art and things of beauty. She thrilled +him with her vibrant voice, mesmerized him with her distant, caressing +touch and glorious, limpid eyes. She made his blood pulse hotly with +desire with her soft-spoken offer of self-surrender to the man who +should lead her from her sovereignty over human beasts and set her feet +in the high places of the earth.</p> + +<p>"And with these my treasures, I shall make my man a king in truth," she +said, slipping along the couch toward him and laying both hands clasped +on his arm. She threw back her head, shaking loose her great masses of +lustrous hair, and poured her soul at him from half-closed, moist eyes +that gleamed like midnight pools in starlight. "Yet must my chosen man +assure me of his love for me, and his contempt for my riches. For, +though my treasures shall be his, yet will I be first in his heart or +forget him."</p> + +<p>"And first you are, and shall be, Dolores," whispered Pearse, leaning +his chin on her forehead and glaring covetously at the littered wealth +of the chests. "What man of warm blood can see any other being or thing +when Dolores is by?"</p> + +<p>"Then come. I believe thee," she said, rising slowly. "Come with me, my +man above price. See here."</p> + +<p>She swept back a piece of tapestry at the rear of the chamber, and +disclosed a dark and gloomy cavern, hewn out of the solid rock, as was +the greater cavern. From a brazier she took a pine splinter, lighted it, +and beckoned Pearse into the cave. And as soon as his eyes adjusted +themselves to the gloom, he saw the place stowed tightly from floor to +ceiling with kegs and half-casks, hooped and marked with black +characters.</p> + +<p>"Gold?" he gasped, perspiration starting to his brows.</p> + +<p>"Gold!" Her rejoinder was tense, almost savage; she glared at him from +under the torch, a quivering shape of disgust.</p> + +<p>"Why, Dolores, don't look like that," he laughed. "I did but wonder. If +this were all gold, it could not enhance your worth in my eyes."</p> + +<p>"Then the proof will be easy. This is not gold. It is gunpowder. Our +whole store. My rascals are not to be trusted with more powder than they +can use at once. From this store I dole them out their rounds; thus are +all safe. But at this moment I have other use for this powder. Stay +here; or no, help me. It will be finished the sooner."</p> + +<p>Dolores ran out into the great chamber again, Pearse following her +wonderingly. She left him in wonder but a short time; for, gathering up +a great armful of treasure she started back to the cave, crying: "Come, +fill thy arms, too." He paused, and she took up his hesitation swiftly, +feeling again a surge of doubt and disgust rise in her breast. She +called to him, scornfully: "What, art afraid? Come, faint one; beyond +here is my secret outlet from this place. Now art satisfied?"</p> + +<p>And John Pearse followed into the cave, a-tingle with the hope that he +was indeed the elect. He saw her fling her riches down on the tops of +the kegs; she bade him do likewise, and then led the way back for more. +And so she went, and so he followed; journey after journey was +completed, until the gunpowder-kegs were almost buried beneath the +wealth of an empire. Then the girl stepped outside, and called Milo. The +giant appeared with silent speed.</p> + +<p>"Milo, burst me one of these kegs," she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_710" id="Page_710">[Pg 710]</a></span> ordered, and her voice forced +Pearse's attention; it was so cold, passionless, utterly controlled. The +keg was burst, and a trickle of coarse cannon powder ran on the floor.</p> + +<p>"Lay a damp train out to the ledge over the grove, Milo!"</p> + +<p>Milo disappeared through the gallery, trickling moistened powder from +his fingers as he went. Then, when his voice sounded back along the +passage, Dolores again took Pearse by the arm and said, looking him full +in the eyes: "Thy test, friend. Here am I. Out there is the grove, and +beyond it the sea. Take this torch. Put light to the powder train, and +thou and I will depart in the white schooner. We shall leave nothing for +these vultures to fight over. But together we will go far away into thy +world, thee and me."</p> + +<p>"And leave my friends here?" he asked, huskily.</p> + +<p>"Ay, my man, but not alive!" she whispered, thrusting her dark, flushed +face close to his, and letting her lips breathe their fragrance upon +him. "They, thy friends, are not as my beasts. They have the brains of +the white kings of the earth; they have the cunning which makes of all +other races slaves and dependents. Leave them here, living, and in a day +they will rule these rabble and together they will hunt us down. Come, +haste. Put thy fire to the train."</p> + +<p>"Not yet! Tell me what deviltry is to be worked upon my companions."</p> + +<p>"Hah! Then thou'rt but lukewarm in thy love. Am I not Dolores? Am I not +worth thy two friends? Listen, I'll tell thee my price, friend. If thy +friends are to live, then destroy this trash ere we go, so that they get +it not. If thy heart is bent upon saving this treasure, then thy hand +must first put thy friends into their long sleep. Nay, peace! There is +no alternative. The man who mates with me shall be a man indeed; no +petty, squeamish lover whose weak heart sickens at removing a rival."</p> + +<p>"Give me until morning," he replied, dry of throat, and pallid of face. +"It is a terrible thing you ask, Dolores. Yet I dare not say the cost is +too high. As for destroying these treasures, that I know is but a trick +to try me. You could never go out into a new world and take a low +station. That you would have to do if I set fire to that train." He +suddenly darted a look of fierce challenge at her, "There!" he cried. +"The trial is yours!"</p> + +<p>He flung down his torch, and the powder-train began to splutter and +fizz. Dolores flashed a look of approval at him, and burst into a +ringing, happy laugh. She kicked aside the torch, and trampled out and +relaid the train; then ran to Pearse impulsively, and said with simple +earnestness that utterly deceived him:</p> + +<p>"Now I believe in thee again, and for ever. 'Twas but to try thee, John. +We will leave nothing of worth when we go. But that makes it the more +imperative that thy friends have no power to harm us afterward. Think +not that Dolores will take a lower station. I shall be queen wherever I +go, and my man shall be made a king by my power.</p> + +<p>"I give thee until noon to think over thy answer. Go, and the gods +protect thee and make thee faithful to me."</p> + +<p>Calling Milo back, she bade him conduct Pearse from the great chamber, +and as they passed out, little Pascherette peered up at Pearse with an +impudent smile, and with her head on one side like a bird she chattered:</p> + +<p>"White stranger, thou'rt a fool! What Dolores wills, will surely come to +pass. If thy heart fails thee, and thy friends are safe at thy hands, +dost think they will have like scruples? Fool again! One of them will +kill thee and the other, and that man will gain a peerless mate. And, +bend down thy tall head, thou imitation giant—already thy two friends +are liberated, each seeking the life of the other, though neither knows +of the other's freedom!"</p> + +<p>"What?" stammered Pearse, gripping the girl's slim shoulder fiercely. +"If you lie—"</p> + +<p>"Pshaw! One need not lie to befool thee!" Pascherette retorted +scornfully. "Sleep, and if thy throat is not yet slit on thy awakening, +make thy decision quickly, and tell it to Dolores."</p> + +<p>Pearse would have answered her with more questioning, but she laughed at +him, and bade Milo shut him out. So the great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_711" id="Page_711">[Pg 711]</a></span> rock fell, and Pearse +wandered into the camp, not knowing where he went, and caring little. He +had no place to sleep, so far as he knew; yet he felt no wonder. He +walked through the sleeping-camp, across the grove, and into the forest, +his brain on fire and seething with the problem before him.</p> + +<p>"The treasure, with or without the woman!" he muttered, clenching his +hands savagely. "The treasure! Ye gods! There must be the wealth of +<i>Monte Cristo</i> there!" He broke off into a harsh laugh at thought of his +challenge with the torch. "The witch!" he chuckled. "She was clever, but +John Pearse overreached her. Now I know her heart. But—"</p> + +<p>He wandered on, and his mind was centered upon Venner and Tomlin. The +more he thought over the situation, the more he found his ideas forming +themselves after Dolores's.</p> + +<p>"Why should I share it?" he asked of the winking stars.</p> + +<p>And while he communed with himself regarding her and her demands, +Dolores overlooked Milo in a task that brought a sparkle to her eyes and +a gleaming smile to her lips. They were repacking the great treasure +chests.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">PASCHERETTE DEALS AGAIN.</h3> + + +<p>Dolores spent her night in slumber as peaceful as a babe's. When Milo +had completed his task with the treasure chests he went to his own +couch. John Pearse wandered deep into the eery forest, his brain filled +with tumultuous fancies, while Craik Tomlin and Rupert Venner lay in the +dark before the open doors of their separate cells, struggling for a +decision with their own good and evil natures. But Dolores, before +retiring called Pascherette to dress her hair and gave the little +octoroon some secret instructions against the morning.</p> + +<p>"Now to thy bed, girl, and wake with bright eyes," said Dolores, her +toilet completed. "Let thy busy tongue wag its liveliest then; see to it +that the strangers hear whispers and rumors, yet keep them apart and +from harm a while. Thy task with the other rabble is easy. I care not +how they are divided. But divided they must be; to the point of mutiny. +Go, and sweet dreams to thee."</p> + +<p>It was then that a subtle happiness stole into Dolores's face; then her +great luminous eyes closed slowly in utter peace; then that she lay down +with a gentle sigh on her couch of furs and slept care-free and smiling.</p> + +<p>Dreams not of the brightest might have ruffled her calm had she seen the +night watch of her maid. For the moment Pascherette was dismissed, and +gave a second thought to her orders, a light of dawning hope, +prospective triumph, broke over the small, gold-tinted face and +sleepiness fled for the night.</p> + +<p>"Divided they shall be!" she whispered, and hugged herself rapturously. +"Divided to her disaster and—Milo's triumph!"</p> + +<p>Then the maid wrapped herself in a robe, and went out to the camp.</p> + +<p>Like a fantom she appeared to Venner, and as swiftly vanished; but in +the moment that she bent over him she whispered in his ear that Tomlin +was the chosen of Dolores; that he and Pearse were doomed at the hands +of their friend.</p> + +<p>"I tell thee, watch," she said. "By noon to-morrow the truth shall be +shown to thee." And in leaving him she placed in his hands the rapier +that had been taken from him by Dolores.</p> + +<p>To Tomlin next she appeared, and his rapier also she returned; but in +his ear was breathed the name of John Pearse. To find Pearse himself was +harder; but she waited, and shortly before the dawn he emerged from the +forest and walked dully toward his own charred cell.</p> + +<p>"Hah, my friend," she said to him, suddenly appearing from the shades. +"I fear thy tardiness has defeated thee. Now thou'lt need to look to +thyself, for the man Venner has vowed thy life to Dolores, and that of +Tomlin."</p> + +<p>"What! Venner?"</p> + +<p>"Surely. Why not? Is not Dolores worthy such a sacrifice then? Hah, but +Venner is a man of decision. Thy eyes saw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_712" id="Page_712">[Pg 712]</a></span> the treasure? It's lost to +thee—unless—" she whispered, peering up into his angry face.</p> + +<p>"Unless?"</p> + +<p>"Unless thou prove the better man. Dolores would have thee before all +the rest, friend; but she despises a waverer. I tell thee thy fortune is +yet in thy hands."</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"Here, I have thy sword. Take it, and keep aloof and watch. When thou +canst see men carrying the treasure chests out to the white vessel, then +will be the time to strike. Join thyself with the men who seem faithful +to my mistress. There will be fighting; and the spoils are for the +victor."</p> + +<p>Pearse would have stayed her, but she ran from him with a tantalizing +laugh and vanished into the women's quarters.</p> + +<p>In the morning, when the men had breakfasted, a hum of activity pervaded +the place which was attributable to the octoroon's subtle influence. As +if by prearrangement, men drew apart into little knots, each gathering +about a leader and showing indecision until each man ascertained exactly +where his fellows were going. Then Dolores appeared with Milo, and she +faced four distinct parties before the great stone.</p> + +<p>The sun was metallic in its redness, rising from behind a group of +low-hanging, hazy clouds, casting its fierce beams on the point and the +low shores of the anchorage. A brazen sky overtopped the scene, giving +to green foliage and yellow sands alike, a glare as of terrific +artificial light.</p> + +<p>As Dolores appeared, the party headed by Caliban stepped forward, +muttering angrily, and every man kept hand on knife or cutlass. Caliban +himself, nervous and yet determined, glared at the formidable giant and +suddenly sprang out alone, shaking his first at Milo, and working +himself into greater fury. A frown darkened the face of Dolores; she had +commanded Pascherette to bring about a condition of unrest, but nothing +like this; for in all four parties was an attitude of suspicion of +herself, not of each other. She spoke in a low voice to Milo, then +raised her hand and advanced toward Caliban.</p> + +<p>"Well, whelp of a deformed dog!" she cried. "What do ye seek with me? Is +this the way I've taught thee to beg?"</p> + +<p>"I beg nothing!" screamed Caliban, pacing to and fro restlessly. "We +demand, not beg!"</p> + +<p>"Demand? Have a care for thy loose tongue!"</p> + +<p>"My tongue's my own! We are tired of thy trumpery state. Tired of thy +mystery and falsity. We know thy plot—know thy cunning scheme to carry +thy favorites away from here—to carry away the treasure that is ours, +not thine! Think ye we men will let ye go, to set the dogs of war-ships +upon us? Here and now we demand a settlement."</p> + +<p>"Demand, again? Good Caliban"—she said softly, and smiled upon +him—"thy training has been faulty. Come, I will answer thee."</p> + +<p>"Ye answer us all, or none. I know thee too well to trust thee. Answer +these men, who ask thy reason for keeping these three strangers to the +detriment of thine own people. Sancho paid dearly for his sight of thy +great chamber. Did the stranger who was in there with thee last night +suffer, too?"</p> + +<p>"That's the talk; answer!" shouted the crew, led by Caliban's band and +supported less vociferously by the rest.</p> + +<p>"Silence, then; I will answer!" cried Dolores, quivering with suppressed +rage. She spoke again to Milo, then turned to face the mob, her head +erect, her eyes ablaze.</p> + +<p>She flashed a keen glance toward Pearse, who had sidled over to the band +led by Stumpy, who seemed less accusative than the others; she nodded +faintly, approvingly, and sought the others. Venner stood aloof, on the +fringe of Hanglip's crowd; Tomlin stood almost by the side of Spotted +Dog.</p> + +<p>"I will answer. I see among ye men of troubled minds, who are not yet +disposed to flout my authority. Thee, Caliban, I have forgiven before; +yet here thou art, venturing again to confront me with demands. I will +not reply to thee, nor to any one man or party. To ye all, my people, I +have my answer. In one hour, in the grove,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_713" id="Page_713">[Pg 713]</a></span> ye shall hear and be +satisfied. That is my answer now. Come Milo."</p> + +<p>She walked slowly and steadily straight through the midst of the +muttering, grumbling mob, Milo at her back like a gargantuan shadow. And +looking neither to one way or the other, meeting eyes that glared in her +path with cold, dignified disdain, she proceeded through the camp, +across the grove, and to the ledge behind the altar. Savage curses +followed her; men jostled at her heels and dared Milo to prevent them; +the giant, calm and cold as his mistress, moved forward like a human +Juggernaut, laying a resistless hand upon a presuming shoulder here, +flinging aside a leering ruffian there.</p> + +<p>And as the mob thinned, and Dolores entered the cool glade, something in +the situation which she had failed to realize before now struck her with +force; she started at the thought, then uttered a low, rippling laugh of +satisfaction. For Pascherette, in her cunning scheme of double-dealing, +had played into her lady's hands to an extent unhoped for by Dolores.</p> + +<p>"Milo, the wolves are ready to tear," she said. "And they shall +tear—not me, but themselves! Didst note the three strangers? Even they +shall help more than I had hoped." She stepped up behind the altar, and +as she waited for Milo's assistance in climbing to the secret entrance +to the great chamber she asked:</p> + +<p>"Thy blow-pipe, hast forgotten its use."</p> + +<p>"As soon forget the use of my fingers, Sultana!" replied the giant, +permitting a grim smile to wrinkle his face for an instant.</p> + +<p>"Then get thy darts. Have thy pipe ready here, thyself concealed, and +watch thy time to strike. But first light the altar fires. The rogues +believe in my magic no longer; I shall teach them anew, and such magic +as shall convince some of them."</p> + +<p>From the camp arose a babel of uproar, men shouting against each other, +curses and threats alike aimed broadcast. And impatient of the delay, +small groups straggled into the grove to wait, Stumpy's party first, +their leader striving fiercely to quiet their noise. Dolores reappeared +soon, dressed in her altar robe, and her flashing eyes told her quickly +that John Pearse wavered between staying with his chosen party and going +in search of his companions. She caught his eye, and smiled brightly at +him, beckoning him to her.</p> + +<p>He went up to the altar slowly, his face dark and sullen. She waited for +him, ignoring the mutterings of the pirates, and as he approached her +she gave him her hand.</p> + +<p>"My friend, it pleases me to see thee among my faithful ones. Hast made +thy decision?"</p> + +<p>"Decision! False woman, the decision was made while yet I was with you. +The decision was yours, not mine."</p> + +<p>"False? Why, good John, what does that mean?" she asked, frank surprise +on her face.</p> + +<p>"Have you not taken Venner for your man? Is he not your chosen mate, at +the price of my life and Tomlin's?"</p> + +<p>"Fool!" she cried, fiercely. "Thy dreams have mixed thy brains. What +nonsense is this? I told thee thou wert my man, at a price. But thy +decision! Time is short. Say quickly what thou wilt do."</p> + +<p>"Prove to me that I have heard that which is untrue, and I give you my +answer at the hour you demanded it—at noon."</p> + +<p>"If thou remain here, the proof shall be shown thee," she replied, dark +with passion. Not yet had she quite seen through the cunning of +Pascherette. And a growing tumult beyond the trees warned her of greater +stress at hand, she had no more time to spare in argument with Pearse. +She waved him back, and with fire in her eyes commanded Stumpy to take +his men to one side.</p> + +<p>"Stand there! Thy rascals will not dare to flout me!"</p> + +<p>"We don't want to, lady," growled Stumpy, sullenly. He motioned his men +to follow, and took up a position at the right of the altar. But he +glared fearlessly at Dolores as he went, and added: "Ye have none more +faithful than Stumpy, if thy heart is still with us and for us. But +things begin to look plaguey rough, Dolores, since ye spared the white +schooner and her owner."</p> + +<p>Swiftly Dolores stepped down and glided to Stumpy's side, his men +drawing back in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_714" id="Page_714">[Pg 714]</a></span>voluntarily, not in sufficient numbers to be able to +cast off their old awe of her.</p> + +<p>"Thy ear, good Stumpy," she whispered. "Art for thy fellow pirates, or +for me? Speak quickly."</p> + +<p>"I'm for you, lady," he replied, shifting awkwardly on his mutilated +foot. "For you, but not if what we heard is true."</p> + +<p>"I tell thee it was false. Now art for me?" She bent upon him a smile of +dazzling beauty, soft-eyed and almost tender, and the pirate's face grew +ashamed; he knelt at her feet in humble obeisance, and the girl laid her +hand on his head, and bade him rise.</p> + +<p>"Then remain faithful, Stumpy, and thou and thy men shall share in my +fortunes. Look well to the stranger there. Keep him with thee. I hear +the vultures coming."</p> + +<p>She returned to the altar, took her place behind the swirling smoke, and +stood motionless, awaiting the arrival of the crowd whose noisy progress +could be traced step by step. And presently they broke into the grove, +unawed and uproarious, Caliban leading. Still the parties kept apart. +Hanglip and Spotted Dog ranged themselves on either side of Caliban's +gang, and every eye glared redly at the statuesque figure at the altar.</p> + +<p>"Answer! Give us yer answer!" cried Caliban.</p> + +<p>"Hear, my people!" Dolores cried, raising her arms for silence. "My +answer is this. Among ye is a traitor. That traitor has spread lies +among ye. Ye are my people, and none other. Did I not save the white +ship for ye? What if I preserved her people. They are here, and here +they shall remain. Had I thought to desert ye, could I not have gone in +the night? Who should say no? Am I not queen of ye all? Then why this +childish talk of leaving ye?"</p> + +<p>Dolores was carefully fighting for time; she wished to dissect the +feeling of the crowd before her, and while she spoke her irrelevant +nothings, her keen eyes roved over every face. And Spotted Dog drew and +held her gaze as no other did; his face was awork with savage unbelief, +his loose lips wreathed and curled in his impatience to speak. At last +his fury could not be longer restrained; he sprang to the front, and +howled:</p> + +<p>"Lies, all lies! Thy chit of a maid—"</p> + +<p>The words were choked in his throat with terrible suddenness. Like +something unearthly, reaching from the unknown, the hand of death +gripped Spotted Dog and he stumbled and fell forward, gnashing his teeth +and clawing futilely at his breast. Dolores did not move. Her expression +did not change. Milo had again proved faithful.</p> + +<p>But others of Spotted Dog's band, the greatest malcontents, stood +forward and peered down at their fallen leader; then with a shout of +rage they leaped up, faced the altar, and urged their fellows on.</p> + +<p>"More infernal witchcraft!" they cried. "Tear the black witch and her +altar down!"</p> + +<p>A moment of frightful silence followed, for the speakers felt the same +mysterious hand that had reached for and grasped their leader. One by +one they dropped in their tracks, smitten none knew how or whence; and +even Pearse, with Stumpy's band, shivered at the terrible uncanniness of +it. Then Caliban shook off his terror, sensed human agency in the silent +death, and looked around for the hand that sped it. As he glared, a dart +entered his own breast; but this one, ill-sped, failed in its mission. +The pirate staggered, his eyes widened, then he seized the protruding +dart. For an instant he hesitated; then taking the direction indicated +by the slanting missile, he flung an arm toward Stumpy's crew and +howled:</p> + +<p>"There's the dog! There's the sudden death! Tear 'em up, bullies! Pull +Stumpy down!"</p> + +<p>In an instant the grove seethed with a terrific conflict, in which +Stumpy's party was set upon by three times the number. And John Pearse +was carried into the thick of the fight; unwilling or not, his skilled +rapier began to take toll of the roaring furies about him. And while the +battle raged, and Dolores stood calmly looking on, one of the pirates +whose duties had kept him at the anchorage of the schooner appeared with +a rush upon the scene and shouted:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_715" id="Page_715">[Pg 715]</a></span>"Lads, ye're being fooled! The slaves are even now taking the treasure +down to the schooner!"</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">WHILE VICTORY HANGS IN THE BALANCE.</h3> + + +<p>The cry rang through the Grove like a trumpet call, and the fight was +stayed instantly. Every eye flashed upon the bringer of the news, and +behind him stood Pascherette, partly hidden by the trees, her small, +eager face peering from behind a trunk. And as she took in the scene, a +great terror stole into her eyes and her lips opened in a gasp.</p> + +<p>The octoroon had played her great coup. She had carried a lie to the +pirate, hoping that his telling of the treasure to his fellows would +precipitate such an assault upon Dolores that nothing could survive it. +Now she saw the attack already launched without her connivance; she saw +the pirate, dead, and saw Stumpy and one of the strangers stoutly +defending the queen.</p> + +<p>As she stared, at a loss, Caliban staggered out in front again, +clutching at his wound, and screamed:</p> + +<p>"Satan seize ye if that witch escapes ye now! Tear her down! Tear her +down! Then none can keep the treasure from ye."</p> + +<p>His last word ended in a sob. From the hidden giant another dart was +sped truer, and Caliban pitched headlong on the steps of the altar. And +Pascherette, terrified now that they would leave their work incomplete, +swarm after the false treasure report, and thus leave her at the mercy +of the enraged Dolores, frantically sought for Milo among the press. She +knew nothing of his secret duty with the blow-pipe: seeing nothing of +him among the defenders, she surmised he was inside on other duty bent. +In desperation she placed all upon a single hazard, and, running out +into the Grove she screamed:</p> + +<p>"The man lies! It is a lie, to make ye forego thy vengeance. There is no +treasure taken away. Make thy work complete!"</p> + +<p>A medley of conflicting cries arose as the pirates again separated into +three parties. Hanglip's crew, with those of the fallen Caliban, +detached themselves from the rest and from two sides threatened the +altar, where Dolores stood like a statue, glaring at her maid with +deadly fury. Hanglip himself seemed irresolute in the face of the maid's +denial; he stood with cutlas raised, not yet sure whether to attack or +first see to the treasure story. The decision was made for him; for the +pirate bringing the news, seized Pascherette in a fierce grip, and with +knife at her breast shouted:</p> + +<p>"This little snake told me the loot was going, lads! Get the job over, +as I do this!"</p> + +<p>Pascherette squirmed in the pirate's grasp, but all her cunning now +could not avail her. The knife flashed downward, and she fell to her +knees, her tiny golden hands pressed to her side, blood trickling +through her fingers. And her face froze in a mask of horror when from +behind Dolores stepped Milo, armed with a great broad-ax, and bent his +deep black eyes full upon her with terrible accusation in them.</p> + +<p>The giant saw the coming storm, and knew the futility of trying to stem +it with his blow-pipe. He emerged, armed with his ax, at the moment when +the pirates, answering their mate's cry with a shout, surged up the +altar steps with blood in their eyes.</p> + +<p>Dolores now shook off her seeming unconcern, and with alert vision took +in the tremendous crisis. Stumpy's band, with Pearse at their leader's +side, had been driven back in the first attack to the rock itself; and +now stood with their backs to it grimly waiting for the second onset. +They had fought hitherto for her; she saw to it that they did not change +their allegiance. Leaping up to the ledge behind the altar, she cried:</p> + +<p>"Stumpy! Thou'rt my man. Bring thy fellows up here; one man may hold a +score here. Milo! Make way for my faithful ones!"</p> + +<p>With Stumpy on the ledge, and his score of men, the battle became dead +for the moment. Few of the pirates had firearms, except on forays, and +then their ammunition was doled out to them. By this means they had ever +been kept in subjection; and now the plan was to prove their undoing;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_716" id="Page_716">[Pg 716]</a></span> +for they could not reach their prey, whose cutlas points presented an +insurmountable barrier to their storming the rock. And with John Pearse +up there among the defenders, Tomlin and Venner found themselves +wondering just what their own position was. They, unblinded by the rage +of the pirates, saw the futility of storming that rocky wall with steel, +and in the momentary hush and indecision they withdrew from the mob and +stood apart, thinking over what was to come.</p> + +<p>To Dolores, the hesitation of her foes was something she could not +brook, for her great hope now was to set her rascals at each other's +throats to their ultimate annihilation. She whispered into Milo's ear.</p> + +<p>"Get thy blow-pipe again. Send a dart into Hanglip's black throat, and +let every man see how 'tis done."</p> + +<p>The giant obeyed. The slender, six-inch dart sped fair to its mark, and +Hanglip dropped. But as he fell his eyes saw, as did his men, whence had +come the mysterious death that had already taken heavy toll among them. +And Dolores saw her plan work to amazing effect; for Hanglip, with his +last wheezing breath, raised himself on his elbow, and barked:</p> + +<p>"Now ye see the magic! 'Tis but a man's breath. Up, lads, and take pay +for me!"</p> + +<p>The assault started in grim, silent fury. In waves the attackers mounted +the altar; men gave comrades backs, flung them upward, only to catch +them again as they recoiled from the steel of the defense like broken +seas at a rock base.</p> + +<p>But as the fight advanced, and stricken men were piled high on the great +altar, attacking steel reached higher and began to reap results. +Stumpy's men, now fully persuaded of their queen's regard for them, +fought like paladins, roaring out their rough sea-cries as they cut and +stabbed with increasing gusto. Even Pearse fell under the spell of +fierce action; his rapier played among the heavier strokes of cutlas and +broad-knife like summer lightning. And did a hardy pirate gain the ledge +in spite of all, there stood Milo, like a bronze Fate, with deadly ax +poised to turn success into death. Yet Stumpy's little band grew less; +and Dolores, standing over all like an Angel of Doom, saw that something +must be done speedily unless she was to be left with too great a number +of survivors from this lucky conflict.</p> + +<p>"Make a swift assault, Stumpy. Milo, swing that great ax of thine for +only five minutes," she said. Then when the fight raged higher yet, she +drew Pearse by the arm into the secret entrance.</p> + +<p>"Here, friend, are muskets and pistols. Load them while I pass them out. +We shall see how hungry for our blood these wolves are."</p> + +<p>She showed him the store of arms, in a small cave next to the powder +store, and musket powder and bullets were also there. As he loaded the +weapons, she passed them out in armfuls, then gave Stumpy a flask of +powder for priming, and told him to hold out until Milo could bring up +other resources as yet unknown.</p> + +<p>"And," she said, leading Stumpy inside for a moment, "here you see a +powder-train. There, on the floor. Now hear me, my faithful one, should +thy foes still beat thee back, bring all thy men along this passage, but +before ye come, touch a fire to this train. I shall await thee at the +end, Stumpy, and together we shall see these dogs destroyed."</p> + +<p>She called Milo, gave him a command, and then took Pearse with her into +the great chamber. Here she answered his questioning glance with a soft +smile, and seated him in the great chair.</p> + +<p>"Thy sword has done nobly, good John," she said, laying her hand on his +head. "The peril is over now. Rest. In a little while Milo will have +that which will fill these hungry dogs to the gullet. Rest here. I'll +soon be with thee." She leaned down, laid her lips lightly on his face, +and whispered: "And be of good cheer; the end is in sight for thee and +me."</p> + +<p>She left him sitting there, wrapped in his confused thoughts. Then she +flew to help Milo with his new engine of war which was to decide the +day. From a corner of the apartment the giant dragged a brass culverin, +mounted on a swivel, stolen from the poop-rail of some tall Indiaman in +years gone by. This was charged with powder,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_717" id="Page_717">[Pg 717]</a></span> and Milo searched for +effective missiles for it. He brought a handful of musket balls to +Dolores; she shook her head decidedly after a moment's thought and +objected: "Those round pellets are too merciful for such cattle. What do +they want? Treasure! Give them treasure, good Milo—their fill of it." +As she spoke she ran swiftly into the treasure chamber and seized +handfuls of gold chains, while at her command Milo followed her with +great gold coins in his huge hands. These they rammed into the cannon, +until links of gold fell from the muzzle; then Dolores regarded the +terrible thing with a mirthless laugh and bade Milo get to work with it.</p> + +<p>"Bid thy men fall back into the gallery as if beaten," she said. "And +when the vile bodies of those howling wolves fill the opening, deliver +the treasure to them, and may their souls be shattered with their +bodies! And that none may remain to repeat this day's mischief, when +they break and fly loose, Stumpy and his dogs shall harry them and +pursue them into the depths of the forest. Let the maroons finish what +we so well begin. See thy gun does not harm the— Wait," she cried, +"hold thy artillery until ye see me across the Grove! I shall give thee +a sign, then loose thy hell-blast."</p> + +<p>Leaving Milo, she ran again through the great chamber and out by the +rock door, which was rolled aside and standing open. Then around the +mass of the mountain and skirting the grove, past the prostrate +Pascherette she sped, casting a glance of bitter hate at the sorely +wounded octoroon, but never halting until she reached a point of the +underbrush immediately behind the spot where Venner and Tomlin still +ranged back and forth uneasily watching the fight.</p> + +<p>She rustled the foliage noisily, and the two men swung around in alarm. +She thrust her head through the leafy screen, and showed them her face +full of tender solicitude. Her great dark eyes were very soft; her +scarlet lips were parted in a rosy smile. Venner glared at her, then +flashed a glance of reawakening distrust at Tomlin, who returned it +tenfold.</p> + +<p>"Peace, good friends," she said, softly, laying a finger on her lips and +nodding toward the raging battle. "Come with me. Both of ye. The day +goes badly with me, and I would undo much that I have done toward ye. +Come quickly, and with caution."</p> + +<p>A momentary distrust for her made them hesitate; then she whispered +intensely: "Haste. This is your opportunity."</p> + +<p>Venner first shook off his moodiness and followed her into the brush; +and Tomlin was close behind him. When she had them in covert, she +stepped out once more, waited to catch Milo's eye at the ledge, then +gave him the sign. And the defenders fell back as if suddenly broken and +beaten. She waited still, until the attackers swarmed over their own +dead, stamping over her altar, and gained the entrance, where they +crowded in a milling, roaring mass. Then she glided back to the +underbrush and said tersely:</p> + +<p>"Come!"</p> + +<p>Venner and Tomlin walked on either side of her, not caring to meet each +other's eye, for their subjection to Dolores's spell was complete +whenever in close proximity to her. Hurriedly she led them around the +cliff to the great entrance, beyond which they had never stepped. And +they went full of tremendous hopes and suspicions, in which the hope +predominated; they failed even to cast a look at their schooner, then +lying free at anchor, with a few men visible on her decks. Three of the +pirates' long boats lay on the shore abreast of her.</p> + +<p>They stood in the entrance to the great chamber, sensing some of the awe +that filled the mysterious place, peering into the gloom where the ruby +lights now failed to cast their glow in the broader light of day +entering the open aperture. Dolores led them in with a gesture and a +smile, and they reached the massive plated sliding door and stood +beneath the yellow lantern, gazing in speechless wonder at the richness +of that barrier. And while they waited, mystified and uneasy, from +beyond the mountain came the crash of Milo's gun, and the tremendous +discharge reverberated through and through the rock, making the passage +where they stood rumble and quake as if the mountain were about to fall.</p> + +<p>Their faces went white, and Dolores gave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_718" id="Page_718">[Pg 718]</a></span> them a reassuring clasp of the +hand while she pressed the side-post of the door and started the pulley +and weight mechanism that would give them entry.</p> + +<p>"Welcome, friends. Enter," she smiled, standing aside to permit them to +pass. And Rupert Vernier and Craik Tomlin, forgetting their gloomy +thoughts regarding each other, entered the great chamber, and were +brought to a sudden halt at the sight of John Pearse sitting at his ease +through the strife in the high chair of state.</p> + + +<p class="continue">TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month.</p> + + + +<h1><a name="Part_IV" id="Part_IV"></a>The Pirate Woman</h1> + +<h2>by Captain Dingle</h2> + +<p class="center">Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc.</p> + + +<p class="continue2"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2.</p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">DOLORES DEMANDS A DECISION.</h3> + + +<p>Milo let loose his infernal blast, and the smashing report was followed +by a hush as of death. Then through the blinding and choking powder-reek +came the groans and shrieks of the mutilated wretches whose evil fate +had placed them in the path of the horribly despatched treasure. The eye +could not penetrate the smoke that filled the narrow rock passage; +Stumpy and his men were blackened and smeared with smoke and sweat, +demoniacal to the ultimate degree; and these were the men Milo hurled +forth now to make the <i>débâcle</i> complete.</p> + +<p>"Out upon them!" he cried, urging Stumpy to the ledge. "Leave not one of +these dogs alive, Stumpy, and thy fortune is made. Thy Sultana will +reward thee magnificently. Out with ye!"</p> + +<p>Stumpy hitched his poor clubfoot along in brave haste, and flourished +his cutlas in a hand that dripped red. For once in his stormy life the +crippled pirate felt something of the glow that pervaded the heart of +devoted Milo: for a moment he felt he was redeeming himself by enlisting +his undoubted courage in a worthy cause.</p> + +<p>"At 'em, lads!" he roared, leaping down through the smoke. "Dolores, +Dolores! Give 'em hell, bullies!"</p> + +<p>He stumbled and fell, his crippled foot playing him false. He sprang up +with a curse of pain, bit hard on his lip, and plunged into the huddled +remnants of the attackers, his roaring bullies at his heels. His +onslaught was the one thing needed to put terror into the hearts of the +survivors of Milo's blast. Coming through the leek like so many devils, +Stumpy and his crew put their foes to flight and followed eagerly, +hungrily; the forest rang and echoed with the clash of action and the +smashing of underbrush in panicky flight.</p> + +<p>Now Milo, his duty to his Sultana performed, thought of Pascherette. The +little octoroon lay where she had fallen, a pitiful little huddled heap; +never once had her pain-dulled eyes left the giant, or the place where +he might appear. And now she saw him coming toward her, not as a +ministering angel, but like a figure of wrath, swinging his great +broad-ax in one hand as easily as another man might swing a cutlas. She +shivered as he stood over her, accusing.</p> + +<p>"Milo!" she panted, gazing up at his magnificent height in plaintive +supplication.</p> + +<p>"Serpent!" he replied, and the utter contempt in his voice went to her +heart like a sword-thrust. "Hast a God to pray to before I send thy +false soul adrift?"</p> + +<p>"I have but one God, Milo; to Him I should not pray."</p> + +<p>She fixed her burning gaze upon him, and in her pained eyes blazed all +the tremendous love that actuated her small being.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>"A God thou canst not pray to, traitor? Art afraid, then?"</p> + +<p>"Not afraid, Milo," she whispered, and her eyelids drooped. "I cannot +pray to one who looks down upon me as thou dost."</p> + +<p>"I?" The giant's expression changed to frowning displeasure rather than +anger. "I?" he repeated.</p> + +<p>"Thee, my heart. Thou'rt my god, my all. For thee I have done this +thing. For thee, who even now canst not see where lies the falsity. +Milo"—her weak voice sank to a low murmur—"I beg thy forgiveness. My +love for thee caused me to sin. My life is to pay the supreme price. Let +me die at least in thy forgiveness."</p> + +<p>"Forgive? Forgive thee, who worked for the destruction of the being I +worship? Rather shall I speed thy soul!"</p> + +<p>Pascherette struggled to a kneeling position, crossed her tiny hands on +her panting breast, and looked full into his eyes as a wounded hart +looks at the hunter. Her lip quivered, her small, gold-tinted face, once +so piquant and full of allure, had taken on a gray hue from her pain, +but there was no hiding the great, overwhelming love for the giant that +gleamed in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Milo," she said, and the word was a caress, "Milo, if thou must, strike +swiftly. Yet again I ask, forgive."</p> + +<p>The giant slowly lowered his great ax, and his honest heart answered the +pitiful plea. His deep chest swelled and throbbed; into his face crept +the look that had been there on that day when he told Pascherette he +loved her—loved her, yet worshiped Dolores as his gods. Letting the ax +fall to his elbow by the thong at the haft, he stooped and tenderly +picked up the girl, carrying her as a child carries a doll; yet his face +was averted from Pascherette's passionate lips that sought to kiss him.</p> + +<p>"Not yet can I forgive thee," he said. "Be content that I shall not kill +thee, girl. Perhaps, if thy acts have failed in their end, I may forgive +thee; not yet."</p> + +<p>He carried her around to the great rock, and through the passage into +the great chamber, bursting in upon a situation of growing intensity. +Dolores sat on a corner of the table, with all her seductive lures in +her beautiful face, smiling invitingly at Rupert Venner. Craik Tomlin +glared at both, yet his gaze seemed hard to restrain from wandering +around the gorgeous chamber, whose wealth he saw now for the first time. +Venner, too, had been seized by the jewel-hunger, although neither he, +nor Tomlin, guessed at the immensely greater wealth that had been +revealed to Pearse. As for Pearse, he sat glowering in his chair, +nervous and smoldering; ready at a hint to draw steel without caring +what the object. He simply saw rivalry where fifteen minutes before he +had thought his own course clear.</p> + +<p>Milo appeared to them; carrying his sobbing burden, and the interruption +brought a blaze of fury to Dolores's face. She went pale, and her hands +clenched and opened nervously.</p> + +<p>"Well, slave?" she cried, and Milo started. Never had she used that tone +to him.</p> + +<p>"Sultana, I thought thou wert alone," he replied, haltingly. "I have +brought Pascherette to thee for forgiveness."</p> + +<p>"I forgive? Pish! What care I for thy chit? Take her where ye will, and +trouble me not with such trash. Out, now! Let me not see her face again, +and I care not what ye do with her. But haste. I have work for thee and +a score of slaves. Bring them here quickly!"</p> + +<p>Silently Milo bore Pascherette to the small room beyond the great +chamber, which had been her resting-place while not in attendance on +Dolores. And there, still shaking his head to her plea, though with +deepening trouble in his eyes, he left her, crying herself into a fitful +slumber.</p> + +<p>Then with slaves dragged from the corners where they had cowered during +the fight, he entered the great chamber, and at Dolores's command set +them to carrying out the closed treasure-chests that stood in their old +places around the walls.</p> + +<p>And the sight of the great chests actually going out brought fiery +jealousy back to the eyes of the three yachtsmen. Now Dolores +half-closed her own inscrutable eyes, and watched them, catlike, +cunning. Pearse sprang from the great chair and began pacing the floor +in a heat. Venner alone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> seemed to retain any vestige of control over +his feelings; and he rapidly lost his color and began to peer about him.</p> + +<p>One chest went out, and the cries of the slaves could be heard as they +lowered it over the cliff. They returned for another, and now Dolores +leaped to her feet and followed them, flinging over her shoulder a smile +of invitation. Pearse answered instantly; the others paused. Then she +laughed like a siren and held out her hands to the hesitant ones, and +said softly and pleasantly:</p> + +<p>"Have no fears, timid ones. Thy minds are indeed hard to fathom. I but +want to show thee how I am repaying thee for thy sufferings here. Come."</p> + +<p>They followed her, and together they entered the rocky tunnel. At the +end of it the yellow sunlight blazed like a fire, in the circular +aperture was framed a picture of wonderful beauty. The blue sky, flecked +with fleecy cloudlets, filled the upper half of the circle; then the +sparkling sea of deeper blue lifted its dazzling whitecaps to the kiss +of the trades and formed a gem-like background for the brazen sands, the +glowing green-and-purple of the Point, and the dainty ivory-and-gold of +the white schooner.</p> + +<p>It was all mellowed and diminished as seen through a glass at great +distance; and on the shore the men toiling to load a great +treasure-chest into a long-boat looked like tiny manikins posed about a +delicate model of marine life. The second chest yet stood on the +cliff-edge, slaves about it lashing double slings and tackles that led +from a boulder for lowering it down.</p> + +<p>Dolores stepped back, permitting the three men to take in the view +without restriction. And she watched them again, her face enigmatic if +they glanced at her, breaking into an expression of nearing triumph when +they looked away, and left her free to scrutinize them. She saw John +Pearse step a pace behind the others, and his fingers clutched absently +at his rapier-hilt while the veins on his neck stood out and throbbed +like live things.</p> + +<p>"One more chest, perhaps two, and I shall see who will be my man!" she +whispered to herself.</p> + +<p>Then she left them without a word, and returned to the great chamber, +where she snatched up an immense rope of pearls and resumed her seat on +the edge of the table. There she sat, giving them no glance, when the +three men came back, hastily, uneasily, one behind the other, with +Tomlin bringing up the rear, scowling at Venner's back malevolently.</p> + +<p>Idly now Dolores rolled her pearls on the table, and one by one she +crushed them with her dagger-hilt—crushed in one moment the wealth of +many a petty princeling, and still crushed gem after gem without so much +as a flicker of interest on her cool face. The three men glared at her, +and at each other, and the stress they were under could be felt like an +impending electric storm. Tomlin's teeth gritted together harshly, his +lips were dripping saliva, and he could stand it no longer. He stepped +suddenly before Dolores, seized her hands, and cried:</p> + +<p>"Woman, you are mad! Do you know what those things are? They are pearls, +woman, pearls! Stop this crazy destruction, and in God's name let us go +before you madden us."</p> + +<p>Dolores turned her cool gaze upon him, drew her hand away easily yet +without apparent effort, and crushed another pearl between her gleaming +teeth.</p> + +<p>"Pearls?" she repeated, tossing away the shattered gem. "Pearls, yes, +friend. What of it? Do ye value these trifles, then? Pish! I have such +things as these, aye, one for every hair on thy hot head. But let ye +go—ha! That is in thy hands, my friend, thine and thy companions."</p> + +<p>"Yes, we know your price!" gasped Venner hoarsely, staring full into her +eyes. "But what is to prevent us now, when we have you alone, and that +great giant is away, from binding you fast and sailing away with the +treasure you have already put in my vessel?"</p> + +<p>"What can prevent?" she echoed, simulating surprise that such a question +should occur to any one. "Nothing shall prevent, my friend, if any of ye +think to try it. Have I not said my treasure is for the man who wins it. +Am I not waiting for the man able to take it, that I may go with him, +too?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> Here—" She suddenly flung down the pearls at Tomlin's feet, +glided close to Venner, and thrust her red lips up to him, her violet +eyes like brimming pools behind her drooping lashes. "Here, tie me, my +Rupert. Here are my hands; there my feet. Bind me well, and go if thou +canst. What, wilt thou not? There, I knew thee better than thou knowest +thyself."</p> + +<p>She stepped back with a low laugh, and her arm brushed his cheek, +sending the hot blood surging to his temples. John Pearse crouched +toward Venner, as if waiting for him to lay a finger on Dolores at his +peril. She smiled at all three, and stepped over to the side of the +chamber, where she carelessly pointed out sacred vessels and altar +furnishings, gems of art and jewel-crusted lamps.</p> + +<p>"Here, also, is a reason why ye will not go, my friends. Your eyes, +accustomed to these things in the great world outside, dare not ignore +their worth. And I tell ye that all the treasure now going to the vessel +could not purchase the thousandth part of my real treasure, which I will +not show, until I know my man." She glanced at Pearse as she spoke, and +saw rising greed in his eyes. He had seen the real treasure; he was ripe +for her hand. Milo and his slaves returned for another chest, and +Dolores waited until they had gone; then she glided swiftly toward the +passage, and turned at the door.</p> + +<p>"I shall return in fifteen minutes, gentlemen," she said. "Then my man +must be ready, or I will drop the great rock at the entrance, and leave +ye all three caged here until ye die. For go I will, mated or mateless, +with all my treasure, ere the sun sinks into the western sea." And as +she left them she flashed a look of appeal at John Pearse.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE SLUMBERING SAVAGE.</h3> + + +<p>Pearse followed her with his eyes until she vanished into the passage; +then with muttering lips and harshly working features he strode down the +chamber to the great tapestry behind which lay the powder store. The +suspicion had come to him that Dolores was fooling them all regarding +her real treasure; for he believed she had shown him everything, and if +those heavy chests contained but a tithe of the whole, life was certain +that the gems around the walls were not what she meant when she said she +had still a thousand times greater riches than the chests contained.</p> + +<p>He tore aside the tapestry, and tried to see through the gloom of the +cavern. His eyes could not pierce the blackness, and he looked around +for a light, while Venner and Tomlin walked toward him with sudden +interest in their faces. Over the tall Hele clock a lantern hung; a +gaudy thing of beaten gold, in which an oil wick burned, gleaming out in +multicolored light through openings glazed with turquoise and sapphire, +ruby, and emerald. He took this down, and impatiently tore away the side +of it to secure a stronger light. Again he went to the powder store, and +now Venner and Tomlin were at his back, peering over his shoulder or +under his arms in curiosity as to his quest.</p> + +<p>And, sensing their presence, he swung around upon them savagely, +muffling the cry that answered the message of his eyes. Flinging the +lantern down, he trampled it out, and with snarling teeth he faced them, +his rapier flickering from the sheath like a dart of lightning.</p> + +<p>"Back!" he barked, and advanced one foot, falling into a guard. "This is +no concern of yours, Venner, nor yours, Tomlin. Back, I say!"</p> + +<p>Tomlin stared into his furious face and laughed greedily. His keen eyes +had seen a vague, shadowy something in the cavern, that filled him with +the same passion which consumed Pearse.</p> + +<p>"So you are the lucky one, eh, Pearse?" he chuckled, and his hand went +to his own rapier. He stepped back a pace, and, never taking his eyes +from Pearse, cried: "Venner, it's you and me against the devil and +Pearse! A pretty plot to fool us, indeed; but Pearse was too eager. Peep +into that hole, man, and see!"</p> + +<p>Venner glared from one to the other, not yet inflamed as they were. But +what he saw in their faces convinced him that great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> stakes were up to +be played for, and he edged forward bent upon seeing for himself.</p> + +<p>"Back!" screamed Pearse, presenting his rapier at Venner's breast. +Venner persisted, and the steel pricked him. Then, as Tomlin's weapon +rasped out, Venner's blood leaped to fighting-heat with his slight +wound, and in the next instant the three-sided duel was hotly in +progress.</p> + +<p>Three-sided it became after the first exchanges. For Pearse, the most +skilled in fence, applied himself to Venner as his most dangerous foe, +and with the cunning of the serpent Craik Tomlin saw and seized his own +opportunity. Let Pearse and Venner kill each other, or let that end be +accomplished with his outside help, and there was the solution that +Dolores had demanded them to work out; one of them left, to be master of +the wealth of Crœsus; to be the mate of a magnificent creature, who +could be goddess or she-devil at will.</p> + +<p>With a satanic chuckle Tomlin drew back, leaving his friends to fight +themselves weary, his own rapier ever presented toward them, urging them +on with lashing tongue. And Venner flashed a look at him as Cæsar did at +Brutus, and suffered for his lapse in vigilance. For with the pounce of +a leopard Pearse was upon him, and his rapier grated over Venner's guard +and darted straight at his throat. But Venner's time had not come yet; +Tomlin flashed his own weapon in and parried the stroke for him, backing +away again with a murderous snarl.</p> + +<p>"Not yet, my friends!" he cried. "You're too strong yet, Pearse. At him, +Venner; let me see you draw blood as he has, that I may see my own way +clearer."</p> + +<p>From the other end of the great chamber Dolores watched the conflict +from the concealment of the velvet hangings over the door; and her hands +were clasped in ecstasy, her lips parted to the swift breathing that +agitated her breast; in her blazing eyes her wicked soul lurked, sending +out its evil aura to envelop the combatants and instil deeper hatred +into them.</p> + +<p>The fight raged back and forth around the powder store; once a sudden +onslaught by Pearse forced Venner back to the great chair; Tomlin's +swift rush to keep close brought all three into a tumbled crash at the +dais, and the chair was overturned in a heap of flying draperies that +entangled their feet. And while Pearse and Venner struggled vainly to +maintain their footing, Tomlin began to accomplish his own dire ends. +Crouching, with his dark face full of evil passions, he drove his point +first at one, then at the other, stabbing through the involved silk and +skins.</p> + +<p>In his furious haste to complete his murderous work, he sprang forward +carelessly, his foot became entangled, and he pitched face downward upon +his victims. Now Pearse seized the opening; but when he arose, +stumblingly, there was a different expression on his face, a +horror-stricken realization of Tomlin's treachery. Venner lay, still +unable to disentangle himself, but slightly hurt, and he, too, regarded +Tomlin with a look of sorrow and reawakening sanity.</p> + +<p>"Up, murderer, and fight!" rasped Pearse, stepping astride Venner and +glaring down at Tomlin. "Venner, draw aside. Let me punish this +scoundrel we have called friend; then meet me if you wish."</p> + +<p>Tomlin looked up with a snarl of baffled rage, expecting swift reprisal +for his treacherous attempt. Gone was the last vestige of civilization +from his face; greed of gold, jewel-hunger, blood-lust, all played about +his reddened eyes and cruel, down-drawn mouth. The primitive came +through the veneer of culture and showed him the man he really was. And +evil though his spirit had proved, in this final test his courage showed +up like that of the tiger. He leaned on one elbow, watching Pearse like +a cat, then slowly knelt and stood, keeping his point down. With the +bestial cunning that had overwhelmed him, he circled away from the +trappings and draperies of the chair that had brought him down, and +responded to Pearse's chivalrous waiting with a sneer.</p> + +<p>"You had better have made sure while you had the chance, Pearse," he +grinned, showing his teeth wolfishly. "Venner can wait. There is no +treasure for three; Dolores is mine! Guard!"</p> + +<p>With the word Tomlin made a savage attack without waiting for Pearse to +fall into guard. And Dolores came from her concealment, advanced +half-way down the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> chamber, and watched with a new intensity that was +not apparent while Venner was in the fight.</p> + +<p>Pearse avoided his opponent's thrust at the expense of a pierced left +hand, which caught the other's point a hand-breadth from his breast. +Then the duel dropped to equality. Swift and silent they fought, silent +save for the rasp and screech of steel on steel, their feet padding +noiselessly on the deep-piled carpet. Venner drew aside and watched, his +eyes losing their hard glare, and some of his old expression returned to +his face. It was as if his resurging emotions were bringing back to him +the shame and remorse of a gentleman inveigled into performing a +despicable action. He, too, saw Dolores approaching; saw the tensity of +her expression; sensed some of the tremendous hopes that actuated her, +now that she saw the rapid culmination of all her plots and seductions.</p> + +<p>She stood quite near to him now, leaning forward in an attitude of utter +anxiety. She saw nothing of Venner; her great, violet eyes were dusky +and full of yearning, her hands clutched at her breast. And all the +intensity of her gaze was fixed upon Tomlin. She responded to his +momentary success when he drove Pearse back with a savage assault, with +a panting little cry of joy; she fell back with widened eyes when a +counter-attack forced Tomlin almost upon her. And her lips opened in a +gasp when a vicious clash of steel told of a pressed onslaught, and +Pearse lunged heavily forward.</p> + +<p>In the instant when Pearse followed his first plunge, Dolores stood in +uncertainty through which dawned jubilation. Then her face went white, +she seemed to lose all her splendid vitality; for her astounded eyes +fastened upon Pearse's rapier-point, protruding a foot from Tomlin's +back, and slowly the stricken man sagged away and fell at her feet, +clutching at the steel at his breast and snarling like a beast.</p> + +<p>A hush fell over the great chamber. Then from a distance came the sound +of voices, voices of men down at the shore, ringing clear and sharp on +the still air, accentuating the deathly hush that clung around the +actors in the scene like a heavy mantle. It startled Dolores into +renewed life. She ran with feverish eagerness toward Tomlin, hurling +aside the others, and crouching upon the body in dry-eyed rage.</p> + +<p>Venner sought to catch the eye of the victor, and saw in Pearse a +reflection of the feelings that had possessed himself. John Pearse +showed every sign of horror and awakened sanity that had marked his own +expression before the fatal fight had started. Their eyes met, and there +was no challenge in them. Both dropped their gaze involuntarily upon the +huddled figures at their feet; and it was Pearse, the man who had +precipitated the conflict at first, who nodded with his head a silent +invitation to withdraw. Venner stepped after him, softly and with bowed +shoulders, shuddering violently as he passed the expiring Tomlin.</p> + +<p>They reached the door together, and with the rocky tunnel open before +them, once more holding up to their eyes the picture of absolute beauty +of sea and sky and shore, they filled their lungs with fresh, wholesome +air, and shook off the last of the evil spell that had held them.</p> + +<p>"In God's name, Pearse, let us fly from this hellish place!" whispered +Venner, dropping his rapier to the rocky floor with a clatter, and +thrusting his hand out in reconciliation.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Venner, and pray Heaven we may forget!" replied Pearse fervently. +"But how shall we get away? The giant and his crew are yet at the +schooner."</p> + +<p>"We must wait. They will return soon for more booty. Then we must seize +the chance. Is that somebody coming now?"</p> + +<p>Milo's great shoulders reared above the cliff, and behind him came the +slaves. They came directly toward the great rock, and Pearse flattened +himself against the wall in the shadow of the portals, pressing Venner +back also with a hand across his chest.</p> + +<p>"Hush! Hide here. Let them enter, and we'll make one leap for the +shore."</p> + +<p>The giant swung into the passage, his black eyes blazing with some +emotion that the hidden pair could not fathom. It was something on the +border of fear, but of what? Fear and Milo was a combination hard of +reconciliation. The slaves at his heels followed dumbly, slaves in +thought and action; if their dulled brains ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> awoke, it was but to +the call of animal appetites; they were incapable of devotion such as +Milo's, and as incapable of shock should their obedience fail reward. +They passed into the great chamber, and a throaty cry of alarm burst +from the giant at the sight of his Sultana prone on the floor.</p> + +<p>"Now!" whispered Pearse, taking the lead. "Swift and silent!"</p> + +<p>Like ghosts they ran from the tunnel, glanced around once as they +reached the cliff path, then leaped down the declivity. That swift +glance showed them the camp deserted except for the wondering women, who +wandered idly among the empty huts, ever looking toward the forest +wherein had vanished all their men, waiting with bovine patience for any +one to settle their uncertainty for them.</p> + +<p>And the forest was yet very still. The Feu Follette lay at a single +anchor, heading in the light breeze fair to seaward; a few heads showed +above her rail, and the stops had been cast off from her snowy sails. At +her gangway a single boat lay, the painter made fast on deck; on the +foreshore the other two long-boats were drawn up on the sand, planks +running up to their sides in readiness for the embarkation of yet more +treasure.</p> + +<p>Venner and Pearse raced down the steep path, using little precaution, +sending showers of stones and clods flying before them. And Peters, the +schooner's sailing-master, saw them coming, and his voice rang out +calling for hands to man the boat. Two men answered and entered the boat +as the two fugitives reached the shore and ran along the Point. Pearse +counted the minutes at their disposal, and saw the futility of waiting +for that boat. He clutched eagerly at Venner's arm, and panted in his +ear:</p> + +<p>"Tell them to hold on! Let them get the schooner ready for swift +departure. Come, we must swim for it."</p> + +<p>Venner hesitated but a second. Then his hail went hurtling over the +still haven, and the two seamen scrambled out of the boat again.</p> + +<p>"Swim it is, Pearse," he said, leading the way down to deep water. "Swim +it is, and may the ever-cleansing sea wash out of us the last traces of +insanity."</p> + +<p>Together they plunged into the blue sea and swam swiftly out to the +schooner.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE FLIGHT OF THE FEU FOLLETTE.</h3> + + +<p>Dolores, flinging herself down upon Craik Tomlin, seized his face +between her hands and raised his head, placing her knee beneath it. She +panted like an exhausted doe, yet the fire that leaped from her eyes +gave the lie to her attitude of sorrowing humility. Her lips moved +feverishly, but she could not or would not speak aloud. Tomlin's eyes +were closed in agony, his teeth were clenched tightly upon his under +lip; he gave no sign that he knew of her presence. And a sudden fury +seized her at his irresponsiveness. She shook his head between her hands +savagely.</p> + +<p>"Wake! Speak!" she cried hoarsely. "Art indeed dead, at the moment of my +triumph?"</p> + +<p>Tomlin's eyelids flickered, and his lips strove to speak. One hand went +weakly to his face, to grasp her fingers. And into her anxious ear he +managed to whisper:</p> + +<p>"Evil luck fought with me, Dolores. Yet I die content if you care."</p> + +<p>"Care!" she echoed, shaking his fingers loose impatiently. "Care? Yes, +this I care, bungler: I care because of all three of thee, thou alone +wert covetous enough to obey my conditions. With thee alive, there was +hope of thy friends' speedy death. With thee dead, which of the others +will wipe his fellow from his path for me? Why, think ye, did I fawn on +John Pearse? But to arouse in thee the demon of jealousy; why did I +smile on Venner, and call him my Rupert? To steel thy arm against him. +And for what?"</p> + +<p>She suddenly laid his head down on the floor, leaned over him with her +lips almost brushing his cheek, and whispered fiercely: "Speak! Canst +live?"</p> + +<p>Tomlin's face lost some of its pain. The thin lips straightened into the +semblance of a faint smile. His glazing eyes opened slightly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>"I am done for," he whispered. "Dolores, kiss me again. I die for you."</p> + +<p>The beautiful fury sprang to her feet, spurning him. She glared down at +his chalky face in utter scorn.</p> + +<p>"Kiss thee? Thou die for me? Pah! I kiss no carrion. A half-hundred men +have died for me this day, I hope. I kiss him who lives for me and +conquers, not the weakling who dies!"</p> + +<p>Without deigning another glance at her victim, she turned away and went +to meet Milo. He now entered with his slaves.</p> + +<p>"Where are the two strangers?" she demanded harshly.</p> + +<p>Milo returned her stare with a look of simple surprise. He had seen +nothing of them, and had thought of them being yet with his mistress.</p> + +<p>"I saw them not, Sultana," he replied.</p> + +<p>"Saw them not, great clod!" she blazed at him, clenching her hands in +rage. "Are they here, then?"</p> + +<p>Milo looked around in bewilderment. In all her life Dolores had been his +especial care; in her many moments of temper she had perhaps pained his +devoted heart, but never had she used to him the tone she now used. It +seemed to his simple soul that the foundations of his faith were being +wrenched loose.</p> + +<p>"I will find them, Sultana," he said quietly, and turned to leave by the +tunnel.</p> + +<p>"Stay here, thou blind fool!" she commanded him. "I will find them +myself. Here is work more fitting for a slave. How many chests are going +to the ship?"</p> + +<p>"Three."</p> + +<p>"And how many have ye yet empty here?"</p> + +<p>"Three, lady."</p> + +<p>"Then get them quickly. Until I return, bid thy fellows replace the +treasure that is still in the powder store. And haste, for I will leave +this place this day, though all the fiends say no."</p> + +<p>She ran along the tunnel, and Milo set his men to their task. As he +passed along to the powder chamber, a low moan arrested him, and he +halted in sudden remorse for Pascherette, whom he now felt he had judged +harshly. He left his fellows and went to the tiny alcove where the +little octoroon lay, and his great heart leaped in response to the +worship that shone in her dark eyes. He saw the dry and cracked lips, +the flushed face, and fetched water and wine before he would speak to +her. Then, with her small head and slender shoulders against his immense +chest, he gave her drink, soothing her pain with soft speech and +caressing hand.</p> + +<p>Pascherette's wound was deep, and bleeding internally; a fever already +burned in the tiny maid's veins. She peered up at him wistfully, all of +her mischief, all her piquancy gone and replaced by a softened, humbled +expression that wrung Milo's heart-strings.</p> + +<p>"Will ye not kiss me now, Milo?" she whispered, with a pearly drop +brimming from each eye, where laughter had so lately dwelt.</p> + +<p>"Pascherette, thy fault was great," he answered, yet in his face was a +look so forgiving, so excusing, that the girl shivered expectantly and +closed her eyes with a happy sigh.</p> + +<p>Yet the kiss was not given. From the great chamber the angry voice of +Dolores rang out.</p> + +<p>"Milo! Where art thou, slave!"</p> + +<p>And the giant tenderly laid Pascherette down again, and ran in answer.</p> + +<p>"Sultana?"</p> + +<p>"Blind, idle dolt! While thou art fondling that serpent of thine, thy +mistress's affairs may go hang! Haste with the treasure, or feel my +anger. While thy useless eyes were mooning on nothing, the strangers +have escaped. They are even now getting sail on the white vessel. Carry +the chests down to the Point as soon as ye may. I will stay them yet, +and they shall learn the cost of flouting Dolores! Hasten, I tell ye!"</p> + +<p>Milo winced at her address; his black eyes, usually holding the utter +devotion of a noble dog, glittered with tiny sparks of resentment; yet +the habit of years could not be lightly cast off, and he bowed low, even +while Dolores had turned her back on him, and picked up a great empty +chest to carry it to the powder store. Here in the flickering light of a +pine splinter the slaves worked feverishly, their abject eyes spark<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>ling +with borrowed radiance from the riches they handled.</p> + +<p>And while they worked, Dolores emerged from the tunnel, flashed one long +glance of derision at the moving schooner, and sped down the cliff to +stop her flight.</p> + +<p>The Feu Follette was poorly enough manned with Peters and his four men. +With the ready help of Venner and Pearse the getting of the anchor and +the hoisting of the heavy fore and main sails was an arduous job, but it +was accomplished under the tremendous urge of remembrance. None wished +to have the experiences of the past days repeated; Peters was anxious to +get his beautiful vessel into safer waters; the Feu Follette's owner and +his guest were doubly anxious to drop those blue hills of ominous memory +below the horizon forever. They gave scant attention to the three great +iron-bound chests that stood between the guns along the waist; getting +clear occupied every faculty.</p> + +<p>The tide setting directly on the Point, with a breeze dead in from +seaward, forced the schooner perilously close to the bar that had been +her undoing before; but, with the lead going, Peters speedily found that +his previous mishap must undoubtedly have been due to clever misleading. +After touching lightly once, and getting deeper water at the next cast +over the lee side, he understood the trick of the extended false Point +and stood boldly along shore.</p> + +<p>And as the schooner gathered steerage-way, hugging the Point closely, +Dolores ran out along the sandy beach and plunged into the sea abreast +the moving vessel.</p> + +<p>"Here's that vixen woman, sir!" cried Peters angrily, looking toward +Venner for instructions. Peters had the helm, and owner and guest stood +against the companion, ready to lend a hand at the sheets, forward or +aft.</p> + +<p>Venner and Pearse stared at the swimmer, then turned and gazed +searchingly at each other. In the face of each lingered a trace of the +subjection they had fallen under; neither could quite so quickly forget +the allurements of this woman. Her kisses had been as sweet as her fury +had been terrible; and the absence of Craik Tomlin was an additional +incentive to memory.</p> + +<p>"Shall we take her away?" asked Venner, avoiding Pearse's eye as he put +the question.</p> + +<p>"Can't you make more sail, Peters?" was Pearse's reply.</p> + +<p>Venner laughed softly, agreeably; and the next moment Dolores hailed +them. She swam swiftly, with effortless ease, slipping through the sea +like a sparkling nymph in her native element. But the schooner traveled +fast, and, though she lost no ground, she gained but slowly. She hailed +again.</p> + +<p>"Rupert, my Rupert!" and finished the cry with a rippling laugh. "Art +stealing my treasure and leaving me?"</p> + +<p>"By Heavens, Pearse, I had forgotten these chests," said Venner +uneasily. Pearse regarded him closely, fearing that Dolores's spell was +yet powerful. He gripped Venner tightly by the arm, leaned nearer, and +said:</p> + +<p>"Venner, so long as that blood-polluted treasure is on your deck, so +long will you be unable to settle your mind. Bid the hands pitch it into +the sea, for God's sake!"</p> + +<p>A lull in the wind slowed the schooner down, and Dolores gained a +fathom. Her fair face was set toward them in a bewitching smile, and she +waved a gleaming arm at them. Venner fought with himself in silence for +a brief while, then with a shudder stepped to the wheel.</p> + +<p>"Get the hands, Peters," he told the sailing-master, "and heave those +chests overboard. Quickly! You shall lose nothing by this, but don't +delay a moment!"</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">STUMPY FIRES THE MAGAZINE.</h3> + + +<p>Milo and his slaves worked frenziedly at their task, his suddenly bitter +spirit flogging them to unremitting haste. In the giant's troubled face +the smoldering spark of resentment had grown to an incipient blaze that +required but a breath to burst into angry flame.</p> + +<p>One great chest was filled with the choicest of the gems in the powder +store; it was set aside in the entrance beside the tapestry, and another +box was opened before the powder-kegs. Little Pascherette had ceased +moaning, but from time to time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> a choking sob sounded from her alcove +that increased the hard brilliancy of the light in Milo's eyes. The +great chamber was silent as a mausoleum in the intervals between the +clashing and tinkling of gold and stones in the chest; from the outside, +by way of the rock tunnel, came only the sigh and murmur of the crooning +breeze, the softened plash of the tide on the shore, the scream of +wheeling seabirds. All sound of the schooner had departed; there was no +human note in the whole region.</p> + +<p>Then, as the second chest was almost full, and Milo pulled the third and +last along in readiness, from the secret gallery behind the Grove came +the shouts and oaths of men, weary, footsore men, but men with animal +appetites whetted by the day of bloody conflict. They could be heard at +the great door in the painting of the "Sleeping Venus"; not knowing its +secret their way was barred. But Stumpy's hoarse roar could be heard +calling them back to the ledge, and there was a note of menace in his +tired tones. And mingling with his voice was the voice of a woman of the +camp, raised in shrill complaint. Milo stepped to the picture and +listened.</p> + +<p>"I tell ye the fiend has tricked ye, Stumpy!" the woman cried.</p> + +<p>"Tricked me? Have a care how ye talk that way, woman!" Stumpy's voice +replied warningly.</p> + +<p>"Aye, tricked ye and me and all of us! Even now—come to the cliff, and +I'll show ye."</p> + +<p>The scrambling of heavy feet could be heard in the gallery as men rushed +out in answer. How many men Milo could not determine; but fewer than had +followed Stumpy into the forest in chase of their broken foes. The +slaves at the treasure-chests paused in their work, alarm on their +shining faces, looking ever toward Milo for instructions.</p> + +<p>Milo ran back through the great chamber and out by the tunnel to the +cliff, peering around for Stumpy and hoping to see the schooner putting +back.</p> + +<p>Without Dolores he was at a loss; yet he was not ready to leave his +charge to be gazed upon by untried eyes. His breast swelled nigh to +bursting at sight of the schooner. The Feu Follette was but half a mile +away in a straight line from the cliff; she had been tacking against a +light breeze and flood tide around the Point, and while she had sailed +several miles through the water, she had but just gained past the face +of the cliff. And far from returning, she sailed farther and farther +away as he watched, nursed with such skill of sheet and helm as proved +to Milo's seamanly eye that her people would never return of their free +will. And what of Dolores? His condor's vision picked her out as soon as +the schooner. Her gleaming arms and shoulders swept rhythmically over +and over, cleaving the sea easily and smoothly, her lustrous hair +streaming behind her, and the sun glinting brightly from the gold +circlet around her head. She was gaining foot by foot, and Milo keenly +scrutinized the schooner for signs of surrender. There were none. At the +schooner's rail three heads were visible; but Milo knew neither belonged +to Venner nor Pearse. That persuaded him that the schooner was unlikely +to come back. And the even, tireless manner in which Dolores swam +convinced him that she would follow to the end. Yet he would not utterly +believe she had deserted him. He glared around for the men whose voices +he heard now, raised in anger in chorus with the voices of the woman and +her companions. Stumpy stepped out from the grove path with but four men +behind him; and they were in sore plight. Stumpy himself dangled an idly +swinging sleeve that was stained dark-red to the shoulder. A red sear +across his nose and cheek rendered him a demoniacal figure through the +powder, smoke and sweat. And his mates were tattered and cut, their +shirts bore red splashes to a man; their grimed faces and fiery eyes +held the passions of blooded men who see their reward flying from them.</p> + +<p>"I tell ye she's gone for good!" cried the woman who had brought the +news to Stumpy. "See, she's almost there, and three chests of treasure +have gone in that vessel! Her swimming after it is but a part of her +cuteness. Now d'ye believe, fools!"</p> + +<p>The crippled, battle-scarred pirate glared to seaward with red-rimmed +eyes in which flames of revenge started into life. His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> twisted, warped +life had been spent in fighting and trickery; to-day his work had +culminated in a brave stand for what he thought to be straight and +right; reward he expected, but he had earned it with blood and sweat, +hoping at the last that some of his earlier transgressions might be +atoned for in his loyalty to his mistress.</p> + +<p>He hurled aside the persistent women, who sought some reassuring word +from him, and mouthing rather than speaking a call to his men to follow, +he plunged again into the grove path and stumbled toward the ledge +entrance. Here he clambered painfully to the gallery, cursing to himself +bitterly, never looking back to see if his men followed, intent only +upon one absorbing thing. Revenge was beyond him, since there were left +no subjects for his revenge. He had never seen the great stone at the +chamber portals left rolled aside; could not even now imagine such a +situation. No, if Dolores were gone in truth, and with her the strangers +and the treasure, then it was certain, he thought, that the great +chamber was sealed forever. And he would see into its mysteries, even +though they proved barren now. He knew the way; Dolores had shown him.</p> + +<p>Feverishly hunting for a flint, he tore some threads from his shirt and +frayed them into tow. Then with his cutlas he struck a spark and ignited +his threads, carefully nursing the tiny flame until he could find a dry +stick. This lasted him until a pine torch was found, and then he crawled +along the gallery in search of the powder train. That, he knew, for she +had told him, would burst the rock asunder anyhow; and that would be +enough, for he had guessed shrewdly that the gallery was connected with +the great chamber by some secret egress.</p> + +<p>And who knew? Might not Dolores have taken in her haste but part of her +vast store? Stumpy knew as well as Red Jabez the tremendous wealth that +had been deposited in that chamber of mysteries; for he had been with +the red chief from the beginning; he had seen with his own eyes the +riches of a hundred ships taken in there, and never a thing come out.</p> + +<p>"She can't have bagged the lot," he muttered, fanning his torch into a +red flare. "But she'll pay for deserting Stumpy, or Stumpy's a liar!"</p> + +<p>He found the powder train, and the moisture had dried from it, leaving +only a little line of dry, quick-igniting powder. He was not sure just +where the magazine was; not sure how long the train would burn before +the explosion. So down he clambered again, searching at the great altar +for the water-vessels he knew should be there. Then, with a jar of +water, he returned to his train, and swiftly swept up the dry powder and +moistened it a little, making a rough slow match of it.</p> + +<p>"Now we'll see the sights!" he growled, and went to the end of the +gallery and flung his torch into the train.</p> + +<p>He watched it for a moment, to be sure that it would burn, then stepped +down from the ledge and drew back a safe distance to watch the upheaval. +To what extent the mine was intended to destroy he had no idea. He +simply knew that Dolores had pointed it out to him as a means of defense +should the gallery be carried in the attack. He supposed, therefore, +that it would shatter the gallery. Doing that, it must surely dislodge +or loosen rock enough for him to break into the great chamber with aid.</p> + +<p>The thought recalled his men to his mind, and he saw for the first time +that they had not followed him. He started down the path toward the +camp, shouting to them by name, eager to give them an inkling of the +treat in store. But his hail was answered by another, and down the path +a woman appeared running, her hair flying, and tremendous excitement in +every line of her face.</p> + +<p>"Stumpy! Stumpy!" she sobbed and cried in hysterical intoxication. "Oh, +Stumpy, the great chamber is open, and it's full of gold and treasure!"</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">MILO CROSSES THE BAR.</h3> + + +<p>Milo watched Stumpy disappear down the grove path, and heard him call to +his men to follow. Then he regarded the receding yacht intently for a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +moment, and the last vestige of noble devotion went from his face and +gave place to a great and absorbing bitterness. In that instant, the +foundations, pillars, and capitals of his soul shook and tottered; his +universe changed from a thing of golden beauty and heavenly splendor to +a shameful mockery of truth and faith.</p> + +<p>In that moment his thoughts flew back to little Pascherette, and his +great heart yearned toward her. False she had proved, but to what? To +whom? He asked himself these things as he slowly walked back along the +tunnel, not yet knowing what he would do. He answered his own question. +Pascherette had proven false to falsity; she had schemed against the +schemer; and, in the other tray of the balance she had done these things +for love of him, out of a deep and all-powerful ambition to place him, +Milo the slave, in the high place of the wanton ingrate who had deserted +her people. And the thought hurt him now; he had not yet yielded her the +kiss she craved. Even now the little gold-tinted one might be cold in +death, denied that small consolation because of his obstinate heart.</p> + +<p>He ran along the tunnel and burst through the great chamber, cursing the +idle slaves into silence when they cried their helpless queries at him. +And straight to Pascherette he sped, to fling himself down by her side +and seize her tiny, moist hand in frantic appeal.</p> + +<p>"Pascherette!" he whispered with a dry sob. "Little golden one, speak to +thy Milo. Speak, and forgive!"</p> + +<p>The octoroon gave no sign of life, and the giant dropped her hand and +gently raised her pallid face. His lips sought hers in a passionate +kiss, long and yearning; and slowly her eyelids fluttered and opened. +The dark eyes were misty, yet that longed-for kiss had brought back her +fleeting spirit to recognize her man. She closed her tired eyes again, +with a little sign, and the small, pale lips formed the words: "I am +content, Milo, my god."</p> + +<p>The giant bowed his head over her silent face, and his black eyes +searched for a returning flicker of vitality. It was gone forever. +Pascherette was dead; and Milo laid her head down gently, and drew back +to stare at her with growing rebellion and horror. What gods could there +be to use him thus? He leaped to his feet with arms flung upward.</p> + +<p>"Hah, gods of earth and sea, witness Milo's penitence!" he said +hoarsely. "To Dolores I have given the worship that belonged to ye and +ye have taken terrible atonement. Pity me!"</p> + +<p>He paced the small alcove nervously, seeking light where no light was. +Then the harsh shouts of Stumpy's men resounded through the chamber, and +he stepped outside in alarm. For it was not yet possible for him to +discard the usage of years which forbade intrusion in that secret place. +He saw Stumpy's four men standing open-mouthed in the doorway beneath +the yellow lantern, gazing ludicrously at the magnificence of the +furnishings. The slaves at the powder store stood where he had left +them, idle and aimless, but with an open chest at their feet. This now +attracted the pirates' attention, and with a stamp and a shout they +roared through the great chamber, their faces awork with newly aroused +avarice.</p> + +<p>Just for one second Milo pondered staying them. But his soul had soured; +he uttered a grunt of scornful disgust, and waved a hand at them, +muttering:</p> + +<p>"Revel, ye dogs! Plunge thy hands deep. 'Tis all thine, and the fiend's +blessing go with it!"</p> + +<p>He returned to his dead Pascherette and knelt beside her, patting her +cold hands and speaking to her softly and tenderly. Out in the chamber +the pirates had hurled aside the slaves, and, flinging open the chests, +were glaring with wolfish eyes and dripping jaws at the bewildering mass +of treasure revealed.</p> + +<p>Their noise irritated Milo. He went out again to stop them. And he saw a +pirate snatch up a glittering tiara and place it on his head with a +roaring oath. He saw another snatch the bauble off; and in a breath the +pirates were at each other's throats; cutlases flashed and a savage +fight began at the moment the women stole in to see the mysterious +place, and one of their number ran to bring Stumpy.</p> + +<p>The giant glowered at the snarling men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> as at some repulsive beasts, +horrified that they should thus desecrate the quiet of his Pascherette's +death-bed. He was not the Milo of old now. His memory had flown back +through the years to the time when he was a youth of position and great +promise in his own land; when, instead of being the cast-off servant of +a beautiful ingrate, he numbered his own servants by hundreds. And a +great dignity stole into his ennobled face. He softly picked up the dead +girl, and advanced toward the rock tunnel.</p> + +<p>Stumpy met him at the door, and the crippled pirate's eyes burned with +the newborn lust of loot. Stumpy made as if to stay the giant with +questions; but he saw the snarling fight at the end of the chamber and +caught the glitter of jewels. With the stumbling speed of a charging, +wounded bull, he rushed in to join battle.</p> + +<p>Running women brushed against Milo in the passage; all the camp's living +people had caught the fever. The giant strode on, until he stood in the +rugged rock portals and gazed once more over the sea. The schooner had +moved but slightly since he last looked at her; he could see Dolores's +head still advancing, and very near to the vessel now. The breeze had +lulled, perhaps preceding a shift of wind; and the visible people on the +deck of the Feu Follette appeared to be running back and forth in +indecision.</p> + +<p>At Milo's right hand the great rock sat on its ledge, ready to fall at a +touch, and his brooding eyes flashed to it with terrible meaning. +Inside, the great chamber resounded with the clash of steel, the shouts +of furious human beasts, and the shrill cries of women urging them on; +for there must be victors, even to such a sordid fight, and to the +victors, spoils. Where victors and spoils are, there harpy women await +them.</p> + +<p>Milo gazed long and passionately into the face of his dead; then he laid +her softly down outside the rock and arose with a fierce light +irradiating his face.</p> + +<p>"Dogs, who would thus break the sleep of my beloved, I give ye good for +evil!" he muttered. "Treasure ye crave: treasure I give ye, and none may +take it from ye!"</p> + +<p>He turned, put his hand upon the great rock and started it from its bed. +And as he moved the mass, the mountain rocked and crashed with the +thunder of the bursting powder-magazine.</p> + +<p>Down came the great rock, pinning Milo beneath it, threatening in its +final fall to crush him and the body of his love. His great arms shot +out and up, every muscle on his colossal frame stood out like ropes, his +back cracked with the tremendous strain. He stiffened his knees, bit +into his lip until the blood gushed; and a groan burst from his breast +as he felt his stout knees stagger.</p> + +<p>His bulging eyes glared ahead over the sea; into the air flew a thousand +fragments of shattered rock; they fell and thrashed the sea into foam a +mile from shore. Rocks fell upon his already overwhelming burden; his +knees bent, and the blood trickled from his nostrils. And with his fast +ebbing breath he breathed his valedictory, fixing his stony eyes upon +Pascherette as upon his deity.</p> + +<p>"Gods of my fathers, receive my spirit into thy halls. Let thy swift +justice overtake the cause of this upheaval; and receive with my spirit +the spirit of the one who loved me." He fell to one knee, and a great +sob shook him. The rock was falling in a shower about him; it rang and +crashed on the gigantic stone that was crushing him. He bent his gaze in +anguish afresh on the dead girl, now almost buried under stone and +earth, and murmured: "Pascherette, I come! I see beyond the blue ocean +and the golden horizon the throne of my gods. Come, golden one, let us +go. There will our faithfulness meet just reward!"</p> + +<p>He pitched forward upon the dead girl, and the great rock crashed down, +building them a tomb grand as the eternal hills.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<h3 class="newchapter2">THE TOLL OF THE GODS.</h3> + + +<p>Venner's order to heave the treasure-chests overboard was not given +without a pang of regret. It was scarcely obeyed without threats; for +the sailing master had been bitten by the treasure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> fever before his +owner and guest came on board. Had they not appeared when they did, the +schooner had gone without them, and Peters had already seen a golden +vista ahead of him. He hesitated now, and Venner left the wheel vacant +to urge him.</p> + +<p>"Over with it, I say! At once! Here, Pearse, lend a hand here, man, +before that witch's great eyes mesmerize us again. See, she smiles yet, +and comes nearer."</p> + +<p>Reluctantly the seamen raised one iron-bound chest to the rail and +poised it there. From the water astern rang Dolores's throaty laugh, +even and full breathing, as if she had not swam a fraction of the +half-mile she had covered.</p> + +<p>"Foolish Rupert!" she cried, never relaxing her stroke. "Why waste the +fruits of thy pains? Hast looked inside then? Nay, take me on board, and +let us look together. Thou wilt not see Dolores drown, I swear. Then +look once more into my eyes, my Rupert!"</p> + +<p>She laughed again mockingly, alluringly, and Pearse turned away with a +shudder, not daring to cast a glance in the direction of Venner.</p> + +<p>"Throw the stuff over, I say!" cried Venner hoarsely, and gave the chest +a push that sent it into the rippling sea with a thunderous splash. And +again that mocking laugh rang out astern; it was nearer, and Dolores's +beautiful face was turned up to them with triumph in every feature. She +had seen the struggle going on in her two intended victims; if she could +but gain to within whispering distance of either of them, surely she +would never let them escape her.</p> + +<p>"Come, take me on board, my Rupert. I have a secret to tell thee, but +thee alone!" she cried, and spurted swiftly, gaining abreast of the +main-chains.</p> + +<p>But the eyes of Venner and Pearse were fixed in astonishment upon the +tall cliff they had left; their eyes stared amazedly, and they stood +like statues, hearing none of her seductive words.</p> + +<p>"What do ye see?" she demanded, frowning up at them.</p> + +<p>A score of sharp splashes in the water around the schooner startled her. +She suspected they were hurling missiles at her, and one struck her +arm. She turned swiftly and her face darkened with fury. Then more small +objects fell about her, and one struck her arm. She turned swiftly on +her side to seek the source, and in her ears boomed the tremendous crash +of Stumpy's explosion, rolling far over the sea, reverberating from the +shores and making the air quiver like a solid thing.</p> + +<p>A great mass of rock hurtled overhead, missed the schooner by scant +feet, and Venner shouted in horror:</p> + +<p>"Throw her a line, Pearse! Here, quickly, before she is crushed by such +a rock as that one!"</p> + +<p>The sea was shattered into foam for fathoms around, and every face on +the Feu Follette stared over the rail in helpless astonishment. But on +the face of Dolores glowed a smile of triumph. She feared nothing of +earth or heaven; among the flying rocks she swam on toward the schooner, +smiling up at them, waiting for the rope that meant victory to her.</p> + +<p>And in the brief space before the rope hurtled out, down from the +heavens plunged a high-flung piece of granite fair upon Dolores. She +seemed to sense its shadow, and in the moment it struck her she half +sank, breaking its force. But it followed her down. The mass struck +between her gleaming shoulders, and she flung up her arms in despair, +turning over and over with the impact, then floating unconscious close +by the side of the white schooner that had been her goal.</p> + +<p>"God! Get her aboard!" gasped Pearse. "She's done for. Yet we cannot +leave her there for the sharks, like a beast!"</p> + +<p>Venner and Peters were already trying with boat-hooks to catch Dolores's +tunic. Pearse threw a line over the girl and drew her nearer and the +hooks took hold. They drew her up the side with a care that amounted to +reverence, for in her unconsciousness she was more beautiful than ever, +her fine features molded in dead white, traced with fine blue veins; the +grace of her form was that of a lovely sculpture now, lacking vitality, +but possessing every line of perfection. The blow that had overtaken her +had failed in its terrible threat to crush her.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>"Lay her in the companionway on the lounge," said Venner. He ran to the +saloon and brought up wine. He bathed her temples and wrists with the +liquor, and forced some between her blue lips. And Pearse chafed her +hands and patted them, gazing down at her in silent awe.</p> + +<p>"Venner," he whispered, when her eyes refused to open, "we must let this +settle the score against her. It's a terrible end for such a creature."</p> + +<p>"For my part, Pearse, I would give all I have just to see those great +violet eyes laugh at me again; to hear that mocking laugh from her +maddening lips. God, will she never awake?"</p> + +<p>Astern of the schooner the sun was slowly descending to the western +sea-rim, and as the course was resumed after picking up Dolores, the +Point and the cliff gradually drew out across the path of the sun, until +the outlines of the rock and trees stood out black and sharp. On the +cliff-top a heavy pall of greasy smoke hung low about the shattered +pirates' camp; from fissures high up the frowning side spirals of smoke +testified to the wide-spread destruction that followed the blast.</p> + +<p>They looked at the terrific devastation, and again at its nearer victim. +And as they gazed down at her, Dolores's lips trembled in a faint smile, +her great eyes opened wide, looking directly and fearlessly back at +them.</p> + +<p>"I thank ye, my friends; I knew you would take me," she whispered, and +the two men turned away with a shudder. As she had lived, Dolores was +now meeting her inevitable end, bold and indomitable.</p> + +<p>"Where are you hurt?" inquired Venner lamely. "Let me do something to +ease you."</p> + +<p>"Ease?" she laughed as of old, but her teeth clenched upon her lower lip +immediately, with the pain it caused. "I shall ask ye to ease me +presently, good friends. Grim Death has me by the throat already. But +carry me outside. I am stifling in here. Let me see the ocean and the +sky at least in my passage. And I have something to tell ye also."</p> + +<p>On the gratings around the stern, abaft the wheel, they laid her on soft +cushions. She drank greedily of the wine and water they offered her; +she quivered with eagerness to unburden her mind before her thirst was +quenched forever. She motioned them, to bend over her, and began to +speak in, husky whispers.</p> + +<p>"That chest, thou cast it overboard. Dost know what was in it?"</p> + +<p>Both shook their heads. None had seen inside the chests after they came +from the great chamber.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell ye, then, for the peace of your souls and the tranquillity of +your voyage. Lest thy men be seized with a desire for treasure that +shall work ye mischief, have them open the other two chests. Quickly, +for I am faint."</p> + +<p>Venner went to the chests himself and flung back the lids, which were +bolted on the outside and not locked. He stared for a moment, +unbelievingly, then nodded to Pearse. Pearse stared, too, in amazement, +and one after the other the sailors were called to see. They saw two +great strong-boxes filled to the brim with iron chains, broken cutlases, +rusty bilboes, and rock; a fool's treasure in truth.</p> + +<p>"'Twas a trick to set my rascals at odds," Dolores told them when they +returned to her. "To thee, Pearse, I showed my treasure, and I fear that +blast has buried it beneath a mountain. Milo was to take it out. I +cannot believe it can have been taken away ere that powder blew it to +fragments. It was still in the powder store."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know," said Pearse quietly. "It was that which precipitated the +fight between us three that killed poor Tomlin."</p> + +<p>"Well, if thou still art hungry for treasure, my friends, there is my +store buried where thou knowest, and I shrewdly fear but few of my +people are left. But I am slipping. Stand aside, that I may close my +eyes on the place I called home."</p> + +<p>Dolores ceased speaking and lay, scarcely stirred by her faint +respiration, gazing over the schooner's stern at the sinking sun. The +golden disk was turning to red and across its darkened face the cliff +and Point stood out in sharp silhouette, which grew larger as the great +glowing sun was distorted and enlarged by the refraction near the +horizon.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> The breeze had changed, and now blew with gentle strength out +of the west, a fair wind for their homeward course, and the strands of +Dolores's glorious hair blew about her face like tendrils about an +orchid of unearthly beauty.</p> + +<p>Presently she stirred again, and now she summoned all her remaining +vitality to raise herself on an elbow. Pearse and Venner leaned closer, +sensing the end in the tremendous brilliancy of her wide, dry eyes.</p> + +<p>She spoke softly, yet with a thrilling note of yearning that choked her +hearers with harsh sobs.</p> + +<p>"Father, I come," she whispered. "If I have failed in obeying thy +commands, I ask forgiveness, for I am but a woman. A woman with +instincts and yearnings, born of the mother I never knew. Thy very +treasures that were to appease me put the yearning more strongly in my +brain. Thy teachings showed me a world of beasts and savagery; thy +treasures gave me dreams of a world peopled by such as I would be. My +mother's blood forced me to seek this other, better world; thy blood +forced me to seek it wrongfully."</p> + +<p>She paused, and gathered her fleeting breath.</p> + +<p>Then, sitting suddenly upright, she flung both arms out to the setting +sun now lipping the sea, and cried:</p> + +<p>"Gods I know not. Yet must there be such, else had I never known the +devotion of a Milo! Wherever ye be, brave Milo, living or dead, commend +me to thy own gods and forgive me for my ingratitude." She seized Venner +and Pearse by the arms as she fell back, and whispered: "In pity, +friends, set my feet toward the west, and launch my poor body down the +sun path as it sinks into the blue Caribbean that was my only home."</p> + +<p>She relaxed with a little shivering sigh, the glorious eyes closed with +a tired tremor, and the spirit of Dolores the beautiful, the wicked, the +tempestuous, winged its way down the mysterious paths of the dark +unknown.</p> + +<p>"Come," said Venner, suddenly shaking off his abstraction, "time is all +too short if we are to render her this last small service."</p> + +<p>"How shall we do it?" asked Pearse doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"We shall send her down her chosen path in a boat. Peters will load the +dingey with ballast, while you and I will lay Dolores out as well as we +may. Bring me that grating, Pearse. We will speed her in the dress she +loved. Her soul would sicken at a suffocating winding sheet. Hurry, for +the sun is half gone!"</p> + +<p>Swiftly they worked, these men who had cause to remember the departed +siren without great love, and they placed her, secured to a grating, +across the thwarts of the dingey, to which the grating was in turn +secured. Then, all prepared, Peters sprang into the boat, bored a score +of auger-holes in the bottom, and as the great red sun set fierce and +blazing behind the black profile of the cliff, the filling boat was set +adrift, straight down the path of the luminary, bound ever westward, +until the sea gods claimed it and its passenger for their own.</p> + +<p>"Farewell, place of ill-luck!" cried Pearce, as the schooner bore away +before the rising evening breeze. "May I never set my eyes on such evil +shores again."</p> + +<p>"Then you will not come back to seek the treasure?" asked Venner, with a +shadowy flicker of a smile.</p> + +<p>"Not for a thousand times the treasure that lies there!" cried Pearse +vehemently. "And I have seen it! The horror of this will haunt me until +my dying day. I only hope God will look kindly upon that poor woman, +that's all."</p> + +<p>"I hope so, too," rejoined Venner thoughtfully. "With a white woman's +opportunities, what a woman she could have been."</p> + +<p>But the gods are inscrutable. Only the warm mantle of the setting sun +gave a hint that Dolores might be even now entering into a place of +eternal rest, where her sins of ignorance and untutored instincts would +not count too heavily against her. The sea is very benign to its elect; +a calm sea in the setting sun received Dolores in arms of infinite +benignity.</p> + + +<p style="margin-top: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 2.25em; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">(The end.)</p> + + + +<p style="margin-top: 2.25em;">[Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original edition have been corrected. In Chapter V, "inscrutaable" was +changed to "inscrutable"; in Chapter X, "Let me show thee they master" +was changed to "Let me show thee thy master"; in Chapter XVII, "could +not enchance your worth" was changed to "could not enhance your worth"; +in Chapter XVIII, "shaking his first at Milo" was changed to "shaking +his fist at Milo"; and in Chapter XXI, "protruding a foot for Tomlin's +back" was changed to "protruding a foot from Tomlin's back".]</p> + + +<p style="margin-top: 2.25em;">[Transcriber's Note: The following summary originally appeared at the +beginning of the serial's second installment.]</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center">PRECEDING CHAPTERS BRIEFLY RETOLD</p> + +<p>Within his mysterious stronghold, "The Cave of Terrible Things," on the +Maroon coast of Jamaica, washed by the waters of the Caribbean Sea, Red +Jabez, Sultan of Pirates, had just died.</p> + +<p>Dolores, his daughter, "a splendidly lithe, glowing creature of beauty +and passion," "a royal woman conscious of mental and physical +perfection," succeeded her father as tyrant over the motley crew of +Spaniard and Briton, Creole and mulatto, Carib and octoroon, and +coal-black negroes.</p> + +<p>Milo, the giant Abyssinian, who knew no fear and no law save the will of +this capricious creature, served Dolores as body-guard and chief.</p> + +<p>Pascherette, "a gleaming, gold-tinted creature, a miniature model of +Aphrodite," beloved of Milo, was her maid and attendant.</p> + +<p>Moved to mutiny by Rufe, the Spaniard, the pirates had risen in revolt +to loot the rich treasure of the dead Sultan's cave; but supported by +Milo, Dolores had cowed them, no less by her dagger than her threats.</p> + +<p>But discontent rode the soul of the Sultana. She longed for other lands, +other people. With Milo's aid she determined to capture the first sail +that passed her shore, and escape.</p> + +<p>When Rupert Venner and his guests, Craik Tomlin and John Pearce, aboard +the Venner yacht, Feu Follette, passed that way, they were easily +induced to go ashore.</p> + +<p>In the midst of a reception accorded them by Dolores, the party beheld +Yellow Rufe and a band of mulattoes and blacks making for the schooner, +from whose rail shots crackled.</p> + +<p>Venner raised a cry of treachery and called, "Come, fellows!" But the +woman held him as much by her eyes as by her promise: "I shall preserve +thy ship, and give thee back an eye for an eye, if thy men are harmed."</p> + +<p>Then she sprang down the cliff like a deer.</p> +</div> + +<p style="margin-top: 2.25em;">[Transcriber's Note: The following summary originally appeared at the +beginning of the serial's third installment. The summary at the +beginning of the serial's fourth installment, if one was present, was +not available when preparing this electronic edition.]</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center">PRECEDING CHAPTERS BRIEFLY RETOLD</p> + +<p>On the death of Red Jabez, Dolores, "a glowing creature of beauty and +passion," took over her father's rule of the pirates of the Maroon coast +of Jamaica.</p> + +<p>With the help of her faithful slave, Milo, the Abyssinian giant, she +crushed a rising insurrection among her riffraff subjects, whose +cupidity had been played upon by Rufe, the Spaniard.</p> + +<p>But Dolores was herself the victim of discontent. Loathing her outlaw +subjects and the island, she determined to seize the first boat that +passed her way, and escape with her jewels and her gold.</p> + +<p>When the pleasure yacht, Feu Follette, came that way, she sent Milo and +her maid, Pascherette, to decoy Rupert Venner and his guests, Craik +Tomlin and John Pearse, to the island.</p> + +<p>In the midst of her reception to her captive-guests, she beheld Rufe and +a band of insurgent blacks and mulattoes attacking the crew of the +schooner, while Sancho, whom she had despatched to care for the vessel +while in the harbor, was joining in the attack.</p> + +<p>Then she rushed over the cliff and into the water, and boarded the boat, +followed by her loyal Milo.</p> + +<p>After a long and bloody struggle, the woman's ruse of firing the ship +with a keg of powder won the day, and Rufe and Sancho fled into the +wilderness, while from the schooner's topmast flew the Sultana's own +flag.</p> + +<p>Demanding that the traitors, Rufe and Sancho, be rounded up, Dolores +threw her three guests into chains, while she accused Pascherette of +abetting the treason of Sancho.</p> + +<p>Then Dolores turned to Venner with the offer of her love if he would +sail away with her, having first despatched his friends. When the man, +whose soul was racked with passion for the beautiful black panther, +recoiled from her condition, she left him in his chains.</p> + +<p>Next she dealt with Sancho, whom Pascherette had lured back to the +woman's mercy; and Sancho emerged from Dolores's presence a driveling +imbecile.</p> + +<p>When Milo beheld at this moment the fleeing form of Yellow Rufe, made +distinguishable by vivid lightning, Dolores determined to complete her +punishments.</p> + +<p>The Spaniard was making good his escape when Milo took up the pursuit in +the little sailboat. Dolores and her crew would follow, by the light of +his flares, in the schooner.</p> + +<p>With the untamed soul of a woman who had never known defeat, Dolores +drove her crew and defied the wind and the waves, and the Feu Follette +was liberated from the mud and swung to the gale as the cry rang out: +"There's the flare—and she's burnin' steady!"</p> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Pirate Woman, by Aylward Edward Dingle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PIRATE WOMAN *** + +***** This file should be named 30057-h.htm or 30057-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/0/5/30057/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Pirate Woman + +Author: Aylward Edward Dingle + +Release Date: September 22, 2009 [EBook #30057] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PIRATE WOMAN *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover of All-Story Weekly] + + +ALL-STORY WEEKLY + +VOL. XC + +NUMBER 2 + +SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1918 + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +[Transcriber's Note: This novel was originally serialized in four +installments in All-Story Weekly magazine from November 2, 1918, to +November 23, 1918. The original breaks in the serial have been retained, +but summaries of previous events preceding the second and third +installments have been moved to the end of this e-book. The Table of +Contents which follows this note was created for this electronic +edition.] + + + +Table of Contents + + +November 2, 1918 + + I. THE CAVE OF TERRIBLE THINGS. 193 + II. DOLORES RECEIVES HER DIADEM. 196 + III. THE GROVE OF MYSTERY. 200 + IV. THE PIRATES' BARBECUE. 203 + V. MILO SIGHTS A SAIL. 206 + VI. THE PARTY FROM THE YACHT. 209 + + +November 9, 1918 + + VII. THE ATTACK ON THE FEU FOLLETTE. 466 + VIII. DOLORES DELIVERS JUDGMENT. 469 + IX. THE SULTANA DECIDES SEVERAL THINGS. 472 + X. A REED SHAKEN BY THE WINDS OF PASSION. 475 + XI. PASCHERETTE UNVEILS HER PURPOSE. 477 + XII. SANCHO SETTLES HIS ACCOUNT. 480 + XIII. DOLORES FLOATS THE FEU FOLLETTE. 488 + + +November 16, 1918 + + XIV. YELLOW RUFE'S FINISH. 697 + XV. THE FIRES OF THE FLESH. 701 + XVI. PEARSE ENTERS THE CAVE OF ALADDIN. 704 + XVII. THE TREASURE TEST. 707 + XVIII. PASCHERETTE DEALS AGAIN. 711 + XIX. WHILE VICTORY HANGS IN THE BALANCE. 715 + + +November 23, 1918 + + XX. DOLORES DEMANDS A DECISION. 147 + XXI. THE SLUMBERING SAVAGE. 150 + XXII. THE FLIGHT OF THE FEU FOLLETTE. 153 + XXIII. STUMPY FIRES THE MAGAZINE. 155 + XXIV. MILO CROSSES THE BAR. 157 + XXV. THE TOLL OF THE GODS. 159 + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE CAVE OF TERRIBLE THINGS. + + +A great unrest brooded over mountain and forest; the blue Caribbean lay +hushed and glaring, as if held in leash by a power greater than that +which ordered its daily ebb and flow. + +Men moved or stood beneath the trees on the cliffside in attitudes of +supreme awe or growing uneasiness, according to their kind: for among +them were numbered Spaniard and Briton, creole and mulatto, Carib and +octoroon, with coal-black negroes enough to outnumber all the rest--and +it was upon these last that profound awe sat oppressively. + +Apart, followed by a hundred furtive eyes, Dolores, daughter of Red +Jabez, ranged back and forth before the mighty rock portals of the Cave +of Terrible Things, like some magnificent tigress hedged with foes. +Beyond those portals Red Jabez, Sultan of pirates, arbiter of life and +death over the motley community, lay at grips with the grim specter to +whom he had consigned scores far more readily than he now yielded up +his own red-stained soul. Red Jabez was dying a death as hard as his +lurid life had been. + +Beyond those rock portals none save Jabez and Milo, the herculean +Abyssinian slave, had ever passed. Dolores, next in line, was in +ignorance as deep as her meanest slave, concerning what lay beyond the +great mass of rock which formed the door, and which Milo alone could +move. She knew, as did every one, that the great chamber of Red Jabez +held some vast mystery; she suspected, as did the rest, that it +concealed wealth beyond dreams; deep down in her soul she hoped that +inviolate chamber held for her the means of emancipation; but of this +hope, none knew save herself. For Queen of Night though the white men +called her, Sultana though she was named with fear and submission by the +blacks, though her power was second only to that of Red Jabez, and +barely less than his, a canker gnawed at the heart of Dolores, the +canker of a suspicion that her power was but a paltry power, her freedom +but a caged freedom. + +Somewhere beyond the great ocean that stretched away before her eyes +lay a world she knew nothing of; yet since her earliest childhood her +keen mind had told her that the silk with which she was clothed, the +jewels that encrusted her dagger-hilt, the ships whose pillage had +yielded up these things, must come from lands far distant, more +desirable than the maroon country of Jamaica. More, her ears attuned to +the whisper or roar of the sea, the sigh or shriek of the winds, carried +to her the mutterings of men long held in leash, who now saw in their +chieftain's death the realization of their own wild dreams of riches and +release. All these things told her that the great, strange world beyond +the sea-line was something for her to strive for; not for the rabble who +called her queen. + +She paced back and forth, a splendidly lithe, glowing creature of beauty +and passion, every movement a grace, each grace such as befitted a royal +woman conscious of mental and physical perfection. Her hair surrounded +her face and shoulders in a lustrous, rippling cloud, through which +peeped a bare arm and breast stolen from the goddess of beauty; her +tunic of quilted Chinese silk hung from one shoulder by a strap +fashioned from the ribbon of the Star of Persia, and fastened by the +star; her strong, slender waist was girdled with a heavy gold cord that +supported a long, thin dagger, no toy, in a jeweled sheath; the hem of +her single garment rang with gold sequins to the movement of her +smoothly muscular knees; her high-arched feet were protected from thorns +and shells by sandals of red leather. + +As the moments passed, and no sign came from within the cave, Dolores +restrained her impatience with increasing difficulty. The men scattered +around were not of such stuff; they felt the impending crisis settle +heavily upon them, and white and black alike drew together for the +comfort of close touch. From time to time a hardier spirit uttered his +thoughts aloud, yet always with a glance of uncertainty toward Dolores. +They had reason to glance that way; for every man had tasted of the +queen's justice, which rarely erred on the side of mildness; many of +them had experienced her terrible competence to carry out a sentence in +person. Of them all, not one but knew that in Dolores he owned as queen +a woman who need yield nothing of prowess to any man: her knife was as +swift, her round wrist as strong, her blazing violet-black eyes as sure +as any among them. Not a man could ever forget the offending slave whom +she had thrashed with her own hands, disdaining assistance, until the +wretch tore loose and fled screaming to the cliff to pitch headlong into +the shark-infested sea; nor could they forget her unhesitating dive and +terrific struggle to recover him and her completion of the interrupted +punishment when she had brought him back. + +Yet the stress proved too great, even in face of these memories, and a +tall, powerful Spaniard, heavily earringed, handsome, with a swart, +brutal beauty, delivered a scorching oath to the heavy air and exclaimed +fiercely: + +"A curse on this babe's play! Must men stand here like whipped curs +until a slave commands us enter? Come! Who'll follow me past that door? +I'll know what lies behind this mummery if I choke it from old Jabez's +withered neck as he dies." + +The man stepped forward two paces, glaring defiantly at Dolores, waiting +for men to follow. An uneasy shuffling of feet was his only answer for a +moment; then his eyes shifted with cooling ardor at sight of Dolores. +For a breath after he had ceased speaking, the girl stood like a +splendid statue, except for the glitter of her eyes and a slight +quivering of her limbs; it was as if she awaited some response; then her +face relaxed into a contemptuous smile, and her crimson lips parted to +reveal her even, gleaming teeth. She laughed, a rippling little laugh +like the tinkle of steel links, and with a single gliding movement that +permitted no avoidance she swept to within two feet of the now +frightened ruffian. + +"Yes? Yellow Rufe would choke words from a dying man!" she cried. +"Nothing that lives and can stand on two feet is in danger from such as +he. Peace, slavish dog!" she panted, flinging out a gleaming hand and +seizing him by one earring. "Thus I mark curs that seek their food among +the dead!" With the words Dolores's right hand flashed upward, +knife-armed, and across Rufe's cheek glared a crimson cross; into his +eyes leaped the fear of death. + +"Now go!" she said imperiously, pushing him away. "Let no man forget +that while the life is in Red Jabez he holds thy lives in pawn. When his +spirit goes, ye shall reckon with me!" + +Rufe staggered away, half incredulous that his punishment had fallen +short of death. His companions led him apart with many a backward glance +of apprehension at the authoress of his discomfiture, and a deep, sullen +muttering rippled through the crowd. Dolores resumed her solitary pacing +without another thought for the hardy rascal she had so swiftly and +effectively softened. Her eyes were ever bent toward the great rock; her +thoughts were centered on a vague, mysterious instinct which whispered +to her that with her first admission into that frowning cavern the +mantle of fierce old Red Jabez would fall upon her, and with it would +come power that a Czar might envy! A Czar's power, indeed, but with all +of a Czar's cares and more; for Czar never ruled over subjects like +these. + +A sudden hush fell upon the place; the mutterings ceased as if tongues +were stricken stiff. Rufe, with his head now enwrapped in crossed +bandages, stared toward the great rock with a wavering expression in his +smoldering eyes, an expression that hovered between reluctant +submission, reawakened cupidity, and dawning hope. Dolores stood +motionless, imperious in every line and feature, her heavy eyelashes +veiling the eagerness in her eyes, her red lips curved in royal +indifference. + +The great rock was turning. + +Slowly, yet with the flawless regularity of a millwheel, the mass of +stone was rolled upward and to one side; it rested at last on a ledge, +balanced perfectly, ready to fall again at the touch of a finger; and in +the aperture appeared the human agent of its opening. + +Milo, the giant Abyssinian, guardian of the rock, custodian of the Cave +of Terrible Things, bone of contention for the jealous and terror of the +strongest, filled the entrance with his colossal frame and looked out +with a calm dignity that made the whites cringe with hatred. Slowly, +with stately grace, the giant advanced until he stood before Dolores, +and in his coal-black eyes shone the light of limitless devotion. He +knelt, kissed the sequins on her tunic's hem, then, with both hands +pressed to his forehead, he bowed his face to the earth at her feet. + +"Rise, Milo," said Dolores, gently, and her breath caught painfully as +she spoke. She knew what the slave came for; every man in that community +of pirates, wreckers, escaped slaves, and convicts knew as well as she. +All had awaited this moment, knowing when it came that the mystery of +the cave would be a mystery no longer to at least one of them: all knew +that the summons meant the passing of the old pirate who had brought +them together, ruled them with blood and iron, and forced from them a +homage none of them would render to his Maker. + +"My Sultana, it is time," said Milo, rising and waiting. He needed to +say no more. + +"Lead me to my father, then," replied the girl, and stepped after the +giant with sure step and resolute face, giving no heed to the renewed +shuffling and congregating of her people, nor to Rufe, who again stood +out before the rest and addressed them in fierce tones. + +Dolores entered the great hewn-rock doorway and in spite of her stout +heart and steel will she thrilled in every fiber. At the end of the +frowning passage, whose ruby lamps but accentuated the gloom and +imparted to it an infernal glow, lay the great chamber that only the +chief might enter. What would she find there? Her father, yes, and +dying! Otherwise this summons had never come. The death must be upon him +now; the fierce old sea-king had held his throne-room inviolate through +many bouts with the grim Reaper, knowing his own strength to conquer. +But now he had called, and Dolores sought the unknown with a curiosity +that beat down fear. + +Behind her a heavy thud echoed along the rocky walls, and the outer +light was cut off by the falling of the great stone. In a moment Milo +stood beside her and, taking her hand in his, led her along the utterly +invisible floor until she stood before a massive door. Her feet sank +into the pile of heavy carpets; her nostrils quivered to the delicate +odors of burning spices; at the top of the door a great jeweled lantern +cast a rich, yellow light down the panels, and the girl gasped +involuntarily at the sight revealed to her. Each panel was formed of +scales that overlapped like a serpent's; the scales were roughly +hammered gold and silver, richly chased, and studded thickly with +gems--without any conjecture she knew them to be precious vessels that +should have graced an altar, split, perhaps with a bloody cutlass, and +beaten out into irregular plates to gratify some grim humor of the +terrible old corsair in the long ago. Neither hinges, handle, lock, nor +latch appeared on the surface; apparently the door was solidly embedded +in the mighty rock itself. The giant laid a hand on the side of the +door-frame, and Dolores waited with impatience for admission. For all +her schooled self-control her eyes glinted with astonishment when Milo +stood aside and bowed low, saying: + +"Enter, my princess!" + +Without a sound the massive door had vanished, sliding up and out of +sight in the dark recess of the roof, leaving smooth, steel-lined slots +at sides and bottom that reflected the polish of scrupulous care. +Dolores stifled her surprise, and moved toward the heavy velvet hangings +which still barred her way. These, too, were swept aside with no visible +effort, and the girl stood on the threshold of the chamber of mystery. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +DOLORES RECEIVES HER DIADEM. + + +In a great canopied bed, taken from some rich looted Indiaman, Red Jabez +lay motionless as an effigy in stone. His tall, powerful body was +sharply outlined in coverings of silk and rare lace; the arms and crest +of a ducal house were worked into the pillows that supported his massive +head. His drawn, haggard face was surrounded and all but covered with a +great mane of vivid red hair; his silken shirt, wide open at the neck, +revealed a massive chest, whose tide of respiration had all but ceased +to run. Only his eyes, fierce yet, held token of lingering life; it was +as if the vital spark was concentrated into one final blaze of +tremendous brilliancy. + +The fierce eyes moved swiftly at Dolores's entrance, and one might have +said a film of tenderness swept for an instant over the hard glint in +them. It was gone as swiftly as it came, and the stare settled +unwaveringly upon the stupefied girl. For stupefaction had gripped +Dolores in that first entry into the great chamber. Her wildest dreams, +and they had been at times fantastic, had never showed her anything +measurably approaching the scene that smote her eyes now. For the moment +death, Red Jabez, her destiny, everything melted into the visionary +beyond and left her capable of no volition. + +The great bed stood in the center of a vast cavern; sides, roof, floor, +every inch of the rock itself bore proof of the handiwork of hundreds of +cunning craftsmen; but the furnishings filled Dolores's eyes to the +exclusion of all else. Divans and chairs, cabinets and tables carried +the mind far away to the realm of emperors and kings; vases from China +and Greece stood on stands of boule-work; a tall ebony-and-ivory +clock-case, in which ticked sonorously a masterpiece of Peter Hele, +stood between two gorgeous pieces of Gobelin tapestry. And around her +and above, Dolores's amazed eyes lighted upon gems of the painter's art +such as few collections might boast. The entire ceiling was covered with +a colossal "Battle of the Amazons," by Rubens, each figure thrown out in +startling distinctness, full of voluptuous life and action; the walls +were mantled by vast golden frames holding the best of Titian, Correggio +and Giorgione, Raphael and Ribera. And jewels flashed everywhere; +cunningly placed lamps, themselves encrusted with the reddest of rubies, +the subtlest of green emeralds, flooded walls and furnishings with a +soft yet searching light which seemed to be carefully calculated to +accentuate those things whose beauty demanded light, yet to leave the +eye unwearied. + +"The hour has struck, my Sultana," said Milo anxiously, and Dolores +shook off the spell and approached the great bed. Red Jabez closed his +eyes as she leaned over him, and his lips now alone gave evidence of +life. The girl, reared among the wildest of desolate isolation, knowing +no softening ties of family, her impulses and emotions those of a +beautiful animal, and increasingly so because of her station among the +rabble that called the dying man chief, stared down at her terrible +parent without a trace of visible regret: rather in her eyes shone the +triumph of a victor about to enter upon a conquered kingdom. But the red +pirate was speaking, and she bent her ear to catch his words. It +required no physician's knowledge to perceive in his damp face all the +signs of imminent dissolution. + +"Dolores, my traverse is run," whispered Jabez. The effort all but stole +his breath. He paused; then summoning all the tremendous will that had +dominated his frame when surging with strength, he told what he had to +say in short sentences, nursing the flickering spark to force his +speech. "Never leave here, girl. Let no man go, either. The world has +forgotten me and all of us; but memory is tenacious--it will revive at a +hint; every throat that pulses with hot life here--yes, my daughter, +even your fair throat--was measured years ago--a rope awaits every one. +But here--" + +"Yes, father?" Dolores shivered in the pause; the silence chilled her. +The giant Abyssinian stood at the head of the bed, and now moistened the +dying lips with wine. Red Jabez strained convulsively, snatching at his +throat, and resumed with weaker voice. + +"Here I have been king; here you are queen; all these things you see, +and many more, are yours; life and death are in your hands to give or +withhold. Keep the steel hand, though you wear the glove, Dolores. You +have learned power; with the greater power you take from this chamber, +and with Milo, let nothing, no man, stir your fears. Keep this chamber +as I have kept it; it is your strength; when danger threatens to beat +you down, here you will find--" + +The fluttering whisper ceased. The old pirate lay rigid. Dolores, having +heard so much, yet so little, hovered over the bed in an ecstasy of +unsatisfied hunger for more; Milo stood by, a magnificent statue in +living bronze, his eyes set in a steady blaze on the face of his master. +Once more the blue lips moved. Dolores darted down with eager ear, her +hands clasped as if in supplication. + +"Milo--tell," came the whisper, and with it went up the soul of Red +Jabez to face a tribunal more dread than any earthly judge his body had +eluded. And the tall clock ticked his knell. + +Dolores flung herself down on the bed, patting the dead face with +nervous fingers; but she was dry-eyed, no filial despair raised tumult +in her breast, her pleading was for the impossible--for the dead lips to +speak--and when she was refused her plea, she sprang from the couch in a +paroxysm of royal fury: + +"Now, by the powers of evil, he shall lie uncoffined until those +secretive lips read me the riddle they have half told!" she cried, +pacing between bed and wall with uplifted arms and hard, glittering +eyes. She suddenly paused in her wild walk, turned swiftly, and reached +the bedside with the same subtle, gliding sweep that had carried her +before Yellow Rufe; it was a characteristic movement with her--a +compound of the gliding dart of the tiger-shark and the silent-footed +pounce of its jungle brother. Milo roused from his dejection and sprang +from his knees with amazing promptitude, but he had yet to round the +bed-foot when the splendid fury stood panting over the corpse. + +"Speak!" she cried, shaking the coverlet savagely. Milo, with horror in +his shining face, gently removed her hand, then stood before her with +bowed head, his cavernous chest heaving wildly. + +"Fool! Leave me!" she snapped, and struck the slave with all her savage +force on the cheek. Milo's face turned gray for a flashing instant, then +the doglike devotion that filled his heart shone through his eyes, and +he knelt at the furious girl's feet, his head to the ground. In a moment +he stood up and, laying a hand reverently upon Dolores's shaking +shoulders, he gazed deep into her eyes. She shivered again at the +uncanny hint of volcanic might effused by the giant--volcanic, yet +quiescent for the moment. His lips opened to speak; and she sprang to +the reaction. Now a fresh fury seized her at the slave's temerity; she +flung off his hand, and snatched forth her dagger. + +"Strike, Sultana," said Milo simply. He drew aside the strap of his +leathern tunic, baring his heart. "Strike, but first suffer thy slave to +release thee from this tomb." + +"Release? Tomb? What talk is this?" gasped Dolores, her dagger held +poised aloft, her lips quivering. + +"A tomb it is if thy servant falls, Sultana. None save I can open the +great door. Close it? Yes, any might close it. Come, I will lead thee +out of this awful presence; then at the gate thou shalt send Milo to his +master who loved him." + +Slowly Dolores slipped her dagger into the sheath, and her face was +bowed in confusion. All her life, the giant slave had tended her, +guarded her steps and her sleep, taught her the exercises that had made +her feared by all the turbulent crew outside; and she was now permitted +the saving grace of remembrance. She gave him her hand, and allowed him +to place it upon his head, always his favorite means of expression when +she followed an outburst of rage with contrition; and in softer tone she +begged for an answer to the riddle that had been left with her. + +"Come, Sultana," Milo said, once more laying a hand on her shoulder, +this time without resentment from her. "Thy father, the Red Chief, left +much to be told; I will tell thee all, but not now. Patience, princess," +he pleaded, catching the warning glint in her eyes, "dost thou hear +nothing? Listen attentively--no, not in here, outside--bend thy ear to +this tapestry; 'tis before a cunning sounding stone through which voices +may well be heard on the cliffside. Listen." + +Dolores listened with bad grace, for she regarded this as a subterfuge +of the giant's, and resentment was very ready to rise in her again. But +in a moment her indifference vanished; she grew alert; her body tensed, +and her limbs quivered; the glitter of a queen in righteous anger +lighted her eyes, and she raised an unnecessary hand to impress silence +upon the slave. + +"Hast hear this before now?" she demanded in a vibrant whisper. + +"Since thou entered, Sultana. It could be nothing but rebellion; yet was +I loath to burden my chief with this trouble in his hour of passage. But +I know now that it has risen to heights which demand swift action; +therefore I have made thee aware of it." + +"'Tis that villain Rufe again!" muttered Dolores, still pressing her ear +against the tapestry. The murmur of a hundred voices came clearly to +her, and above all sounded the high-raised shout of one who harangued +the rest. At periods the murmuring became a howl, and the triumphant +note in it left scant room for doubt as to the nature of the address. +The girl, faced with the responsibility of decided action, no longer +able to depend on the wisdom and terrible power of Red Jabez, stepped +from the wall with panting heart and parted lips, but with no trace of +fear. Uncertainty moved her; uncertainty as to the resources of the +great chamber, whose mysteries had scarcely begun to unfold for her ere +the curtain was dropped again. Her stout spirit decided for her. + +"Come, lead me out, Milo," she ordered, drawing herself royally erect +and slipping her dagger around nearer her hand. "We must cool that +rabble before the fire spreads further. Take a weapon, open the door, +and follow me." + +"It is the decision of a fit daughter of my chief," replied Milo, his +great frame expanding to the bounding energy that surged through him. +Unknown to her, his eyes had never left Dolores while she was making her +decision; now joy and ardor suffused and transfigured him. Slave he was, +yet it was he who looked the royal part in that instant. + +"Wait but a breath," he said, and reached in two gigantic strides a +massive oaken chest heavily fastened with wrought iron. Lifting the lid +with reverence, he took out a plain gold circlet and returned to +Dolores. + +"Thy father bade me make this and keep it until thou wast my Sultana, +indeed," he said. He raised the heavy, dull-gold band, and placed it +upon Dolores's brow with the courtly homage of a born noble. It fitted +to perfection--as indeed it should, since the loving fingers that had +fashioned it had crept around the girl's sleeping head many times to +that end--and feminine vanity would not permit Dolores to ignore the +fit. She stepped over to a long gilt-framed mirror, and her beautiful +face grew dark and her violet eyes dusky at the glorious reflection that +gazed out at her. + +"It is well, Milo; I thank thee," she smiled. "Now to scatter the rats +that gnaw at my walls. Lead out quickly." + +Milo entered the passage, raising the plated door and letting it fall +after them. He disdained to carry a weapon; but Dolores was content, for +she had witnessed what those huge hands could do. As they approached the +great stone at the entrance, the sounds outside rang through the +corridor, and the sharp reverberations that accompanied them at +intervals told of an assault on the rock itself with pikes, crowbars, or +other smaller rocks. Milo stooped to the sill of the rock, and placed +his hands beneath it. + +"Stand away," he whispered, and strained his arms. "Let thy servant go +out and silence this clamor--" + +"Open quickly!" she interrupted him, imperiously. "It is not for the +slave to precede the sovereign. Peace, and open." + +Her hand was on her dagger, her head was raised proudly; every inch and +line of her figure irradiated splendid strength and surety; Milo heaved +at the rock, and smiled blissfully. This was indeed how he had dreamed +of his Sultana when she should come into her own. + +He heaved steadily, and the great rock rose from one side, rolling up +and up until it balanced on the ledge; but Milo knew there was some +agency at work that hindered the raising of it; never before had it been +a task to bring sweat to his brow, and now he dripped from every pore. +The rock refused to balance without his hand upon it, and he dared not +take his shoulder away to look over the top lest it fall and crush him. +He cast an appealing look toward Dolores, who was impatiently waiting +for him to stand clear, and she stepped past him to the outside. She was +greeted with a roar of derision that echoed far down to the sea. + +"Peace, dogs of the devil!" she cried with one hand upraised. A roaring +guffaw answered her. Then a burly ruffian, one-eyed and marked by a +great cutlas-scar that ran from his chin across his broken nose and +ended somewhere among the roots of his hair, stepped forward with a +smirk of confidence, and made a mock curtsy. + +"Queen o' the pirates, we salute ye!" he said. Then threw away all +pretense, and swore a ripping curse to the destination of his soul. +"Come, my girl," he shouted, "the game's played to a finish. Th' old +buck is dead, an' we want some o' them pretties he hid away inside. +You're a nice gal, I don't deny, and we ain't going to harm ye if ye +don't hinder us; but we ain't playin' kings an' queens no more. Come +now, let the big feller take us in, and say no more about it, for have +our fling, we will." + +The mob had edged nearer, until now they surged around the entrance so +close to Dolores that she felt the breath of the leaders. She noticed +with sharp wonderment that Yellow Rufe was not among the foremost; but +she was given no time to surmise, for the mob pressed on until she was +forced either to risk an advance or give ground. A little shock rippled +through her when she turned swiftly to see how Milo fared, and found him +gone. The mob saw it, too, and seethed about her with hungry faces. + +"Come on, lads!" they howled. "Milo's gone inside to open up the loot +for us." A grimy hand snatched at the girl's tunic, and in a flash the +entrance was choked with fiercely striving shapes. + +With a gasping cry of fury Dolores struck aside the bold hand, and with +a panther-spring she was upon him. One slender, brown hand, strong as a +steel claw, gripped his throat; the other hand gripped a glittering +dagger that swept like the arrow of fate to his heart and dropped him a +log at her feet. Just for a breath the crowd paused in awe; then +hoarsely growling they packed forward again, and Dolores found herself +fighting desperately against men maddened into steel-armed wolves, +thirsty for her blood in payment for that split. She more than held her +own by sheer skill and suppleness for a space; but assailed from all +sides save the back she speedily felt her limbs growing heavy and +awkward, and a cutlas sang above her bent head when her foot had failed, +leaving her without guard or avoidance. + +Then she knew that she had been permitted to win her spurs. For the +threatening cutlas was caught in mid air by a huge bare hand, wrenched +from its owner's grasp, and returned point first into the assailant's +breast. And Milo's deep voice rang in her ear: + +"Step into the passage, Sultana, and swiftly. Have a care for the body +on the floor, but tarry not. To pause is to die!" + +She felt herself drawn inside, the battle seemed to leave her isolated, +the passage was as still as a cloister after the turmoil outside, and +she stumbled along in the dim red glow, barely avoiding tripping over a +body on the floor which a glance showed her to be a corpse. This was the +man who had tried to crush back the rock door on Milo. + +Dolores spurned the body with her foot, and abruptly turned back, in a +rage to think that she had permitted the giant slave to order her into +skulking security. She halted as swiftly as she had turned; for in the +aperture at the end of the passage the huge form of Milo stood, both +hands raised, and in them a cask was poised. A queer, spluttering sound +at first puzzled Dolores; then she made out a short, hanging fuse +depending from the cask, and it spluttered as it dwindled, flinging +sparks around the giant's bowed head until the point of fire seemed +ready to disappear in the bung-hole. + +"Treasure for dogs!" roared Milo. "Divide it among thee!" The great rock +thudded down as the cask hurtled out into the mob; the next instant the +cavern shook and quivered to a terrific explosion; a moment after the +earth might have been dead for all sound in the passage; yet another +moment and the outer world rang with cries and shrieks, curses and +entreaties, and Milo bowed low to his mistress and said: + +"Now if my Sultana deems fit, it is time to show this scum of the earth +their sovereign." + +"Wait, Milo," replied Dolores, shuddering slightly at sight of him. The +giant was streaked and splashed with blood; for in those moments when he +stood defenseless before casting his infernal machine, a dozen cutlases +and knives had sought his life. + +"Pardon thy slave," he returned, sensing her meaning. "I will go thus. +'Twere not good that these dogs should know their wounds can hurt. Such +scratches are nothing. They are paid for in full." + +"It is well. Lead out again, good Milo, and fear not for me. With thou +beside me I am armed in proof." + +Again they emerged into the air, but now a deathly silence received +them. Silence broken only by the rustling of garments, as a withered old +crone shambled forward and cast herself at Dolores's feet. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE GROVE OF MYSTERY. + + +Dolores stood still, sweeping the scene of destruction with a gaze of +flinty penetration. The groveling crone at her feet affected her like +something unclean, and she spurned the old woman with her foot, stepping +aside with a gesture of disgust. Then she raised her right hand, and +cried with bitter scorn: + +"Come, my brave jackals! Come to the feast prepared for thee." She +lowered her hand and with a contemptuous smile indicated the gruesome +results of the explosion of Milo's awful bomb. + +On the edge of the forest the hardier rascals had halted; at her word +they glared loweringly at her and the impassive giant at her back; from +the shadow of the trees yellow and brown and black faces peered in +quivering terror; but none responded to her command to approach her. The +old woman on the ground alone made audible reply, and her slavish +whining enraged Dolores. With a stamp of her sandaled foot she tore from +her waist the gold cord, slipped off the dagger sheath, and fell upon +the wretched old servitor with a shower of blows. + +"Silence, old cat!" she cried, and the blows fell heavily. "Up with +thee, and away. Go quickly, and make ready the altar in the Grove of +Mystery. Cease thy bleating, old witch, and summon thy shaky wits +against the ordeal I shall put thee to. Some one among ye stirred up the +rising which resulted as ye now see. That one I shall know before +sundown, and he shall bitterly repent him. Away!" + +Dolores was astonished at seeing no sign of Rufe, but outwardly she +showed none of her astonishment. A more vital consideration was present +in the disobedience of the motley crew who as yet made no effort to come +to her call. Drawing herself fully erect when the old woman departed, +she again stretched out her hand and cried: + +"Dogs of Satan! I await your homage. Red Jabez lies dead: yet his spirit +lives in me, your queen. By so many breaths that ye flout me, by just so +many torments shall I have ye torn. Come, dogs. Kneel!" + +A hoarse murmur went up from the forest edge, and first one by one, then +in knots of half a score each, the negroes and half-breeds slunk into +the open and approached her with eyes full of panic. The whites, not so +susceptible to abstract influence, still hesitated, drawing near to each +other in growling consultation. Dolores gave them no sign, though she +watched them keenly from under her lowered lashes. She gave her +attention to the line of abject creatures who filed slowly past her, +each one stopping to grovel in the dust at her feet and passing on. +These Milo halted near by and herded into a shivering, frightened mob. +And Dolores's cool disregard of the whites had its calculated effect. +One by one they stepped out into the open as had the colored men; the +more timorous, or superstitious, came first, some wearing shamed grins, +others palpably impressed by the example of the others and shuffling on +their way uncomfortably. Last of all came the bolder spirits, and these +wore faces intended to express contempt, or at least sarcastic +indifference; but the faces changed invariably on closer approach to the +queen. Memory proved a stubborn master; in every man's breast +remembrance clamored to them to have a care how they bore themselves +before this beautiful fury they called queen. + +Still Yellow Rufe came not. + +When all had knelt, and all had been herded by the giant Milo in two +separate parties, the number was tallied, and of the whites, besides +Rufe, seven were missing. One lay inside the passage; of the rest there +were remains lying about the rocky wall to the cavern that might be +three men or six--human discernment could never decide which. + +Dolores faced her mongrel subjects again and her dark eyes blazed with +fire, her beautiful face was dark with surging blood, every line of her +lithe figure quivered as she spoke: + +"I seek the dog who stirred ye up to mutiny!" she cried. "Yellow Rufe, +if it be he, is not among ye, nor is he one of these carrion scattered +on the ground. If it be some other villain, him I will know before the +sun has stretched my shadow to the cliff. Deliver him up to me, and he +alone shall repay. Disobey, and every biting dog among ye shall swiftly +learn the price of disobedience. I wait." + +The sun was fast setting, and already the shadows had grown long. Five +minutes at most would see the shadow of Dolores's head at the base of +the great rock, and the blacks started whimpering with apprehension. +Among the whites a tremendous quiet reigned; but sullen brows here, +snarling teeth there, gave hint of their interest in the sun's progress. +Still no man spoke. Rather they looked at each other questioningly as +the minutes flew, as if the culprit were indeed not among them. + +But Dolores was wise beyond her years, wise with a wisdom bred of her +volcanic existence in such a station, and she refused to be hoodwinked +by the apparent absence of the man she sought. Her shadow touched the +rock, and without another second of hesitation she turned toward the +forest fringe, walking with majestic carriage and looking neither to +right nor left. She simply uttered one short sentence: "To the Grove!" + +Every man with dark blood in his veins followed her like a sheep, for +terrible things had been witnessed in the Grove of Mysteries: things far +beyond the understanding of such men. The sullen whites hung back +again, for their colder blood was not impregnated with the fears and +superstitions that exerted such tremendous sway over their colored +fellows. Still Dolores gave them never a look; she walked on, and the +forest closed behind her, as if she believed her footsteps followed by +every foot in the unruly crew. + +It was Milo who constituted her dependable rearguard. Milo was there, +and Milo would see to it that no skulker declined his queen's command. +There lay the reason why Dolores so placidly turned her back to men +whose dearest ambition would have been realized by the plunge of steel +between her shoulders at that moment. Milo walked around to the rear of +the hesitant mob, and without a word gripped the hindmost in his two +great hands and hurled him bodily over the heads of his mates in the +desired direction. + +"Swine!" swore a harelipped Mexican, whipping out his cutlas. "I'll see +your black heart for that!" and furiously made play to avenge insult to +his sorely handled fellow. + +The black giant turned as calmly as if his mistress had called him, and +seized the fellow's cutlas hand in one huge fist, crushing bone and +steel into gory pulp without visible effort. His lips never opened, his +tremendous chest was ruffled not one whit; Milo's eyes alone gave +warning of what he might do if occasion arose; and fooled by his obvious +carelessness, the white men closed around him, knives and cutlases +drawn, frantic for his life. + +They should have known better. Their lessons had been many and vivid; +but not a man of them all was of the caliber to learn from a slave. Milo +kept hold of his man's hand, and at the scrape of steel leaving +scabbard, he brought up his free hand and grasped the fellow's left +wrist. Then, springing aside with the resistless impulse of a charging +buffalo, he gained a clear space, and began to swing his victim by the +wrists. + +One complete circle was made with the human club, then a catlike ruffian +watched his chance and darted in with murderous knife at Milo's breast +while the dreadful club was at his back. Cool as a mountain spring, the +giant immediately let go his man, letting him fly far behind him like a +stone from a catapult. In a twinkling of an eye, the great hands that +released the one captive closed afresh on the new assailant in front, +and now the giant gave no further grace. His fingers tightened on the +man's throat and the desperate face went black. Then, keeping the fellow +ever before him, he suddenly flung him into the air by the waist, +shifting holds with tigerish swiftness, and caught him by the ankles as +he came down. He whirled the unfortunate wretch once, and three men went +down under the terrible blow; the rest scattered with furious howls, +bespattered with the blood of their comrade; but one more sight of the +unruffled giant cowed them; none attempted further knife or sword-play. +Then Milo smiled scornfully, and uttered: "Go!" and they went to the +forest like jackals before the lion. The giant saw them on their way, +and tossing his fearful weapon over the cliff, strode after them, an +awful embodiment of relentless, all but limitless strength. + +The forest lay hushed and dim beyond the fringe; whispering leaves and +crackling twigs sounded sharp as a shower of stones in the stillness. +Great trees reared their majestic heads to mingle their foliage and shut +out the light; every creeping, flying, walking creature seemed awed into +a vague murmuring that was deeper than silence. The Grove of Mysteries +was a semicircular space of cool, mossy sward, bowered in great trees +and tangled vine screens; its background was the bare rock of the +cliffside itself--actually, though unknown to the rabble, the outer +rocky wall of the great chamber--and against this stood the altar. + +The old woman had made use of her skinny limbs to good effect, impelled +by a fear that had become terror. The altar was resplendent in silk and +velvet, fashioned for an altar very different from this; but in place of +the vessels usually associated with so sacred a piece of furniture, the +Altar of the Grove was embellished with a mosaic of skulls and bones +surrounding a complete skeleton which held its head in one grisly hand. + +In the hollow eye-sockets glowed a weird fire that darted forth at +irregular intervals like glances of demoniacal hate; at the altar foot a +great censer erupted a dense cloud of pungent smoke that rendered the +altar and those about it still more vague and ghostly. And the glade was +full of cowering, slavering blacks and half-breeds, whose superstitious +terrors reached high tide with each succeeding swirl of smoke or +outflash of eye-socket fires. + +Dolores went directly to the old woman, who stood in cringing +subservience with a plain white garment in her hands. This she placed on +the girl's shoulders, fastening it at the bosom with a small skull of +jade stone whose grinning teeth were pearls, and whose eye-sockets were +empty with an awful blackness. The gold circlet was discarded, and in +its place Dolores placed on her head a turban formed from a stuffed +coiled snake, whose neck and head darted hither and thither on cunning +springs with her every motion and gesture. + +To this awesome place came the herd that Milo drove before him; and not +a man among the hardened crew was hardy enough to carry his bravado into +the Grove. Blacks and whites alike, no matter what their inmost thoughts +might be, yielded to the spell of the place the moment their feet trod +the sward and the congregation settled into the places allotted to them. + +Dolores glided out in front of the altar, and eyes glittered, dusky +throats went constricted and dry with terror when she stirred up the +brazier and was hidden for a moment in the rising volume of blue smoke +in which flashes of devilish light played incessantly. Milo stepped up +behind and above the altar, and as the smoke reeked about him vanished +seemingly into the face of the cliff. There, in an unsuspected outlet to +the great chamber, was the key to much of the magic with which Dolores +kept her turbulent crew on the borderline of fear. She flashed a glance +holding much of anxiety after her giant servitor, and busied herself +about the altar to gain time. + +She had received from his hands as he stepped up the effigy of a man in +black wax, and now she advanced with hand upraised for silence. It was +unnecessary: the silence of the dead prevailed in the Grove. With the +image held aloft Dolores was a magnet that drew all eyes inevitably. Six +inches tall, the image was a cleverly modeled composite of every type in +the motley band; and every man realized this. Placing the effigy on the +altar, Dolores seized from the brazier a glowing coal with her bare +hands and placed it behind the figure. Then she flung both hands high +and her vibrant voice pealed through the Grove. + +"Regard all men the voice of the gods! By this sacred fire shall this +image be melted; and when it is gone, out of its many likenesses shall +remain the shape of him who stirred ye to mutiny against me. That shape +I shall show ye by the power of my will. Lest ye disbelieve that I have +this power, behold! Look for proof in the smoke behind me!" + +As she spoke she stirred the incense to a dense cloud of smoke, and her +blazing eyes, turned from her people, peered through the reek for a +reassuring sign from the rock, for what she now demanded of Milo called +for superhuman swiftness and surety. As the seconds sped, she kept the +smoke swirling thickly, and her voice rang out in a weird incantation +that kept the spectators trembling with the growing suspense. + +Then a triumphant note entered her speech; the smoke rose thicker for an +instant, then dissolved; and as it vanished, high on the rocky cliff, +framed, as it seemed, in the solid rock itself, stood the grim, cold +figure of the dead Red Jabez. + +In this, her grave extremity, Milo the strong, Milo the slave, more than +all, Milo the faithful, had not failed her. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE PIRATES' BARBECUE. + + +A moment of ghastly hush prevailed, then the Grove shook from sward to +tree-tops--pandemonium broke loose and all were in turmoil. + +No need now to wait for the verdict of the wax image; no further +shifting of brazen glances, or winking of knowing eyes. Shrill voices of +terrified blacks, hoarse bellowings of the hardiest rascals who had +ever kissed a dripping cutlas, the throaty roar of men who had played +willing lieutenants to the ringleader: all pealed up to high heaven for +the culprit to come forth and taste of the queen's justice rather than +wait for her vengeance. + +"Rufe! Yellow Rufe!" they howled. They howled it until the forest echoed +with the word. + +"Peace, Devilspawn!" cried Dolores, covering the crowd with an +all-embracing smile of utter scorn. "Think ye I need to hear the name? +Go, all of ye! Fill your swinish skins with liquor, and trouble me no +more this day. When I will that Yellow Rufe appear, here he shall be +drawn, whether he will or not. And in your carousal let this thought be +with ye: Ye are dogs and slaves of dogs; by my will ye live, at my word +ye die. The Red Chief is dead; I am your law, your queen, owner of your +bodies and souls! Let any of ye seek to imitate Yellow Rufe, and Milo +shall pick your limbs apart as if ye were flies. Go now; there is rum +broached, and wine; make a barbecue, and fill yourselves to bursting +like the vultures ye are!" + +"Hello, lads, that's your sort!" roared a purple-faced ruffian with a +hang-lip. "A right proper gal is that. Give her a huzza and crack yer +pipes, lads!" + +"Bravo, Hanglip!" bellowed another of the same kidney. Spotted Dog had +lost part of an ear, and the same knife had seamed his flabby jowl into +the likeness of a bloodhound's cheek; his deeply-pitted visage completed +the ensemble, and no other name would have fitted him as well. "Bravo, +old cutthroat! Let her play queens an' fairies, if she wants to. Here's +for th' jolly grog, lads. Hey, Stumpy, start a cheer for th' pretty +wench!" + +So had the spell of the Grove left them immediately they smelled the +fleshpots. But Dolores still held the altar; and Stumpy, having a keener +memory perhaps than most of his fellows, took the warning that flashed +from her angry eyes. He shivered slightly as his gaze met hers, then, +hopping forward on his one good leg and club-foot, he swung a knotty +fist against Spotted Dog's creased jowl and growled: + +"A turn wi' that poison tongue, Spotted Dog. All hands, too, hear me +talkin'. Here's a royal feast spread for us, an' th' spreader's queen o' +th' pirates! Don't ever ferget that, lads. I ain't hankerin' fer what +Rufe'll get. Away wi' you, now, an' I'll slit th' winepipe o' th' dog as +says disrespect to th' queen." + +And so the rascals trooped down to their hut-village. Noisily, +profanely, full of horseplay and ear-burning jests; but never a voice +spoke any word that failed in its homage when Dolores was the theme. + +Snugly settled around the great rock door, the pirates' village looked +out from a broad level platform over the darkening evening sea. In the +center, its rear abutting on the rock itself, stood the great council +hall and the dwelling of Dolores. In front of this black slaves busily +heaped a great bonfire; torches were thrust into iron rings on doorpost +and tree-trunk; noisy ruffians tramped into a cool cave in the rock and +trundled forth casks and horn cups; while Sancho, the Spaniard, bent +over a whetstone, giving his knife a final edge against the arrival of +the meat. + +A venomous devil was this Sancho, and his contorted face, with the +missing eye covered by a black patch, worked demoniacally in the +gathering darkness with each leaping flame of the ignited torches. The +hand that clutched the knife was a thing of horror; two fingers and half +the thumb remained from some drunken brawl to serve the Spaniard in +future play for work or debauch; and the man, crouching low over his +stone, made a picture of incarnate hate that had no humor in it. + +"Where's th' flesh?" screamed Sancho, looking up, his mutilated thumb +running creepily along the knife-edge. + +"Whet your tusks, lads, here's the blessed manna!" squealed Caliban, a +hunchbacked terror, who kept his maimed carcass secure by virtue of his +viperish temper, coupled with an uncanny skill of the cutlas. "Milo's +our man! Huzza for Milo!" + +Out from the trees stalked the giant Abyssinian, and the shadows and +torchlight distorted him to grotesque proportions. He walked as if his +weight was nothing; yet on his great shoulders he bore a half-grown ox, +its feet hobbled, its tongue hanging from its panting mouth. Straight to +the fire he stepped and cast his burden down, turning again without a +word and going back to the rock portals. + +"Meat for men!" screamed Sancho, crouching again, knife in hand. + +"For men!" echoed Caliban ferociously, and whipped his cutlas out. +"Stand clear!" he howled, and Sancho dodged aside. The little terror's +blade sang through the air with a wicked whistle; it curved high over +Sancho, then flashed down and plunged through the throat of the ox, +pinning the beast to the earth. And when he recovered his breath the +Spaniard swooped upon the prize, and his knife completed what the dwarf +had well begun. + +Then began an orgy that must render description bald and colorless. +Casks were broached by knocking out the heads; long horns of cattle were +filled to slopping over with rare wine or powerful rum; and then up +leaped Hanglip on to an unbroached cask, cup in hand, and bellowed a +toast that set the trees, the sea, the skies clamoring with rasping +applause. + +"The next vessel as heaves in sight, lads! May her sails be silk, her +masts be gold, and her great cabin full o' rum, with a pretty wench +sittin' atop o' every keg!" + +From the fire came the odor of roasting meat, and the black night came +down outside, making of the small circle where the pirates sprawled a +blotch of infernal light, peopled with infernal shapes. But a sprinkling +of faces a shade less evil leavened the mass; for to the feast came +trooping the women of the camp: of a kidney with the men--yet women, +with women's beguilements and softnesses. + +Dolores sat alone in the great chamber, careless of the noise outside, +her beautiful face dark with somber passion. Beside her chair Milo had +placed her treasure chests; hers now, through the death of the terrible +old corsair who had amassed them. Idly she had heaped the table with a +glittering collection of gems that an empress might well have found +interest in; but Dolores frowned as at so much dross, for her thoughts +were far away. The filmiest of lace and silken shawls, jeweled +slippers, gossamer-gold head dresses, pearls and rubies from India and +Persia--all lay in confusion at her hand, and aroused no spark of joy in +her breast. From time to time her brooding eyes flashed and fastened +upon a priceless Rembrandt "Laughing Cavalier" on the wall opposite; +they flashed again when her gaze shifted to a colossal Rubens "Rape of +the Sabines"; her face lighted for an instant when her fingers in +groping closed upon a cobwebby golden net, scintillating with cunningly +wrought jeweled insects caught in the meshes, which had once graced the +all-powerful head of Pompadour. + +"Where such things are, are better!" she whispered vehemently, clenching +her strong, slender hands fiercely. "Where such are fashioned and worn +there are people worthy my power. My people! Pah!" she burst out +passionately. "My people? Dogs! Cattle! Brutes without souls! There--" +she flung a hand impetuously toward the "Laughing Cavalier"--"there is +the pirate who should call me queen! There"--with a gesture toward +Rubens's great canvas--"are men that I would command. Here, I must stay, +why? Because a dead man willed it so. May I wither eternally if I make +not my own laws. Milo!" + +She clapped her hands, and in a moment the giant was before her, +reverent awe in every line of his huge body. + +"Sultana?" + +"Are my beasts well fed?" + +"They eat like crocodiles, guzzle like swine, Sultana." + +"See that the liquor flows freely, Milo. And a word in thy ear. We shall +go from here as quickly as the fates will send a ship. Let no sail pass +henceforth." + +"Lady, that may not be--" + +"Silence! Give me no may not! When I, Dolores, will to go, who shall +stay me?" + +"Death lies beyond the horizon for thee as for all of us, Sultana. +Pirate the Red Chief was last of the band; every man who calls thee +queen is under sentence of death; the pillage of a hundred ships lies +here. Here is safety. The Red Chief's law--" + +"Peace! I am the law! Seek me that ship--and quickly. Shall I live among +such carrion, when the world is peopled with such as those?" she cried +with a sweeping gesture toward a life-size "Three Graces," by Correggio, +epitomizing feminine grace indeed. + +"Thou art fairer, Sultana," replied the giant simply; and the girl +flushed warmly for all her moody dissatisfaction. She smiled kindly upon +the slave, and said more softly: "Thy devotion pleases me, Milo. Yet is +my will unchanged. Seek me that ship. I will go from here. Stay, if thou +wilt, or art afraid." + +"Lady," returned the giant, "when the Red Chief, thy father, took me +from the slave ship he gave me liberty--liberty to serve him. He has +gone; my care is now the queen, his daughter. Going or staying, Milo +remains thy bodyguard. Pardon if I offended thee; thy father desired +what I have told thee. But the ship. This evening, at sundown, a sail +leaped in sight beyond the Tongue." + +"This evening! And ye said no word of it?" cried Dolores, blazing with +fresh anger. She leaned forward in her chair as if crouching for a +spring. + +"It passed as swiftly as it appeared, Sultana. No other eye save mine +saw it; the men know nothing--" + +"It is well, Milo. I had forgotten thy eyes were twice as keen as any +other man's. Keep that condor's vision of thine bent to seaward, and +tell no man of what comes into view. Bring me the news; I shall know how +to keep my rascals in hand. Now go and send to me a woman to serve me: a +young woman, nimble and deft; give the old woman to the cooks for +scullery drudge." + +"A woman here, Sultana?" + +"Here! What bee buzzes in thy great head now?" The giant again looked +grave; the girl's impatience surged anew. + +"Sultana, don't forget that, save thee and me, servant of the great +chamber, none may enter here and go alive?" + +"Now by the fiend, enough!" blazed the girl. "Again, I am the law! Wilt +have it imprinted on thy great body with my whip?" + +Milo made a low obeisance, departed without further speech, and in a few +moments ushered in from the bacchanalian revels a maid for his +mistress. + +"Pascherette will serve thee well, Sultana," he said, leading the girl +forward. He saw approval in Dolores's face and departed, his luminous +black eyes unwontedly soft and limpid. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +MILO SIGHTS A SAIL. + + +Day broke through a silver haze, and as the blue sea unrolled to view, +far down to the southeast, flashed a pearly sliver of sail lazily +drawing in to the coast. It was the merest streak of white against the +sky, and none but Milo's sharp eyes could have seen it. Even at that +distance, and indistinct though it was in the mist, the giant detected +the three masts crossed with yards that proclaimed the vessel a +full-rigged ship. He gazed long and earnestly, to assure himself of the +ship's progress, then hurried along the mountain toward the village. + +He strode with the free stride of a perfect creature, swinging from the +hip and covering the ground at a common man's running pace. His vast +chest heaved and fell easily and rhythmically, the golden-hued skin +rippling and flashing in the rising sunlight; every line of limbs and +torso was the outward and visible sign of abounding health; the straight +black hair falling to his shoulders framed a keen, powerful face of +Semitic mold, in which the high brow and calm, fearless eyes belonged +rather to one of the blood-royal than to a slave. And rightly, too, for +Milo, the giant, was of princely line in his own land, and his present +servitude was an accident that had yet failed to rob him of his +birthright of dignity. + +He came abreast of and above the haven where lay the stout sloop and +boats of the community, and the sounds of noisy industry about the craft +brought a frown and a sneer to his face. It reminded him too vividly of +his actual station, and violently dragged him back from the realm of +visions he had allowed himself to indulge in. The pirates were busily +overhauling their gear, filling water casks, calking dried-out seams, +and sluicing opening decks with copious streams of water, just as they +were used to do in the palmy days when Red Jabez kept them gorged with +pillage. + +Milo hurried faster, for he feared they too had sighted his ship, and +sprang down to the shore to accost surly Caliban. + +"Here, Milo old buck, stick yer beak into this, lad!" screamed Caliban, +thrusting forward a brimming horn of wine. The giant declined +impatiently, waving a hand toward the activity afoot. + +"What, won't drink luck, hey?" cried the dwarf, emptying the horn +himself. "Ain't got the news yet, hey?" + +"News? What news can such as thee have that I am not told?" demanded +Milo contemptuously. Caliban scowled viciously at his tone, but the +giant's hands were strong, and the little ruffian loved his warped life. +He flung down his horn and retorted: "We're to windward o' ye this time, +Milo me lad. Th' queen bade us be ready for a lamb headed this way, an', +sure enough, there comes a craft now, a'most in sight from here. Small +fish, true, but sweet after so long a spell o' famine." + +Milo knew that the ship he had seen could not possibly have been +detected from the village. It must be yet another craft, and, without a +word, he bounded back up the cliff and scanned the waters closer +inshore. There, sure enough, lay a beautiful white schooner, her paint +dazzling to the eye, her decks flashing with metal, her canvas faultless +in fit and set and whiteness. She was still five miles distant and +slowly edging along the coast, as if indifferent to her tardy progress. +The giant noted her exact position, then presented himself to Dolores. + +The girl was luxuriously submitting to the skilful attentions of +Pascherette; her wealth of lustrous hair enveloped her like a veil, +rendering almost superfluous the filmy silken robe she had donned. But +at sight of Milo all her feline contentment fled, and she thrust the +maid from her and stood up to receive his report. + +"A ship?" she flashed. + +"Two, Sultana. The men make ready now." + +"The men? Dolt! Did I not tell thee to keep such news for me?" + +"They saw the small vessel while I was beyond the Tongue. They have not +seen the ship I saw, nor have I told them. It is a great ship, lady; +theirs is but a small, poor thing." + +"I will see it." Dolores suddenly remembered the maid, whose presence +she had ignored. Pascherette stood apart, a small, fairylike French +octoroon, dainty as a golden thistledown; her full red lips were parted +in eager inquisitiveness, and her slim, small body leaned forward, as if +to catch every word; but at sight of her Dolores burst into knowing +merriment, for the girl's eyes told her story. They were fastened in +intense, burning adoration, not on the mistress but on Milo, the giant +slave. + +"La-la, chit!" Dolores cried; "keep thy black eyes from my property." +But more weighty matters than a maid's fluttering bosom demanded her +attention, and she commanded sharply: "Milo, summon the men to the +council hall at once. Let none be absent. Go swiftly!" Milo went, and +Dolores flashed around on Pascherette again: "And thou, hussy, take this +clinging frippery from me and give me my tunic. And, mark me, girl, thy +eyes and ears belong to me. Thy tongue, too. Let that tongue utter one +word of what those eyes see, those ears hear, and it shall be plucked +from thy pretty mouth with hot pincers. Remember!" + +Dolores put on her tunic and swept out to steal a long look at the white +schooner before entering the hall. + +Into the council hall the pirates came trooping, tarry, wet, soiled with +the estuary mud as they were, and stood in a milling mob awaiting speech +from Dolores, who entered from the rear and scanned their faces closely. +Shuffling feet and whistling breath would not be stilled, even in her +presence, for their appetites were already whetted for a victim, and the +fumes of the previous night's debauch lingered. They glared at the girl +and cursed impatiently. + +"Hear!" commanded Dolores with an imperious gesture, and every sound was +muffled, not stilled. "Hear, my brave jackals! For long ye have hungered +for employment fit for the royal corsairs ye are. Now the meal is to +hand." The hall reverberated with the clamor that went up. Cutlases +scraped from their scabbards and swished aloft; bold Spotted Dog +snatched out his great horse-pistol and blazed into the floor, filling +the place with acrid smoke and noise. Dolores's eyes flashed angrily; +she governed her fury, and went on when the uproar subsided: "Your boats +are ready?" + +"Ready and rotting wi' idleness!" roared Hanglip. + +"And ye purpose wasting powder and shot on some paltry craft of the +islands! Wait, my brave lads, I have better game at hand!" + +Now the crowd was hushed in earnest, for none of them saw more than a +frolic coming from such a small craft as the schooner. The girl went on +to tell them of the big ship that Milo had seen, and she painted it a +rich West Indiaman, loaded to the hatches with rum and powder, gold and +jewels, delicate meats and--with emphasis which she carefully cloaked +yet made vivid--dainty ladies, no doubt. + +"Take ye the sloop, then," she commanded, "and bring me no tale of +failure. Ten miles southwest from the bluff she lies becalmed. Let no +man return without tribute for me. Go now!" + +With a whoop the evil ruffians tumbled out, hurling themselves pell-mell +down to the shore, and splashing out to the boats. Their sloop, a long, +beamy Cayman-built craft, of eighty tons and twelve murderous guns that +were cast for a king's ship, could be handled by four men or a hundred. +She carried fifty men now, and she sped out of the estuary before the +faint breeze with a velocity that spelled certain doom for any +square-rigged ship she ever lifted over the horizon. + +Dolores watched them go with inscrutable face; then commanded Milo to +attend her in the great chamber. Pascherette, not yet over her fright, +hovered tremblingly near, and her mistress dismissed her with a +pacifying pat on the head, flinging, at the same time, a string of +pearls around her neck that brought mingled gratitude, greed, and +conceit into her sparkling eyes. + +"How stands the schooner now?" Dolores asked when the girl had gone. + +"She drifts slowly, Sultana. There is little wind. Yet she ever comes +nearer." + +"Milo, that is my ship!" breathed Dolores fervidly. "I have jewels and +silken trash, the richest in my store, which my father told me were +taken from such a vessel. A yacht, he called that craft. 'Tis sailed for +pleasure; trade never soils the holds of such craft; men who sail such a +vessel as that which now hovers near us are of the kind from which comes +such as that!" Once more she indicated the "Laughing Cavalier," and now +her form and face were filled with surging ambition strengthened with +ardent hope. + +"How goes our sloop?" she asked abruptly. + +"Swiftly, but with the dying breath of the wind. By noon she will be +swinging idly, Sultana." + +"Who of the boldest rascals remain with us?" + +"The noisiest dogs have gone. Sancho remains, for Stumpy cracked his +head last night in a brawl. The others here are but cattle!" The giant +uttered the words with bitter scorn. + +"Then, at noon, Milo, we move to secure my ship!" Dolores cried with +gleaming eyes. "Set slaves to move out the false Point and anchor it a +cable-length off the true. I will have a plan then to lure the schooner +on. We must not let her escape, Milo!" + +"Pardon, lady, I know a way!" + +"And that?" + +"I will swim to the schooner and command them to thy presence." + +Dolores smiled whimsically, for she was too wise to be ignorant of the +fact that such men as were in that schooner must first be caught before +they might be commanded. Yet the giant's plan suggested another to her. + +"Hear my plan," she said. "That chit--Pascherette--she's a dainty minx! +Does she swim?" + +"Like a conger, Sultana!" Milo's face lighted warmly, and Dolores +shrewdly guessed then that the petite octoroon's regard for the giant +was not altogether unrequited. + +"Then carry her abreast of the vessel, quickly, and bid her swim out to +it. Let her use some of the cunning that is in her pretty little head, +and make them wonder what else our island has to offer in dainties. +Then, ere evening, I shall have work for thee that shall complete what +Pascherette begins. Command the minx to bring forth all her fascinations +and allurements. Nay, friend, have no fear for thy sweetheart. I warrant +thee she can care for herself, if she will. Go! It is my command!" + +Milo departed, and Dolores went out to the Grove, climbed nimbly to the +cliff-top, and sat down to watch. She had a clear view of the schooner +now winging lazily along three miles away and a mile off shore; the +shore, from the point where her rascals were even now towing out a great +mass of interlaced trees and foliage planted upon stout logs to form a +false point, right along to abreast of the schooner, lay immediately +beneath her eye; the blue sea glittered and flashed under the hot sun, +unruffled by wind, and only bursting into a long line of creamy foam, +where it licked the golden sands. The tall palms nodded languorously, +their deep green heads faintly chafing like sleeping crickets; the +tinkle of the sands came up to her ears like tiny bells. + +Dolores followed with her eyes two swiftly moving figures on the shore +path, hidden from the ocean by a mass of verdure, and she smiled +cryptically. The giant Milo strode on his way like the embodiment of +force; at his side tripped Pascherette, her glossy black crown barely +reaching above his waist, her tiny hand hidden completely in his great +fist. And she kept her bright eyes raised to his great height all the +while, satisfied that her little feet should trip, perhaps, if only her +eyes tripped not from his face. + +Presently they stopped, and Dolores stood up alertly. There was but a +moment's delay, while Pascherette bound her hair more securely; then, +with a flirting hand-wave, the little octoroon darted from Milo, +wriggled through the bushes, and ran lightly down to the sea. In another +moment her small, black head was moving rapidly toward the schooner, her +golden skin flashing warmly in the sun as her arms swept over and over +in an adept stroke that carried her forward with the speed of a fish. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE PARTY FROM THE YACHT. + + +The schooner yacht Feu Follette swam sluggishly along shore, her lofty +canvas flapping in the faint air. On her spotless quarter-deck, Rupert +Venner, wealthy idler and owner of the vessel, lounged in a deck-chair a +picture of the utter finality of boredom. His guests, Craik Tomlin and +John Pearse, made perfunctory pretense of admiring the lovely coast +scenery along the port hand; but their air was that of men surfeited +with sights, tired of the languorous calm, _blase_ of life. + +The schooner's appointments typified money in abundance. From forecastle +capstan to binnacle she glowed and glittered with massive brass and +ornate gilding; along the waist six burnished-bronze cannon stood on +heavily carved carriages, lashings and breechings as white as a shark's +tooth; over the quarter-deck double awnings gave ample clearance to the +swing of the main boom--the outer of dazzling white canvas, the inner of +richest, striped silk-and-cotton mixture. The open doors of the +deckhouse companion revealed an interior of ivory paneling touched with +gold, and hung with heavy velvet punkahs. The walls were embellished +with exactly the right number of art gems to establish the artistic +perception of the owner and to whet the expectation for more yet unseen. +But, with all this, the Feu Follette housed a discontented master and +discontented guests. + +"Oh, for a breeze!" grumbled Pearse, breaking in on the frowning +silence. "How much longer are we to drift around these stagnant seas, +Venner?" + +"The very next slant of wind shall wing us homeward," replied Venner +dreamily. "I, too, am sick of the cruise and its deadly monotony." + +Again silence, marred only by creak of gear and flap of idle sails. The +schooner barely moved now, though the western sky held promise of a +breeze later on. Then came a cry from one of the negro crew forward, +and its tenor stirred the party into mild interest. + +"De debbil, ef 'tain't one o' dem marmaids! Oh, Caesar!" + +A ripple of panting laughter alongside brought Venner and his guests to +the rail in haste, and gone to the windless heavens was their _ennui_. A +gleaming, gold-tinted creature, a miniature model of Aphrodite surely, +arose from the blue sea and climbed nimbly into the main channels and +thence to the deck, where little pools of water dripped from the radiant +figure. She shook her small head saucily, and heavy masses of raven-wing +hair tumbled about her, provokingly cloaking the charms so boldly +outlined by her single saturated tunic of fine silk. + +"Who in paradise may you be?" ejaculated Venner, while his friends +stared with unconscious rudeness. + +"I? I am Pascherette!" laughed the small vision, and her black eyes +sparkled impudently. + +"Pascherette!" echoed Tomlin, bewildered. "Does Jamaica hold such +beauties?" He awkwardly brought forward a deck-chair, while Pearse stood +by in speechless amazement. Venner, as better became the host, ordered a +steward to bring a wrap for the astounding visitor, but the girl laughed +provokingly and declined both. + +"It is not for such as I, fine gentlemen," she said, and her sharp eyes +were roving busily about the schooner, appraising values like a +veritable pirate. "Keep thy courtesies for better than I." + +"Better than you, girl?" Venner's tone was incredulous. He was taking +mental stock of the priceless pearls about Pascherette's dainty throat. +"To be found here?" + +"If not here, where shall ye find such a one as my mistress?" +Pascherette retorted saucily. + +"Your mistress?" + +"Without doubt. I am but a slave, my lady is the queen, Dolores." + +"A queen--a white woman?" stammered Venner. + +"Oh, Venner, let us look into this!" exclaimed Pearse with unconcealed +curiosity. + +"Just what we have prayed for!" Tomlin supplemented eagerly. "Anchor, +Venner, like a good fellow. A jaunt ashore will brace us all up." + +"Nonsense!" objected the owner, albeit with a good trace of +inquisitiveness himself. "The breeze will come by evening; and who knows +what this coast harbors? A bad name sticks to this shore." + +Pascherette had wandered forward, and between sly glances aft and keen +scrutiny shoreward, she flung seductive smiles broadcast at the grinning +crew, prattling prettily to officer and man alike, as if she were indeed +a stranger to the ways of shipboard. While she made her rounds the party +aft entered into a warm dispute; their curiosity was whetted, but not +sufficiently in Venner's case, to whom the safety of the yacht was +paramount just then. They wrangled for half an hour, and the schooner +drifted on until she was within a mile or so of the outflung false +Point. Then they were again startled out of their self-possession--this +time by a cry from the girl who leaned over the bulwarks a picture of +ardent admiration for something in the water. + +Double awnings and snowy hammock-cloths restricted the view shoreward +from the quarter-deck chairs, and surprise as deep as that which greeted +the girl surged through the disputing three at a great splashing over +the side, accompanied by the boom of a voice that must come from a +powerful, free-breathing chest. + +"Room for Milo, servant of Dolores!" the hail rang out, and by the same +means as Pascherette had used, up climbed Milo, to stand motionless +before the white men, an astounding and awe-inspiring shape. + +"Another slave of the mysterious queen?" demanded Venner, when recovered +from his astonishment. "It gets interesting, gentlemen. And what is your +errand, Goliath?" he inquired of Milo. + +"I know no Goliath. I am Milo. I come to summon ye to the presence of my +queen," returned the giant with as much unconcern as if he were inviting +the pirates to a barbecue. + +A titter of amusement passed over the three yachtsmen. It was tinged +with resentment, though, and only curiosity, aroused by shock upon +shock, prevented an angry rejoinder to Milo's speech that could only +have ended one way: in physical damage to three idle gentlemen of wealth +and pleasure. + +"A summons, hey?" scoffed Tomlin. "Your queen values her rank, I think." +A dangerous gleam crept into Milo's eyes, and Pearse detected it in +time. "Venner," he said quietly, "you cannot let this adventure pass. +Here's every element of sport held up to us. Let us obey this command, +and get at least a thrill out of this humdrum cruise." + +Venner was thinking of many things, and his mind needed little making +up. He had never lost sight of those pearls of Pascherette's; his eye +could not be deceived; they were priceless. And Pearse had not failed to +notice the green jade skull-charm that depended from Milo's columnar +neck, a jade skull with pearls for teeth like the altar brooch of +Dolores. And Tomlin, for all his expressed scorn, was tingling with +ardent desire for such piquant beauty and vivacity as Pascherette's. If +such a creature were the slave, then what could the mistress be? He +assumed a more complaisant attitude, and added his vote: "A good way of +passing away this odious calm spell, Venner. Let us go." + +"Where is this great queen, my Colossus?" Venner asked. + +"I will lead thee to her presence," replied Milo. "Thy boat will take us +there in a few moments. Further on, beyond that point, the ship may lie +safely in the haven." + +Venner called his sailing master, and together they examined the chart. +It showed a sand-bar stretching off the point, a deep-water channel, +narrow but accessible, close to. + +"You can work into that anchorage?" asked Venner. + +"Yes, sir, if the air don't die away altogether. It seems good ground by +the chart." + +"Then carry the schooner in and bring up. Call away my cutter, and"--in +an undertone--"keep a good watch, Peters, this is an evil coast." + + * * * * * + +The shrill pipes reverberated under the awnings, and sailors, neat and +trim in white uniforms that contrasted beautifully with their dark +skins, ran to man the graceful white cutter. Pascherette sat in the +stern-sheets, cuddled up like a pretty kitten on a crimson silk cushion, +and Milo stood erect, as firm as if on solid ground, between passengers +and rowers as the boat sped shoreward. As the two craft separated the +schooner stood out in veritable beauty, an exquisite thing of gold and +ivory, pearl and rose. Venner's eyes lighted with pride at sight of her. +Even a long, eventless cruise had not killed the artist in him. He +touched Milo softly on the thigh and said with a smile: + +"Has your queen anything like that, my friend?" + +Milo cast a disdainful glance at the yacht, abruptly turned away again, +and replied shortly: "That is nothing." + +"Nothing!" said Venner. "Then where have you seen daintier work of men's +hands and brains?" + +"Thou shall see. Thy ship is a petty thing." + +"Now, by Heaven, Venner, he has you there!" laughed Tomlin, never +ceasing for a moment from ogling Pascherette, who purred with +contentment and smiled slyly at the frown that came to Milo's face. + +"Oh, yes, a poor thing!" laughed Pascherette, hugging her knees and +rippling over with amusement. "My mistress is a great queen. +These"--touching her pearls--"thy rigging could be formed of such, if my +queen willed." + +"And in the house of such a great queen, my girl, are doubtless other +things of beauty and worth?" put in Venner with growing sarcasm. + +"As witness this pretty wench!" smiled Tomlin, striving to fix the +girl's capricious attention, which persisted in flying ever to Milo. + +"Patience," returned Milo. "Do ye know of anything of untold worth--my +queen has that which will buy it? Have ye seen a thing of peerless +beauty--in my queen's house are many of its peers! Patience!" + +No word more would the giant utter. Like a bronze statue he stood erect, +guiding the cutter to a small landing with a silent gesture. And as the +boat swept alongside and the yachtsmen began to experience the thrill of +near expectancy, Pearse caught sight of a knot of men loitering on the +nearby slopes, and their appearance startled him. + +"Good Lord, look at those piratical ruffians!" he cried. + +His companions started, and doubt came into their faces. Then +Pascherette arose from her seat and pressed near to Tomlin, with an +insinuating, caressing movement; and that ardent gentleman exclaimed +impatiently: "Oh, never mind their looks! Come on Venner! This is what +I've dreamed of all my life! Come on!" + +Milo touched Pearse's arm, said briefly, "Come!" and that reluctant +visitor stepped ashore; while Venner, after a little twinge of +misgiving, succumbed to his curiosity regarding the hidden glories of +this strange realm, and followed the great black readily enough. + +Up the cliff they followed Milo, Pascherette running ahead and looking +backward ever and again with a seductive gesture of invitation; and in +good time they stood before the council hall, the loitering pirates +staring at them wonderingly, and from them to the graceful white +schooner just then entering the narrow channel. + +"Enter!" said Milo, and stood aside at the open door. + +The interior was dark and awfully still, and the three white men paused +on the threshold doubtfully, regarding each other with half-ashamed +faces. + +"Enter!" reiterated Milo, and curiosity got the better of them, for a +swirl of fragrance eddied out to them, and one by one, until the hall +was dotted with them, ruby and amber lights twinkled before them, +seeming to beckon them on to something mysterious in the shadows beyond +the soft lights. + +"Neck or nothing!" muttered Venner, leading the way. His friends +followed in silence. Then the doors closed behind them; but fear, doubt, +unbelief, all went to the winds at the spectacle that slowly unfolded +itself before their gaze. + +"Cleopatra reincarnated, by God!" gasped Venner. His friends could find +no words to express their sensations in that moment. + +Dolores glided out from the heavy hangings behind her chair of state, +and stood, a vision of majestic loveliness, on the dais. Clad in her +short tunic, her hair bound to her brow by the gold circlet that Milo +had made, she had calculated effects with the art of a Circe. Her +rounded arms and bare shoulders, faultless throat and swelling bosom, +radiant enough in their own fair perfection, she had embellished with +such jewels as subtly served to accentuate even that perfection. Upon +one polished forearm a bracelet was pressed, a gaud formed from one +immense emerald cut in a fashion that forced one to doubt the existence +of such a cutter in mortal form. About her neck a rope of exquisitely +matched black pearls supported a single uncut emerald which might have +been born in the same matrix with that on her arm. Her red leather +sandals were fastened, and her ankles crisscrossed, with such bands of +glittering fire as a goddess might have stolen from the belt of Orion. + +These things were revealed gradually by cunningly manipulated light +effects until Dolores blazed out entire before her stupefied guests. +They, seeking for relief from the spell, sought in her face some answer +to the riddle; but her expression was that of a being apart: +tantalizingly, inscrutably indifferent to their presence. Then Milo +advanced, prostrated himself before her, and reported his errand done. +"Rise, Milo, and I thank thee," she said, and her soft, yet vibrant, +voice sent a thrill through her waiting guests. Dolores waved a hand +toward the door. "Send Sancho in to me at once, Milo, and do ye watch +for the return of my wolves." + +The giant went out; yet the calm face of Dolores gave no relief to the +three yachtsmen; uneasiness began to sit heavily upon them, and it was +not lessened by the entry of Sancho, for such an awful impersonation of +evil in one man they had never seen before. + +"Sancho," Dolores commanded him, "it is my will that the vessel now +entering my haven be cared for as mine. See to it!" + +"The lads are hungry, lady; it is long since they tasted such--" Sancho +snarled his protest with wickedly curling lips that revealed ragged +yellow fangs. Dolores stared him down with blazing eyes, held his gaze +for a breath and uttered: "Go! See to it! Thy life is the bond!" and +Sancho slunk out like a whipped cur. + +There was an uncanny hint of dynamic force in the girl's swift +assumption of authority, and Tomlin found his throat very dry despite +the fact that he was drinking greedily of her beauty. Venner stole a +look at Pearse, and saw in that gentleman a reflection of his own rising +uneasiness. And then, at that instant of shivery doubt, Dolores smiled +at them; and in that same instant three men, with immortal souls, forgot +everything of the world and affairs in the mad intoxication of her +charm. + +"Welcome, sirs," she smiled, and stepped down to offer each a hand in +turn--not in handshake, but with an air that said plainly homage was due +to her; and whether he would or not, each of her guests raised the hand +to his lips with reverence. + +"What is your pleasure, lady?" asked Venner quietly. He was resolved to +show his friends the way into this magnificent creature's intimate +confidence; and the resolution promised interesting developments, for +each of his friends nursed a similar one. There was, even now, less of +comradeship in the looks with which the friends regarded each other. If +Dolores detected this, she made no sign. She gave a hand to Venner, led +him to the door, and smiled invitation to the others. They followed +hungrily. + +"I will give thee food and wine," she said; "then I have much to say to +thee. I have commanded that thy ship and thy men be cared for; to-night +ye are my guests. Come! But first give me thy swords. Thou'rt with +friends." They complied dumbly, dazed by her radiant charm. + +They stepped outside into the glaring sunlight; a light breeze was now +singing in the tall palms and making silvery music of the wavelets along +the shore; far away to the southwest a sliver of sail was in sight, and +to a practised eye could be made out as the pirate sloop returning. +Dolores glanced swiftly around, seeking some evidence that her commands +to Sancho were being obeyed; but she saw no man--no figure save the +ancient crone she had discarded and sent to the drudgery of the kitchen. +With a keen sidelong glance she saw that the schooner was heavily +grounded on the Point; a second glance told her that her guests were +thinking little of the schooner, for their eyes never left her face. But +notice was forced upon them, and the reason for the camp's desertion +impressed upon her, by the weird, drawn-out scream of jubilation that +issued from the old woman's withered throat an instant before her old +eyes gave her sight of her mistress and froze the cry at her lips. + +"Ha, ha, ha!" she shrieked, waving skinny arms. "That's the way Red +Jabez taught his lambs! Flesh your blade, my bully Rufe, and bring me +some of the meat!" + +Abruptly Dolores's guests swung around to follow the direction of the +old woman's arm, and the girl darted a look of fury at the scene. Out +from the point poured Yellow Rufe and a horde of strange mulattos and +blacks, and shots crackled from the schooner's rails. On the little bay +two boats filled with Sancho and his men pulled frantically toward the +fight, and the haven rang with howls of gleeful anticipation. Venner +uttered a smoking oath, and clutched Tomlin and Pearse by the arms. + +"Come fellows!" he cried. "This is treachery!" + +"Treachery? Ye wrong me, sirs!" Dolores's soft voice halted them. They +stared at her, and she gave them back look for look until she saw the +blood surge back to their faces and their eyes lose their hardness. Then +she laughed, low and sweet, and waved them back. + +"Wait. I shall preserve thy ship, and give thee back an eye for an eye +if thy men are harmed. Trust me, will ye not?" She paused a moment to +thrill them with her eyes; they stayed. They she sped down the cliff +like a deer. + + +TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month. + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE ATTACK ON THE FEU FOLLETTE. + + +By means of the floating blind the Point had been carried out across the +narrow channel until its edge rested on the bar; and the schooner lay +with a heavy list broadside on to the hard sand. Yellow Rufe and his +followers, runaways from the pirates' camp, maroons banished from their +homes for crimes against their fellows, rebellious slaves, and what not, +splashed through the shallow water and stormed the Feu Follette by way +of the jib-boom and head-rigging, while Sancho urged his boats on toward +the vessel's quarters. + +Dolores, uncertain yet as to Sancho's motives, but in no uncertainty as +to Rufe's, paused but to look around for Milo as she leaped down the +cliff. The giant was even then engaged in thwarting an inclination on +the part of the yachtsmen to follow Dolores, for, her spell gone for the +moment, Venner felt all an owner's solicitude for his property. But Milo +had been well schooled; he knew how to play upon little weaknesses; +Pascherette had told him, if he had not seen for himself, how +amorousness and cupidity formed the key-note of character in the +visitors; and now he used the knowledge to the fullest extent. The +little octoroon appeared as Dolores watched; she had hastily attired +herself in dry clothes, a single garment more filmy and daring than that +she had worn to swim aboard the schooner, and from her mistress's store +had borrowed jewels that transformed her into a beautiful little golden +butterfly. + +Dolores saw all this in a flash; she saw Pascherette take capable charge +of the three men, led them away from the cliff, and then Milo advanced +to the steep path. Turning swiftly to resume her career, Dolores uttered +a shrill, piercing cry that the giant understood perfectly, and she +plunged into the sea as he bounded down the slope to her support. + +The schooner's crew were already hard pressed; but they fought like men, +led courageously by Peters, the sailing master. As Dolores cleft the +sparkling water, speeding out to them like a gorgeous sprite of the +waves, men tugged at gun-tackles to swing a piece around to rake their +own decks, for Yellow Rufe and his ruffians had swept the forecastle +clear of defenders. And Dolores reached the vessel, climbed over the +low-listing rail nimbly as a jungle cat, at the instant when Sancho's +boats hooked on to the main-chains and took the crew in the rear. + +The pirate queen stood for a single long breath to grasp the scene in +its entirety. Panting slightly from her exertions, her blazing eyes and +heaving breast rendered her a figure of bewildering and awful +loveliness; and the Feu Follette's men paused in the fight out of sheer +amazement. + +Sancho's gaze fell on her the moment his evil head topped the rail, and +into his eyes crept an expression of detected insubordination. He sought +Yellow Rufe, but Dolores had seen all she needed to apprise her that +this was a concerted attempt to flout her authority. Then Rufe's hoarse +roar went up, and the tide of struggling men surged anew, and Sancho, +plucking up heart, rejoined with a scream. + +"Into the sea with the dogs!" he cried. "'Tis such a craft as Jabez +would love to see ye carry." + +The fight rolled aft, and Dolores was left standing alone by the midship +shot-rack. She singled out a few of her men by name, and commanded them +to rally to her side; then, seizing a cutlas from the deck, she glided +tigerishly to the main companionway, down which the pirates were now +driving the beaten crew, and the men she had picked out were shorn of +all indecision as Milo leaped on board with a bull-throated shout and +gained her side. + +"Sancho! Rufe! Have done with this play!" she cried, placing herself in +front of the blood-hungry horde. "Dogs, fall back! Have ye no memory +that ye forget how Dolores strikes?" + +Milo had picked up a handspike, and with it across his breast he bore +back the scowling rascals, smiling the while himself with quiet +contempt. But one, hardier than the rest, ran to the skylight, dashed in +the glass with his boot, and cried with outflung arm: + +"A plague upon her and her strokes. See yonder, lads--her cunning +trick--our sloop comes back empty-handed, as she well knew it would--and +here lies to your hands work that the Red Chief had reveled in. Down +with her and the big bull! Below is loot fit for bold fellows." + +Without moving from where he stood, Milo pivoted around, the heavy +handspike--six feet of true ash--rigid as a bar of iron, took the +overbold pirate at the base of the skull and spilled his brains into the +breach he had made. Growling with fury, a man from Sancho's crew sprang +to avenge the stroke with steel, and his blade creased down Milo's +sturdy ribs before the giant had recovered from his own swing. And with +the hissing slit of ripping skin Milo's debt was paid for him. Dolores, +agile as a panther, reached the pirate with her cutlas pointed, and the +steel hilt rang against his breast-bone. + +But in the momentary pause in her vigilance, a score of Rufe's ruffians +burst past her and poured below into the saloon, where renewed sounds of +combat told of the ferreting out of the beaten crew. + +"Milo, follow me!" cried Dolores, springing down the stairs herself, +careless whether her wavering half-dozen followed or stayed. Her whole +soul was sickened with the fear that this vessel, the long-wished-for +means of her release from what had become a hateful bondage, was in +danger of destruction at the red hands of Rufe's undisciplined dogs. And +swiftly approaching on the freshening evening breeze her sloop grew +momentarily clearer to the eye; it was easy to fancy she could hear the +howls of disappointed rage pealing up from her deck; it needed no second +sight to determine the side those humiliated pirates would take, when +they hove alongside another prey which promised at least a taste of +coveted loot. + +In the brief time since the pirates' entry the schooner's saloon had +become a place of desolation. All the magnificence of unrestricted cost +was there; and all the beauty of artistic selection; and over all was +the mark of the beast--blood and torn hangings, corpses and splintered +panels, chaos and sulfur smoke as the pillage started. Dolores sought +out through the smoke a breathing man in the uniform of the yacht, and +swiftly placed her lips to his ear, her mind made up to a terrible +expedient to save this vessel for herself. + +"Tell me quickly--where is the magazine?" + +The man opened his agonized eyes, saw that splendid blazing face close +to his own, and shook his head loyally. He would give his master's +enemies no assistance. + +"Speak, fool!" she hissed, shaking him. They were alone by the great +table-leg on the red-stained carpet. "I would defeat these sharks! Where +is the powder?" + +The man looked into her eyes again, and she smiled at him. It was +enough. He weakly pointed to a stout door on the starboard side, forward +of the sailing master's stateroom door, beyond which the sound of axes +already resounded. The owner's and guests' quarters were filled to +overflowing with ravenous wolves tearing and ripping in a frenzy of +pillage. At the after-end of the saloon a pirate stood over a great +cask, issuing jugs of liquor to such of his fellows as found time amid +the riot to drink. Milo gripped his handspike, waiting for a command +that should send him like awful Fate into the thick of the murderous +mob. + +"Milo! Bring me a powder-keg from that magazine!" Dolores said, still +crouching low and hidden beneath the smoke-pall. The giant entered the +room, shattering the lock with a lunge of his shoulder, and returned +bearing an unopened keg of cannon powder. + +"Place it upon the table." Then the girl rose to her feet with eyes +glittering coldly and lips pressed to a tight line. "Find me a lighted +brand--swiftly!" she said, and when the giant snatched up a splinter of +dry wood, lighting it at the steward's brazier in the little pantry off +the saloon, she swept majestically aft to suddenly confront the roaring +ruffian at the wine cask. + +"Milo, hurl this liquor cask away!" + +Milo picked up the heavy barrel as a man might pick up a cushion, heaved +it above his head, and flung it like a cannon-shot at the door, behind +which rang the greatest noise, while the pirate, whose care the wine had +been, gaped like a stranded fish. + +"Now this dog!" + +The man followed his cask before his mouth closed from his astonishment; +but as he flew his leathern lungs performed their office and warned the +pillagers of peril. Out from cabins and storerooms poured the rascals, +gorged with fine wines and delicate foods seized in their pillaging; +steamy with blood not yet dried on their bestial faces. And when the +great saloon was full, Dolores raised her torch above her head and +blazed out at them: + +"In five short breaths this vessel carries all thy black souls to hell! +Skulking rats, swim while the breath is in you!" + +The torch came down, Milo smashed in the head of the keg, revealing the +terrible contents, and as if in grim jest he snatched up a sprinkling of +the powder and flicked some grains into the flare of the torch. If there +had been any doubt as to the deadly earnestness of Dolores, there could +be none now, for sparks crackled and spit in fearful nearness to that +open keg. Men stampeded for the stairs, hurling each other down in their +frenzy; but Yellow Rufe and Sancho lingered. Theirs had been the +gravest fault; if they fled, it must be only to do penance some other +day; if they forced Dolores's hand, at least she and that scornful giant +must die the death also. They stood their ground, staring defiantly into +her expressionless face. + +Dolores spoke no word more. Milo stood like a bronze figure of Doom at +her side, his noble face expressionless as hers. Between them stood that +keg of terrible possibilities. The girl lowered the torch until the +flame all but licked the wood of the keg; a dropping piece of charred +wood fell audibly against the side. Sancho's breath caught painfully; +Yellow Rufe's bloodshot eyes wavered. Still they held on. + +"Milo, I give thee freedom!" said Dolores in a low, distinct voice that +carried to their ears like the sound of a silver bell. "Farewell, +faithful friend!" + +The torch swept around, fanning to a blaze in the eddying air, then +darted toward the keg. And with a yell that echoed on deck and far out +over the sea, Yellow Rufe and Sancho turned and fled, fighting with each +other, as had their less bold fellows, for the precious air of safety. + +Dolores laughed contemptuously, flung the torch aside and bade Milo +trample it out, then she, too, ascended to the deck to view her victory. +The sea was dotted with swimming men, the beach was full of running men, +terrified men made the cliff resound with their cries. Then, sure that +the schooner was free of foes, Dolores looked toward the sloop, now +within hail of the schooner and coming fast with sail and sweeps, while +her crew stared over the low bulwarks in puzzlement as to the reason for +the hasty exodus from the strange craft. + +"Here, Milo, is fresh fare of trouble. Hast brought my own flag?" + +"Here, Sultana," replied Milo, taking a carefully folded silken banner +from a pocket in his leathern tunic. + +"Hoist it, then, at the main! Perhaps Hanglip and Caliban, Stumpy and +the rest of my brave jackals, will forego their expected meal at sight +of it. And send forth a shout for slaves; this vessel must be cleansed +and her people's wounds attended to." + +Up at the schooner's lofty main-truck the Sultana's private flag +fluttered out; the mark and sign of Dolores's ownership. And while three +anxious yachtsmen on the cliff-top waited for her return, a hundred and +twenty hungry and thirsty baffled ruffians on the sloop cursed her +vehemently in their hoarse, dry throats. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +DOLORES DELIVERS JUDGMENT. + + +On the level sward before the village the three yachtsmen paced back and +forth in an ecstasy of apprehension. Pascherette had left them, after +playing them like fish with her own charms and a hinted promise of +Dolores's favors as bait; and the moment they were alone Venner shook +off the spell in a resurging determination to attend to the safety of +his vessel in person. + +"Follow me, Pearse; come Tomlin!" he said. "We are three mad fools to +stand here while these pirates loot and wreck the Feu Follette!" + +Tomlin shuddered as he started to follow. Pearse kept silence, but did +not hesitate. But they had not stepped ten paces before they realized +fully the completeness of their helplessness, for Venner, first to +attempt the path down, was brought to a halt by a musket leveled at his +breast, the musketeer showing only his head and shoulders above the +cliff edge. And as Tomlin and Pearse came up, they, too, were abruptly +halted in like manner; and a grinning Carib motioned each back with an +unspoken command which was none the less inexorable. + +They returned to their first positions, and resumed their nervous walk, +condemning themselves as utter idiots for venturing unarmed into such a +nest of vipers at the urge of curiosity, novelty, feminine attraction, +greed--whatever their motives had been. And here Dolores came upon them, +while all about them swarmed the disgruntled pirates from the sloop, and +those of the mutineers whose abject fears warned them to take whatever +punishment their queen chose to mete out rather than to escape only to +be brought back to endure penalties immeasurably more terrible. + +Yellow Rufe and Sancho were not minded to stay, however; they had +vanished; and Dolores's keen eyes noted this the moment she surveyed the +scene. She walked swiftly to the door of the council hall, turned to +face the mob, and lifted an arm for attention. Then fell a hush full of +anxiety or terror, according to the degree of culpability in the +consciousness of her audience. + +"Summon every creature in the village," she cried, "and let no man or +woman dare to leave this place until ye hear my thoughts concerning this +day's work!" + +Men scattered eagerly through the huts, calling by name all who were not +present in the crowd, and presently more of the community came out, +their faces mostly reflecting the terror that was in their souls; for +none might ever foretell the moods of their queen. Inscrutable as night, +her eyes were like pools of violet shadow wherein lurked promise or +threat of unimaginable things; every line of her face and form was a +line of a riddle that could prove in the solution either magnificent +generosity, fearless justice, or implacable vengeance: like the +lightning, Dolores struck where she willed, and in what fashion she +chose; it was useless to attempt avoidance. + +Venner and his friends looked on curiously, a feeling akin to awe +pervading them at the increasing evidence before their eyes of the power +wielded by this splendid fury, they had yet to know. When all were +present, except those whose activities on the schooner had already +procured them a passport to another world, Dolores swept the crowd with +a penetrating glance and called for Milo, who appeared from the rear of +the council hall laden with chains and bilboes which he cast down at her +feet. Then the angry impatience of the disappointed sloop's crew proved +too intense, and Caliban bounded to the front, squealing shrilly: + +"The fiend may take you with your irons! Shall we, men who followed Red +Jabez through a sea of blood, cower to a woman of such soft mettle? +Dolores, queen or woman or wench, it is for you, not us, to explain. +Lads--" he shrieked, flashing about and haranguing his companions--"back +me in this. We will know why the sloop lacked powder; why to-day's work +has brought no reward!" + +The deformed little demon stepped back to the crowd, and paced to and +fro with feverish gestures, scowling blackly at every turn that brought +him face to face with Dolores. The packed mob milled and murmured, some +afraid, many of Caliban's mind yet not daring to openly support him. +Venner and his friends sensed the thrill of it, for their brief +experience of the pirate queen left them in slight doubt as to the +outcome of Caliban's speech. Dolores herself stood motionless for a full +minute after the hunchback ceased his defiance, and under her lowered, +heavily lashed eyelids the dark eyes seemed to slumber; only in her lips +was any trace of the alertness that governed her brain, and those +scarlet petals, which seemed to have been plucked from a love flower in +the garden of passion, slowly, almost imperceptibly parted, until the +dazzling teeth gleamed through in a smile that none might yet determine +whether soft or terrible. And as the seconds heaped suspense upon +suspense, the overbold Caliban was seized with a choking fear that he +was to pay the price. Then Dolores spoke, slowly, quietly, almost +soothingly; and those of her hardened ruffians who thought they knew her +best hung on her words in shivery uncertainty. + +"For those bold words, Caliban, my father had stripped thy poisonous +skin from thy putrid flesh. Yesterday thy queen might not have proved +more merciful. Yet do I know how thy disappointment chafes thy brave +soul, and because of that thy rash speech goes unpunished." The hush +intensified, for the leniency of Dolores was little less to be feared +than her fury. A smile of ineffable radiance broke over her beautiful +face, and she extended her right hand and said, still in the same slow, +even voice: "Come, Caliban. Thou art worthy of my mercy. Kneel, that I +may know thy heart is right." + +Now the suspense reached its climax. Somewhere behind those softly +spoken words surely lurked some awful, cunningly cloaked threat. +Caliban went white, ghastly; his brave tongue stuck to his palate, and +the thin lips slavered with growing panic. + +"Come, Caliban!" + +The girl's command was uttered no louder, her expression was unchanged; +in her glorious eyes gleamed no trace of anything other than benign +forgiveness; she remained motionless as before, with her rounded arm and +shapely hand extended in a manner that revealed their every perfection. + +"Come, Caliban!" + +Again the words fell from her smiling lips, and now the quivering +hunchback obeyed, drawn irresistibly by her magnetism, sick with dread +of the stroke he in common with all his mates expected to fall. + +"Kneel! See, I give thee my hand to kiss," Dolores said, and smiled upon +the cowering wretch with a tender brilliance that sent a tremendous +flutter through the hearts of the three yachtsmen. + +Caliban knelt and took the proffered hand, then at her word he stood +before her, scarcely certain yet that his head was solidly established +on his shoulders. She motioned him to stand on one side of her, then, +aglow with warm color, she addressed the puzzled throng: + +"My bold sea tigers, the ship that escaped thy sloop is but one ship. +The seas are full of such. Yet, until to-day, how many have ye been +forced to let go because of thy poor equipment in craft? Thy sloop, how +small, how old--yet what rich prey escaped thy guns since the Red +Chief's swift brig laid her bones here? None! Yet ye complain because I +prevented thee destroying the beautiful schooner the gods have this day +sent to us!" + +Now the purport of her speech struck home; the seemingly soft-brained +weakness that had forbidden the rape and pillage of the schooner stood +in part explained. And as the light filtered through thick skulls and +shone upon all but atrophied brains, a deep muttering swelled into the +embryo of a throaty cheer that needed but one look of encouragement from +Dolores to spring into noisy life. As for Venner, his expression was +reflected in Tomlin, and both in Pearse; and awakening or resurrected, +fear was the keynote of all. + +"The vampire means to suck us dry after all!" whispered Venner hoarsely. +His friends could only squeeze his arm in mute sympathy. They harbored +no doubts at all. + +Dolores went on: + +"With such a vessel as this"--pointing to the schooner--"that Indiaman +to-day had never shown heels. And more, how think ye my store is +replenished? Dost think I tap the rock for wine? Does Milo crush the +granite and bring forth meat for thy hungry bellies? Are my treasures +kept at high tide by snatching the colors from the sunset? Fools!" she +cried, and for a moment passion conquered her calm. "In that schooner +are wines that will make thy hot blood living flame; meats that will put +teeth into the throats of the toothless; treasures fit for thy queen's +treasury. And more to thy hand, my brave jackals, those pretty pieces of +ordnance, which the sun even now paints with liquid gold, will outrange +the guns of a king's ship." Pausing, she bent upon the murmuring crew a +look of blazing majesty; then concluded with a vibrant demand: "Now dost +know why thy queen withheld thy senseless hands from witless +destruction?" + +Her question was scarcely heard before the answer came. From a hundred +rusty throats pealed a huzzah that rolled out over the sea and sent the +sea-birds squawking with fright to more peaceful surroundings. + +"Dolores! Dolores! That's a queen for the tribe of Jolly Roger!" howled +Hanglip, and tumult rang again. + +The girl raised her hand, and silence fell once more. + +"Hear my judgment upon such of ye as are not of thy mind," she cried, +and now the smile had gone; her eyes flashed and the words fell red-hot +from her scornful lips. + +"I demand no tales from thy mouths. Hiding among these woods Yellow Rufe +and Sancho, he of the one eye and the mutilated hand, think to ward off +my vengeance. By meridian to-morrow I command those traitors to be +brought to me. Fail in this, and ye shall see that Dolores can be +terrible, too." + +The crowd took this as a dismissal, and broke into parties to scour the +woods. Only slaves and women remained, and Pascherette ran to her +mistress's side and whispered, with a sidelong look of coquettish +allurement at Venner and his friends. + +"Something about to happen!" Venner whispered, hoping that it might +prove something in recompense for his day of stress. Dolores cast a look +of cool indifference toward them and told Milo: + +"Put these strangers in separate chambers, Milo. Iron them securely and +look to it well. Thou art answerable for them." + +No more. She took Pascherette and departed. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE SULTANA DECIDES SEVERAL THINGS. + + +There was a moment of cruel amazement for Venner and the others when +Dolores had gone; then Milo, approaching with his irons and chains, +awoke the captives to resistance. + +"No chains for me, by God!" shouted Venner, crouching to ward off the +giant's approach. "Tomlin, Pearse, break for the schooner! I'll hold +this savage. We shall perhaps fail; but by the powers of justice we'll +go down fighting on our own ship!" + +He sprang at Milo as he spoke, and his friends hesitated. Milo, without +haste, without change of countenance, dropped his irons and reached +Venner with great deliberate strides. And in that momentary hesitation +Tomlin and Pearse were lost with their host; for the giant stretched out +one tremendous arm, seized Venner by the slack breast of his shirt, and +lifted him from the ground, flailing with both hands like some puny +child in the grip of his nurse. + +Milo spoke no word. He gave no more attention to Venner's futile blows +than to the whispering of the sands of the shore. But bearing ever +toward the other two men, now seemingly paralyzed out of all volition by +the awful exhibition of strength, he reached out with his free hand and +added Tomlin to his capture as he had taken Venner. + +Pearse might even now have made his bid for liberty; but he was no +coward to desert his companions. He uttered a choking cry of mingled +fear and defiance, and rushed in between his friends to swing a heavy +blow with his fist fair upon the giant's unprotected temple. Now Milo +gave sign of interest. He laughed: a deep, rumbling, pleasant laugh of +appreciation for the courage that prompted the blow; but he never +blinked at the impact, nor did he attempt to avoid another blow that +came swiftly. Simply putting forth a greater effort of muscle he swung +his two captives apart, held them at arm's length while the sinews of +his mighty chest and beamlike arms writhed and rippled like snakes, and +rushed upon Pearse with the terrible resistlessness of an avalanche. A +shower of blows pounded his face and breast as he closed, then he +laughed again; this time triumphantly; for Pearse was enfolded between +Venner and Tomlin in a hug that spelled suffocation did he persist in +his struggles. + +The swift conquest had taken but minutes; none but a few women of the +camp had seen it; and they, well used to such scenes, simply chattered +and smiled pityingly, not with pity for the men, but for the futility of +their resistance. Milo, scarcely breathing above normal, called loudly: +"Pascherette!" and gave his prisoners another quieting squeeze. + +Pascherette was with her mistress. She did not answer, and Milo called +again: "Pascherette!" + +The other women drew near, and on many a wickedly fair face shone a +light of hope that its wearer might serve in Pascherette's place, no +matter what the errand; for it was not the _petite_ golden octoroon +alone who had sighed for love of the giant. + +"Pascherette is with the Sultana, Milo. Let me answer for her," spoke +out a dark beauty whose sparkling eyes held the craft and wisdom of a +harpy. + +"I--" and "I--" came other voices, and the women gathered around. "What +do you need, good Milo?" + +"Open three chambers behind the council hall. In each must be a +fettering ring. Make speed. Go!" + +The women ran, and Milo made his capture more complete. Flinging the +three men down, breathless and numbed from his grasp, he swiftly +clapped leg-irons on them one after the other, then stood up, holding +the long chains together in one huge fist until the women cried out that +the chambers were ready. + +The bruised and subdued yachtsmen were placed in their separate cells, +fettered to great iron rings, and left to cogitate over their probable +fate. They were not even permitted the solace of intercourse; but as +each grew more accustomed to the gloom inside, he discerned that it was +no part of the plan to permit him to hunger or thirst, for a subtle +gleam of ruby light shot into each small room from an unseen source, +intensifying gradually and touched with its infernal radiance a small +tabouret on which stood a silver flagon and a dish of the same metal +containing meat. + +Milo went to the great chamber in the Cave of Terrible Things when the +doors had closed on his prisoners, and presented himself to Dolores. He +found Pascherette prostrate on the floor before the queen, whimpering +and sobbing with terror. Over her Dolores stood like Wrath in person, +her beautiful face distorted with passion, fire blazing in her eyes, her +breast heaving tumultuously. In her hand she held a cat-o'-nine-tails--a +dainty, vicious, splendid instrument of terror--formed of plaited human +hair of as many shades as thongs, studded with nuggets of gold instead +of lead--and none the less terrible for that--set in a cunningly carved +handle of ivory. And as Milo entered, she held the whip aloft in a +quivering hand, and cried to Pascherette: + +"Speak, or I flay thee, traitor! What wert telling the villain, Sancho?" + +Pascherette whined and cringed; she could not, or would not speak. The +whip quivered, was about to fall on those dainty bare shoulders, when +Milo, uttering a choking cry, flung himself forward and took the blow on +his face. Dolores started back, a thing of fury, as Milo cast himself at +her feet, his head on the ground, and said with submission: + +"Spare the child, Sultana. Let my back bear her penance. She is faithful +to thee." + +Dolores halted an instant between redoubled rage and mercy; then she +flung down the whip with a hard laugh, seated herself in the great +chair, and bade Milo and the girl rise and come to her. + +"Milo, thou'rt a fool!" she said. "Were thy brain as great as thy great +heart the world might well be thine. I tell thee, child or no child, +that chit is woman enough to have bound thee her slave. She is woman +enough, too, to hold secret converse with my foes. Do thou speak to her +now and learn for me what traffic she had with Sancho the morning after +I took her as my handmaid. I give thee scant time; if I learn it not +swiftly neither thou nor she shall leave this chamber alive!" + +With her giant beside her, Pascherette's fears subsided in part. She +peered up at him shyly and stepped closer to him, as if to seek actual +shelter from the storm that threatened her; but her frightened, +dependent demeanor was scarcely in accord with the new light that +glinted in her sharp eyes when she dropped them from his face again. +There was cunning and craft in them; the brazen assurance of a thief +whose conviction is prevented by a lucky mishap. + +She spoke rapidly, for his ears only, and her face drooped in an access +of confusion that, beautifully simulated, satisfied Milo and sent a warm +thrill into his honest breast. + +"Pascherette says she only gave Sancho his answer," Milo told Dolores. +"He had demanded her for his mate." + +"A pretty tale!" cried Dolores impatiently. "If that be all, why so +fearful of telling me, girl? Why did Sancho, who well knows the price, +join Rufe against me?" + +"I was afraid," murmured Pascherette with a pretty shiver. She summoned +a rosy blush to her piquant face and added in a still lower whisper: +"Thy anger terrified me, Sultana. My tongue was tied. And Sancho did +what he did in rage, in jealousy against Milo." + +The giant drew himself more erect, and his face became transfigured. If +in his great heart there remained any room after his devotion to his +mistress, cunning little Pascherette occupied it all when she uttered +the half-admission that Milo was her man. Dolores regarded the pair +silently; her expression changed slowly from irritation to query; from +unbelief to amusement, and after a moment's reflection she smiled +without softness and said: + +"Milo, I would do much for thee. For double dealing I have no mercy. If +thy love-bird would have me believe, if she is ought to thee, bid her +seek Sancho and bring him to me. Let her bring him at her own hands +before my hunters run him to earth, and I forgive thee both. She has +fooled thee; she can fool Sancho." + +Pascherette lighted up with something higher than hope: it was +certainty; and while it made Milo happy it did not escape Dolores, whose +dark-violet eyes once again became fathomless pools in which none might +read her thoughts. She waved them from her presence, and they went out +together, leaving her sitting motionless until the hangings fell behind +them. Then she sprang up, ran to a great mirror, and stood for many +moments regarding her lovely reflection. + +"Yes, thou art beautiful!" she apostrophised. "Beautiful as an artist's +dream. And for what? To queen it over these beasts! To be called +Sultana, and to be in truth a caged eagle. Of them all, who save loyal +Milo may I trust? Of them all, where is one whose blood mixed with mine +could produce aught but devils! Yet I must slink away in the night like +a whipped cur, or leave behind these treasures which alone can secure me +station in the outside world." She began to pace the great apartment, +oblivious of her surroundings, conscious only of a surging rebellion +against even the small necessity of biding her time. The day's +happenings on the schooner had shown her clearly the explosive condition +of her crew; she had no mistaken ideas that for her to load up the +schooner and sail away was simple. Further, she detected in recent +events a growing unrest among the band, the cause of which she had but +begun to fathom. Even now, through the tapestry sounding-stone, her +keenly attuned ears caught a note in the cries of returning woods +parties that told her how precarious was her sway over some of the more +turbulent spirits. + +"Before me they cringe like the dogs they are," she muttered, halting +again at the mirror. "Behind my back they snap like wolves. They shall +have their lesson quickly--such a one as the boldest of them shall +shriek mercy." She gazed intently into the mirror, as if she would read +therein an answer to her unspoken longing; then her eyes grew dark and +hard; her round, strong chin set stubbornly, and she whispered +intensely: "Pah! Cattle! They shall not alter my will to seek my +rightful place in the world of the white man! What avails it that in my +veins runs my mother's noble blood, the red chief's fiery courage, if +this nest of soulless brutes is to witness my life and my end? Among +those three white men is one who shall release me. They--ah, they are of +a whiter, cleaner mold! Theirs is the blood that matches mine! Let them +show me which is the stronger. He shall mate with me, and I will make +him a king indeed, even in his own land." + +Dolores stepped back panting. Then she controlled herself and began to +put on garment after garment, jewel after jewel, all of superlative +magnificence. Every moment she glided to the great mirror; as often she +tore off a garment or a jewel, flung it down impatiently, and seized +others from her boundless store. At last she stood clad like a fabled +daughter of old Bagdad; a robe of shimmering silk reached her ankles, +outlining every grace of her splendid figure; upon her head she had set +a tiara, priceless with gems whose fire dazzled even their wearer; on +arms and fingers, ankles and toes, lustrous rings and bracelets made +flashing lightning with her every movement; at her girdled waist was a +dagger whose sheath could have ransomed a prince. + +She stood like a statue, except for the rise and fall of her breast; her +eyes glittered at her gorgeous reflection in the mirror. Then suddenly +her expression changed, her lips parted in scorn, and with a savage, +tigerish gesture, she tore off her splendors. She stood once more in her +simple tunic of knee-length, sleeveless, beauty-revealing; and picking +up her dagger with the gold cord she knotted it about her waist and +again regarded herself closely. + +And where before she had looked upon a gorgeous woman, royally clad, +weighted with gems formed by man's art, now she gazed into the limpid, +fathomless eyes of a living goddess--royally clad in her own peerless +loveliness, crowned with a wealth of lustrous hair in which the gleams +of gold outshone the tiara she had discarded. And her face lighted; a +delicate flush overspread her cheeks; the full, luscious red lips parted +in a veritable Cupid's bow; and she laughed a rippling, heart-warming +laugh that brought the small, even teeth glistening into view. + +Dolores was satisfied at last. Without further hesitation she hurried +along to the rear of the chamber and emerged into the Grove of Mysteries +by way of a door known only to herself and Milo. From there she made her +way silently and darkly toward the council hall. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +A REED SHAKEN BY THE WINDS OF PASSION. + + +Rupert Venner sat on the floor of his prison, tugging at his chains with +an absent, aimless, all but perpetual motion; for he had long since +convinced himself that his fetters could not be broken or loosed. The +ruby light that had shown him the food and wine placed for him had faded +away to the faintest red glow which scarcely sufficed to reach the +tabouret. That mattered little; Venner had eaten when he was hungry, +drunk when dry, and knew the position of the flagon and dish to the +ultimate inch. He was not caring about the light. His mind was filled to +the exclusion of all else with his plight and the predicament of his +schooner. + +"Confound me for a fool!" he mused aloud, gritting his teeth savagely. +"Led by the nose by a saucy little chit who knows how to display her +charms as well as her pearls!" + +He pondered over his situation with growing irritation; for he knew only +too well that his release could never be obtained by bribery; his keen +sense of values told him that neither in the yacht or at home could he +match the treasures he had already seen on the persons of Dolores, and +Pascherette, and the other women of the camp. Yet he tried to console +himself that after all these things might be displayed for his +impression; might in fact be the entire store of the pirate queen, +displayed for one gaudy, overpowering effect. + +"That's it!" he cried, striking fist to palm. "Just a theatrical trick. +That little jade, Pascherette, will sell her dark little soul for +diamonds or pearls, I'll wager, and she shall sell me liberty. Then I'll +see the queen creature, gaining entry by the same medium, and we shall +see if cultivated wits are not a match for this wild beauty." + +With something very like a smile of resignation Venner stretched himself +on the floor and composed himself to rest. He was quite certain that +Pascherette could be reached through his jailer, whoever that might +be--Milo or somebody else--and the entire plan seemed to him beautifully +simple and infallible. He dozed, awoke, dozed again, and the ruby light +seemed to intensify each time his eyes opened. Gradually the shaft of +light grew so strong that, focused on his closed eyes, it forced him to +full wakefulness; and now he stared hard at it, blinking, hypnotized by +the trembling radiance that seemed to shoot out from the main shaft +until a great moving circle of light appeared before him. And out from +the midst of the light stepped Dolores, bewitching, irresistible, +smiling down upon him with a tenderness that filled him with awe. + +Amazed, dazzled, the man sat up, quivering with a sensation that rippled +at his hair-roots and sent the blood singing to finger and toe-tips. And +Dolores, with one forefinger at her scarlet lips to enjoin silence, +glided toward him with her inimitable grace, and knelt before him +shaking her head and starting him on the way to intoxication with the +touch of her wonderful hair. + +"My friend, I grieve that thou art here," she said, and her glowing eyes +thrilled him afresh. "Wilt thou believe that it is necessary for a +while?" + +"Necessary?" repeated Venner, dazedly. He strove hard to burst into +angry protest, but his tongue refused to utter the harsh words in the +face of such a creature of beauty. "I don't understand why it is +necessary at all, lady. It is no choice of mine, or my friends, that our +schooner is aground and we are your prisoners!" + +"Ah, my friend, thou shalt understand," she answered, and laid a hand on +his shoulder, making his senses swim with the fragrance of her breath. +"But this is for thy ears alone. Thou wilt respect my confidence?" +Venner nodded, wondering if, after all, the adventure might not turn out +well. With Dolores so close to him that he could hear her tunic rustling +to her deep, even breathing, that her loosened hair continually brushed +his face, he would have nodded assent had she offered him a piece of +charcoal for his immortal soul. "Then listen, man of my own people. A +longing gnaws at my heart--this heart that beats under thy hand"--she +took his hand with a swift movement and pressed it to her breast--"a +longing to go far from this place and these brutish people, to thy land +and the land to which I belong. + +"And now must I say why thy ship is here? It is because I have chosen +thee, my friend, to free me from this detestable bondage." She paused +for a breath, leaning closer to him, then asked with a sudden grip of +his hand at her breast: "Wilt take me out into thy world?" + +Venner shifted uneasily beneath her blazing eyes. His soul was in +torment with the touch of her; yet somewhere back of his trained brain +lingered a spark of wit not yet extinguished along with his other wits +by her spell. He lowered his gaze and said: + +"Was there need to murder my crew, wreck my vessel, and fling me and my +friends into these cells? Could not you, who are queen here, board my +schooner yourself and ask a passage?" + +"The murder of thy crew was not of my seeking. And thinkest thou I would +go from here leaving behind my treasures? Or dost fancy my rascals would +permit me to carry them away? No, friend, it is not so simple. The man +who aids me to attain my desire must be strong and wise and true. He +shall mate with me, and my treasures shall be his. That is why I have +chosen thee." + +"That requires thought, lady," returned Venner, half-heartedly. "I would +assist you in getting free from this, since you wish it; but as for +mating or marriage, why, there is a woman at home waiting for me." + +"Woman!" Dolores cried with scorn. "Woman! I am Dolores!" She swayed +toward him, her arms went about his neck, and slowly, slowly her +glorious eyes fastened on his, her moist, warm lips sought his in a kiss +that dragged at his soul's foundations. + +"Canst refuse me?" she laughed softly, drawing back her head and peering +at him from under lowered lids. "See, I trust thee utterly!" Snatching +her dagger from the sheath she placed it in his right hand; then, with a +key from her girdle, she unfastened his chains and swayed back, still +kneeling. She clutched the single shoulder-strap of her tunic, tore it +from her bosom, and flung both arms wide apart. "See!" she whispered, +and Rupert Venner flung away the dagger, stumbled to his feet, and swept +her into his crushing embrace while she abandoned herself to him with a +long, quivering sigh. + +"By the gods!" he swore hoarsely, "show me what I have to do. Wonderful, +wonderful Dolores!" + +"Patience," she smiled, resting her head on his breast. "First tell me +thy name. What shall thy Dolores call thee?" + +"I am Rupert. Call me slave!" + +"Rupert. It is a name to love. Slave? Nay, it is I who shall be slave to +thee. But patience again, Rupert. When we two go from here, there can be +no other to share our secret; none save the slaves that I shall place in +thy ship to replace thy dead crew. Thy friends may not go. They must not +live to see thee go!" + +Venner shivered, and drew back, holding her at arms' length and staring +at her in horror. + +"What are you saying, Dolores?" he gasped. "My friends are to die?" + +"Yes, and by thy hand, my Rupert. For how else may I know thou are +worthy to be mate to a queen?" + +"Now, by Heaven! Witch, siren, whatever you are, my madness has passed!" +he cried. "Not for the key to a paradise peopled with such as you would +I do this!" He stepped aside, picked up her dagger, and glared at her +with steely eyes. + +Dolores laughed at him: a low, throaty little laugh that went clear to +his brain and set it on fire again. Yet, nerving himself against her, he +stood erect, dagger in hand, and met the blaze of her dusky eyes +bravely. He shivered violently when her rich voice thrilled his tingling +ears. + +"Hah, my Rupert, thou'rt not yet tamed. Let me show thee thy master!" + +With the words she reached him with her subtle, tigerish glide, swiftly, +startlingly, and with the dart of a cobra her hand gripped his which +held the dagger. Her warm body again pressed closely to him, her red +lips, parted still, almost touched his cheek; her hair smothered him +with its fragrance; and while his senses swam her supple muscles tensed +to living steel wire, her grip tightened and twisted at his wrist, and +the dagger was wrenched from his fingers. Then leaping back, laughing +mockingly now, Dolores slipped the dagger into the sheath, snatched up +the chains from the floor, and flew upon him with a deadly pounce that +bore him back to the wall. + +Aroused from his numbness, Rupert Venner fought back furiously, +humiliated, and ashamed. Whether he would or not, he forgot all his +chivalry, and strove to meet this appalling woman with strength against +strength; but in Dolores he met a thing of wire and whipcord where +moments before had been a creature of warm softnesses; a being of feline +agility, and devilish skill that reflected the devilish skill of her +teacher, Milo. The chain-links tinkled and clashed against their swaying +bodies, but she never let them fall; they hung from her girdle; her +hands were free; and she had both his wrists in a grip that outrivaled +the irons. Laughing, ever laughing, her hot breath playing over his +face, she placed one foot behind one of his, surged toward him heavily, +and, when his arms would have involuntarily gone out to preserve his +footing, she subtly twisted them back and up from the elbows, until she +rested against his chest with her bare arms tightly about his body. + +Now her head, with the gold circlet about the brows, pressed hard +against his chin. Her hair was in his mouth, tendrils of it stung his +eyes, but the gold band numbed his flesh and bruised the bone. Upward, +ever upward, she forced his chin until his neck was cracking with the +strain and he choked for breath. Then she suddenly relaxed. Her arms +left him, her wickedly lovely face once more smiled into his starting +eyes, and she took the chain from her girdle with leisurely swiftness, +falling to her knees at his feet. + +"There, my friend, thou art back in thy place!" she said, snapping on +his ankle irons. "Spend the night in thought, good Rupert. To-morrow I +shall come to thee again for thy decision. Now, pleasant dreams, +my--lover!" she whispered, suddenly slipping her arms about his neck +again and pulling his head hard against her panting breast. She softly +kissed his hair, then pressed back his head and kissed his lips long and +passionately. + +"Good night, beloved!" she said, and passed out of the room, leaving +behind the echoes of a rippling little laugh that set Venner's blood to +leaping. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +PASCHERETTE UNVEILS HER PURPOSE. + + +Milo and Pascherette stood outside the rock portals of the great chamber +after their dismissal by Dolores, and the giant's face wore a look of +perplexity which was not reflected in the little octoroon. If her task +was difficult, Pascherette seemed not in the least disturbed; rather in +her sharp eyes lurked something of bravado at having escaped her +mistress's anger so easily. And this expression perplexed Milo. + +"Art sure of thyself, Pascherette?" asked the giant, ill at ease for his +little companion. + +"Why not?" she laughed, peering up at his troubled face impudently. +"Thinkest thou Pascherette is a fool?" + +"No, thou art not a fool," replied Milo slowly. He laid a heavy hand on +her shoulder, turned her around to face the faint light remaining, and +gazed hard into her bright eyes. "Thou art not a fool, little one. But +Sancho--is it so simple to find him?" + +"Big, childish Milo!" she cried with a laugh that had no joy in it. +"Dost think I feared that verdict of Dolores? No. I fear her whip only. +My flesh creeps even now at thought of my poor shoulders hadst thou not +appeared in time. Sancho? Pah! I can find him easily enough." + +"Then, child, was there nothing in thy traffic with him save what I +heard from thy lips?" + +Pascherette looked down, tapping the sand with her tiny foot, and her +breast fluttered in agitation. Then she slipped her hand into his, +looked up shyly yet ardently into his eyes, and replied swift and low: + +"Milo, my love for thee must be my defense. I did have traffic with +Sancho, to the end that we--thee and me--might use him to our advantage. +Wait!" she cried, when he would have spoken, "hear me. Canst not see +Dolores's cunning intention? She goes from here, carrying her treasure; +what will she do with thee, once safely away? Will she carry thee always +with her, to be marked because of thy great stature? No, Milo, thy life +will pay for her desertion of her people, and she will laugh at thy +passing. And why should it be? Here, thou and I can rule these cattle as +she never could. With Sancho's deserters, and Rufe's followers, I can +give thee a band that will force the treasure from her greedy grasp, and +make of her what she has made of thee and me--a slave!" + +"Girl!" Milo's deep voice vibrated with passionate horror. "Cease thy +treason, or I crush thy wicked heart in these two hands. Dolores is +mistress of my soul--my body is but the slave of that." + +"Pish!" retorted Pascherette, contemptuously. "She has thee dazzled, +Milo. Say, dost thou not love me?" she demanded, standing tiptoe and +thrusting her piquant little face under his gaze. "Look in my eyes, and +then tell me another woman owns thy soul!" + +"Yes, I love thee," replied Milo, with simple earnestness. "I love thee; +yet will I kill thee ere Dolores suffers ill through thy scheming. Have +done with this talk. I hate thee for it!" + +"Love--and hate!" she laughed metallically. "Loving me, still thou hast +room to love another better. Hate and love! Thou great fool, it cannot +be!" + +"Pascherette, I love thee. Thou'rt entangled in my heart-strings. When I +hate thee, it is because of that love, which will not brook treason in +thee. Again, I love thee, golden girl; but, forget it not, I worship +Dolores as I worship my gods!" + +"Then wilt thou not seek her power for thyself?" whispered the girl +subduedly, awed for the moment by his tremendous and solemn earnestness. + +"Little one, bring Sancho as she bade thee. He has merited punishment. +Yet tell him the Sultana will be just. His punishment will but fit the +fault. Afterward we two will talk together, and I shall teach thee +loyalty. Go now, bring thy man to the council hall. I shall await thee. +Stay, I shall come with thee, for the woods are dark, and a storm +threatens." + +"I go alone, Milo. He will fly from thee. Have no fear for me; the woods +are safe, and the storm is in thy great head only." + +The girl turned, kissed her hand airily, and ran into the gloom of the +forest. And as she went she laughed again harshly and muttered: "The +great clod! His worship overtops his love. But I shall make love overtop +worship yet, my giant! Such a man--a slave? Not for a thousand +Doloreses! Wait, Milo; wait, my mistress!" + +The evening breeze had strengthened as darkness fell, and its breath was +hot and sultry. As Pascherette plunged deeper into the woods, the heavy +boom of the seas along shore died away and gave place to the softer, +more vibrant hum and murmur of the great trees. The track, little more +than a line of flattened underbrush, vanished before she had gone fifty +yards; but the little octoroon was no stranger to nocturnal rambles, her +keen eyes, and, keener still, her sense of direction, led her unerringly +through the shades toward the rearward spur of the granite cliff. +Creepers and hanging mosses brushed her face and limbs; alone she might +have ignored them; but there was a quality in the sighing and rustling +about her that seemed to give voices to the ghostly fingers that +touched her, and to support her courage as well as to warn Sancho of +her coming, she thrilled forth a merry little snatch of song: + + "Ho! for the Jolly Roger lads; + Ho! for the decks red-streaming. + A pirate's lass is a well-lov'd lass, + And there's gold through the red a gleaming! + + "Ho! for a cask in the fire's red glow; + Ho! for the heaps of plunder. + There are showers of pearls for the pirates' girls-- + The rain from the corsair's thunder!" + +At the end of her song Pascherette halted, listened, then called softly: + +"Sancho! Thy Pascherette calls!" + +Silence prevailed for several moments, and she called again, fearing +that her voice had gone astray amid the increasing confusion of the +trees. Then came a lull in the wind, the lull that always punctuated the +gathering of such tropical storms as now threatened; and in the hush she +heard voices--uncertain, disputing. Then Sancho growled, close to her +ear: + +"Art alone, jade?" + +"Oh, Sancho!" she cried, darting into the gloom to the sound of his +voice and flinging her arms about him. "I have feared for thee, my +Sancho. Now I fear no more, for all is well." + +"Well?" the pirate growled suspiciously. "Hast left thy hot-blood +mistress, then?" + +"No, Sancho. It is better for thee even than that. I have made thy peace +with Dolores. She has forgiven thee, and wishes to tell thee so." + +A fervid curse burst from some one yet invisible, and Sancho leaned back +to catch some whispered words. Then he, too, ripped out an oath, and +gripped Pascherette tightly by the arm. + +"This is a trick, little devil! Don't you value that pretty little head +more than to trifle with me?" + +"I trifle with thee? Thou art mad, Sancho!" she cried. "Did I lie when I +said I loved thee, then?" + +"The fiend knows! I know 'tis plaguey risky for thee if thou didst!" + +"Unbeliever!" whispered Pascherette with thrilling emphasis. "Shall I +tell thee again, in language even thy stubborn soul must believe?" + +The girl suddenly glided inside his arms, flung up her hands, each +clutching a mass of her glossy, scented hair, and enmeshed his +disfigured face. Then, straining upward from her small height, her rosy, +false lips sought his and fastened there while he staggered as if drunk. + +"There, heart o' mine!" she panted. "Dost believe now? Or must I tell +thee again that with such love as mine proud Dolores cannot hurt thee. +Come! Such a chance will never come thy way again. Man! 'Tis her +confidence Dolores offers thee. Shall it go begging because of thy +madness?" + +"Pascherette!" returned Sancho hoarsely. "I will go with thee. But, +girl, thy heart's blood pours at first sign of treachery! Mark that +well. And tell me now, does Yellow Rufe share in this mercy?" + +"No, Sancho. It cannot be. Dolores has sworn to hunt him down; the woods +are full of men even now, seeking him and thee. Only by going with me +wilt thou escape them and have advantage from my pleading with the +queen." She drew his head down to her ear, and whispered rapidly. Doubt, +then admiration, crept into Sancho's voice as he said: "Dost think it +can be done? Can he gain the sloop unseen?" + +"I will make it easy, Sancho. Bid Rufe have no fear. The storm will be +upon us within an hour. It is dark; there is wind aplenty. With six men +he may win clear; and listen: If he is stout of heart, what is to stop +him taking tribute from the stranger's white vessel?" + +"Lack o' powder, girl," returned Sancho angrily. "Thy mistress keeps us +short of powder, as well thou dost know, lest we become too strong for +her. Who of us has ever seen the store? Not I, by Satan! Canst thou get +powder and shot for Rufe?" + +"Simpleton! Can he not get with steel all he wants from the schooner?" + +"By the heart of Portuguez, he can!" cried another voice, and Yellow +Rufe strode through the bushes. + +"Rufe!" exclaimed the girl, feigning astonishment. Her ears were too +keen not to have caught Rufe's voice in the whispering that had gone +on. + +"Yes, Rufe, and obliged to thee, Pascherette. Dost say thou wilt help me +win away?" + +"Gladly, Rufe, for I like well men of your mettle. Follow close behind +Sancho and me. Count ten score after we go in to Dolores with Milo, then +for an hour thou'lt have the sea to thyself. Luck go with thee, Rufe; +thou'lt think of little Pascherette sometimes, I'll warrant." + +A rumble of thunder rolled up from the sea, and lightning played in the +tree-tops. Pascherette turned back toward the camp, and giving no heed +to Sancho save to listen for his footsteps, she ran through the darkness +sure-footed, sure-eyed as a cat. Rain began to fall, and the heavy +foliage thrummed with the growing downpour which yet did not penetrate +to the earth. As they neared the shore, the forest resounded with the +solemn boom and crash of long-sweeping seas outside the bar; the wind +screamed among the huts; all the women and those men who had returned +from their portion of the search were snugly under cover. The place +seemed deserted. + +"Farewell, Rufe," Pascherette whispered at last, when the great black +mass of the council hall loomed against the sky in a lightning flash. +"Count ten score. Thy safety is in my hands." + +Then she took Sancho by the hand, and led him through the plashing rain +to the rear of the hall and called softly: "Milo!" + +"Here. Hast found him?" + +"Take us to the Sultana quickly, Milo. I have told Sancho to trust in +the justice of Dolores." + +"He may well do that," returned Milo. "The great Sultana is ever just." + +"Yes, have no fear, good Sancho. I am Justice itself!" rejoined the +mellow voice of Dolores in person, who had a few moments before left +Rupert Venner. "Milo, I am minded to give Sancho proof of my mercy, +since he already believes in my justice. Open the great chamber. Sancho, +canst guess the honor I propose to do thee?" + +"No, lady," replied Sancho, an awful dryness gripping his throat. + +"Hast ever hungered for sight of the great chamber?" She paused smiling +at the uneasy pirate, who could not answer. "Of course thou hast," she +replied for him. "Which of my rogues has not? I am minded to show thee +this mark of my love, since thy conscience permitted thee to return +here. Hast any fear of the saying the Red Chief uttered? That none might +enter the great chamber and live?" + +Sancho suddenly sprang to life. His face was distorted; when the +lightning flashed it revealed him a ghastly picture of apprehension. + +"I will not go there! I have no wish to see what my eyes are forbidden +to see. I never sought to enter, Sultana. It was the others!" + +"Yes, Sancho, the others. That is why I select thee for the honor, +because thou wert patient. Come. I promise thee thy life is safe." + +Dolores passed on toward the great stone, where Milo stood guard over +the opened portals. Sancho, trembling violently, was drawn irresistibly +after her, partly fascinated by her calm strength, partly influenced by +the soft fingers and whispered prattle of Pascherette, who strove to set +him aflame with mention of some of the wonders he was to see. + +He paused at the rock door, glancing around with a vague premonition of +evil; but now it was Dolores's hand that took his; Dolores's rich voice +that lured him on; and he stepped after her, smothering a sob of +resurging terror as the great stone fell into its place behind. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +SANCHO SETTLES HIS ACCOUNT. + + +In the rock passage the hush was complete. For the space of ten long +breaths Sancho stood quivering under the weird spell of the infernal red +radiance from the hidden lights, while almost invisible ahead of him +Dolores bent to listen to a last moment's communication from +Pascherette. With Milo behind him, and the great unknown ahead, the +pirate's usual fierce courage oozed out through his boots. Yet he was +hypnotized by the vague glitter that shone at the end of the tunnel--the +glitter, though he knew it not yet, of the great sliding door to the +inner mystery. + +Suddenly the mighty rock reverberated and shook to a Titanic volley of +thunder, and Sancho shrieked with nervous terror. His shriek was echoed +by a rippling laugh from Dolores, and she came back swiftly toward him, +pushing Pascherette before her. She handed the little octoroon on to +Milo, and said, with a kindly pat on the girl's head: "Open, Milo, and +let thy sweetheart complete her good works. Now I shall have none but +faithful friends about me. Pascherette, thou'rt more than forgiven: +thou'rt my good friend. I shall reward thee fittingly when"--she smiled +dazzlingly at Sancho--"I have rewarded Sancho." + +The rock door rolled aside, and Pascherette passed out into the storm. +Sancho's nerves gave way utterly now, and he rushed toward the opening, +screaming: "Let me out! I want air! I want none of the great chamber! +Let me pass!" + +Milo again let fall the rock, pressed a huge hand on Sancho's breast, +and pushed him back, saying: "Peace, fool! Go with thy mistress. Thine +eye will never again witness the like. Go, I tell thee. Dost fear the +Sultana's justice?" + +"Come, Sancho. Thou'lt be a marked man among thy fellows when I have +shown thee what they yearn to see." + +Dolores again took his hand, bent her glorious eyes full upon him, and +Sancho followed her like a sheep, straight to the great door under the +jeweled yellow lantern, where he stood, stupefied with awe at the +barbaric splendors revealed. + +His lips went dry, and he licked them feverishly; his single eye blazed +with avarice; the two fingers and mutilated thumb of his right hand +worked convulsively, as if he would tear the gems and plate from the +door. And Dolores watched him from under lowered lids, her rich red lips +curled scornfully, one hand half raised to warn Milo to open the great +door slowly. + +"Well, Sancho, art better prepared for the greater treasures yet to be +seen?" smiled Dolores. The pirate's blazing eye seemed to dart flames as +the door slowly rose to Milo's touch. + +"Sultana!" he gasped, and his speech would do no more for him. + +"Enter, friend. This is thy great hour!" + +The queen pushed him gently inside, following herself, and Milo let fall +the door again, standing mute and motionless on the inside while his +mistress led the pirate to the center of the great chamber and waited +until his dazzled eye adjusted itself to the subtle lighting effects. + +Pascherette's last whispered communication to Dolores had told her of +Yellow Rufe's intentions; and while Sancho stood in amaze, she bent her +ear to catch the expected sound of voices through the sounding-stone +behind the tapestry. For there the little octoroon was to play a part +for Sancho's especial benefit. The thunder had become all but incessant; +with every crash the great chamber rumbled and echoed eerily; yet +between the crashes, brief as the periods were, human voices could be +heard. + +"Art ready to see my treasures, Sancho?" + +Dolores waved a gleaming arm around the place, indicating with one wide +gesture the glories of the walls and roof. But the pirate's senses +responded more readily to the tangible riches represented by gold and +gems, tall flagons, and jewel-incrusted lamps, littered diamonds and +rubies that strewed the big table. + +"Hah!" cried Dolores, with a low, throaty laugh. "Ah! my friend, I know +thy mind. Milo!" + +Milo advanced with a deep obeisance. + +"Milo, open the great chests for Sancho. Let him plunge his arms to the +elbows in red gold. Then I shall show him that which lies nearest to his +deserts." + +The pirate watched with lips no longer dry, but dripping with the saliva +of greed, while Milo flung open chest after chest, full to overflowing +with minted gold of many nations; looted jewels of royal and noble +houses, sacred vessels and glittering orders, weapons whose hilts and +scabbards, if ever made for use, could only have been used to bewilder +the eye and senses. + +Again the thunder pealed; and in the tremendous hush succeeding, the +voices outside penetrated the sounding-stone in more than a whisper. +Sancho jerked up his head and fear once more shone in his single eye. + +"Come, good Sancho," purred Dolores, running her soft hand down his bare +forearm. "Art frightened by petty noises, then? Plunge thy hands deep, +man! All thou canst grasp is thine for so long as thy eye can enjoy or +thy hands fondle." + +Now Sancho's sordid soul surrendered. His greed conquered fear, and he +delved deep into a coffer, chattering the while with frenzy. And now +when the thunder rolled, his ears heard it not. He drew forth his hands, +and a glittering mass of wealth fell about his feet. He glared up at +Dolores, laughing ghoulishly. + +"That is well, Sancho," Dolores said, and took his hand. "Now I will +show thee the rest; and I know thou'lt never tell of it. I trust thee. +Come. Put thy ear to this tapestry, and tell me what thou canst hear." + +Sancho laid his ear to the cloth, and his eye gleamed brightly. Milo +stepped silently behind him. + +"I hear Hanglip!" he gasped. "Is he, too, here?" + +"He is outside the cliff. But whom else canst hear?" + +"I hear Caliban--Spotted Dog--Stumpy--I hear a score as if they stood by +my side! And Pascherette! By the fiend! She has played Rufe a trick! And +me--" He sprang from the wall like a tiger, snatching at his weaponless +belt with slavering fury, to be gathered at once into the remorseless +hug of Milo. And he glared full into the mocking face of Dolores--soft +and generous no more, but the embodiment of awful vengeance. + +For many seconds she stood regarding him contemptuously, until he +subsided helplessly in Milo's grasp; then, motioning the giant to +follow, she passed along and stopped before a life-size painting of "The +Sleeping Venus" in a massive, gilded frame. With one hand raised high at +the side, she turned a pulley-catch, and the great picture slowly fell +forward from the top until it rested slopingly on the floor, forming an +inclined entrance to a gloomy passage, dimly touched by a dark-red glow. + +This was the secret outlet to the great chamber by which Milo had access +to the altar in the grove at such times as his aid was needed to +support Dolores in some exhibition of black magic. She stepped swiftly +along the passage, giving no further heed to the panic-stricken pirate +until Milo had carried and dragged him to where she awaited him. This +was still another dark excavation, running deeper yet into the bowels of +the cliff; and the devilish red glare was here intensified until +surrounding objects were vividly revealed. + +"Now hear the doom of a traitor!" cried Dolores, with haughty mien. +"What! Not a traitor?" she mocked at the pirate's frantic howl of +denial. "Then Dolores has erred, perhaps. There is a test, good Sancho. +Let me see if I am wrong!" + +She signed to Milo, and the giant swung Sancho around until he faced the +deepest recess of the cave. There, swathed in mummy clothes, preserved +by the chemical miracle of the stratum of red earth that formed the core +of the rock, the body of Red Jabez stood erect against the wall, bathed +in the red glow, diamonds glittering where the dead eyes had been. And +on the rock ledge at his feet stood a tall flagon of gold, in which +Dolores had brewed an awful potion for this event. Beside this ledge +stood a low brazier full of glowing charcoal; on a tabouret near by lay +several terrible implements the use of which needed no explanation. + +"Look upon the face of the Red Chief, and drink this draft--'tis his +blood!" she cried, seizing the flagon and thrusting it into Sancho's +hands. "Then, if thy heart held no treachery toward me, thy life and +limbs are safe. But have a care! A lie in thy heart will surely undo +thee. Drink!" + +A splitting thunder-crash filled the place with uproar; a gust of the +tempest from the outer entrance sent the wind swirling in. It was as if +the breath of the storm snatched Sancho's senses back from the +terror-land they had fled to; he ceased his howling, glared defiantly up +at the dead chief, and cried in desperation: "Give me the drink! I fear +neither gods nor devils; why should I fear you, dead man?" + +"Wait!" Dolores laid a hand on his arm, and stayed the flagon at his +lips. "Wait, till I tell thee more. Then, if thou art guiltless, and go +from here with the treasure I gave thee, thou'lt know thy friends and +thy foes. + +"Didst think Yellow Rufe was free? Thou fool! Thy wits are powerless +before a woman's. Did my pretty Pascherette tell him he might go free, +taking my sloop, escaping my vengeance, as thou didst think to? Didst +hear those voices? Then I tell thee, Sancho, that ten-score count, that +Rufe doubtless made in fear and trembling, but sufficed to raise his +hopes. For ere he had gained the sloop and started her anchor, +Pascherette had done her work. The stranger's schooner is full of my +men, waiting for Rufe to come for his booty. Let him take alarm, then +how far may he win? Thou'lt never know, false Sancho, for I have no +doubt of thy treachery. Now drink, if thou darest!" + +"Then, by the fiend, I dare!" shouted the pirate. Something in the tang +of the gale sweeping in from the unseen entrance reassured him of the +existence of the outer world; persuaded him that by taking a desperate +chance he might yet throw dust in the eyes of this terrible woman and go +hence with the secret of the great chamber. "I dare, Dolores! Blood, d' +ye say? What fitter drink for a pirate?" + +He lifted the flagon, took a deep draft in great gulps, so that his +determination might carry him; then his eye sparkled, he took the flagon +from his lips, and grinned at Milo. "By the great Red Chief!" he cried. +"This is justice indeed! I drink to ye, Sultana, and to Milo, ye big +jester!" and finished the drink with a greedy swallow. + +Then the flagon clattered to the ground, Sancho's face went livid, and +his mouth opened wide and loosely, as his body and limbs were seized +with subtle pains. His brain, too, felt an awful numbness creeping upon +it; for the draft had done its work. The rarest of wine from her store, +Dolores had mingled with it a devilish powder that first sapped the +strength, then attacked the brain, and eventually snapped the cord of +intelligence, leaving the victim a driveling imbecile. But that point +had not yet been reached. It would come perhaps in one hour, two, three, +perhaps six--but inevitably it must come. For the present the pirate +was simply in the grip of the unknown, yet having full power to realize, +but not resist, the tangible terrors at hand. + +"Milo, hasten the rest. I shall await thee at the gate. Put forth this +traitor by the Grove outlet, and see to it that he takes with him +neither power to see beauty, to utter treason, or to ever feel again the +scalding touch of coveted gold. Make speed, I command thee, for I hear +my stout trusty ones clamoring for the chase!" + +Dolores disappeared through the secret outlet, sprang down behind the +altar, and ran through the Grove. Beside the cliff were huddled Hanglip +and Stumpy, Caliban, and Spotted Dog, drenched with the teeming rain, +restless with impatience, peering ever to seaward in the lightning +flashes that continually illumined the scene. + +Among them Dolores appeared, suddenly, mysteriously, as coming from the +skies, and after a choke of amazement Stumpy flung a hand seaward, and +shouted above the turmoil of wind and rain: + +"Queen o' Night, thou'lt need thy magic now! See, there flies the +villain!" + +Dolores looked, and smiled disdainfully. The torrential rain beat upon +her bare head and shoulders, causing her to glisten and shine like a +golden goddess; but she heeded it not at all; her eyes sought out what +Stumpy had indicated. And there, in the next lightning-flash, flying +seaward, was the sloop. Rufe had taken alarm, and had foregone his plan +of looting the schooner. + +"Let him go; he'll fly not far," she said calmly. "Come with me to the +great rock, my bold fellows; daylight shall show thee Rufe where I would +have him--paying the price, as Sancho has paid!" + +She glided around the rock, followed by her silent faithfuls, while from +the Grove rang a shriek of mortal agony that sent fierce hearts aquiver +with terror. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +DOLORES FLOATS THE FEU FOLLETTE. + + +"Hell's breath!" screamed Caliban, as the cry rang out. "Have ye devils +in the Grove, mistress?" Hanglip and Spotted Dog, too, cringed back in +fright. Stumpy concealed his uneasiness, yet his eyes searched Dolores's +face questingly. None truly believed in the queen's magic powers; yet +none was bold enough to openly avow his unbelief; and the added grimness +of the storm, assisted by the unearthliness of that howl of anguish, +brought the four godless pirates to the verge of superstitious terror. + +"Yes, I keep my devils there," replied Dolores; "and that is the traitor +Sancho answering to them for his perfidy. So watch, and obey me, lest +thy cries, too, go up from my altar!" + +She stood apart at the great stone, listening, and presently Milo rolled +up the rock barrier, and appeared in the gloom, calm and cool as if he +had no association with devils, imaginary or otherwise. A livid +lightning-flash played on his features, and the pirates drew back, +muttering at his black eyes which glowed with red points like rubies in +the heart of twin coals. + +"Milo, there flies Rufe," said Dolores, flinging an arm seaward. Beyond +the false point, in the midst of black seas dappled with rushing +white-horses, under a lowering black sky that seemed to lean down to the +verge of the ocean itself, Rufe's sloop was pictured in the next flash +of electric radiance a thing of desolation and panic. Fully a mile away, +the craft vanished in the pervading blackness between every flash. "I +need thy condor's vision now as never before. Take the swift, small +sailboat, and flares; follow the sloop as long as thy eyes can pick her +out; we shall follow thy flares in the schooner until we overtake thee. +Haste now; Rufe has grace enough!" + +Milo stayed only to get his flare-powder and tinder-box, then +disappeared down the cliff. + +Dolores despatched her four attendants to the schooner, prepared to +follow, then, with an afterthought, halted two of them. + +"Here, Hanglip, Spotted Dog, wait!" She swiftly entered the council +hall, went to the three small chambers, and released her captives from +the ring-bolts. Driving them before her, bewildered by the sudden +emergence from tranquillity to the turmoil of the storm, she gave the +two pirates each a chain, held the other herself, and led the way down +to the stranded schooner. Her motive was not only uncertainty about the +people left at the camp, who might prove susceptible to bribery if not +pity; she also felt a sort of whimsical desire to impress these +strangers with the utter inevitability of her power. + +The Feu Follette lay on the edge of the bar, as she had lain since +stranding, except that with tide after tide her keel had worn itself a +place in the sand, and she was less closely held than before. Of her +rightful crew but five survived the fight; one was the sailing-master, +Peters, and all were imprisoned under jailers in the forecastle. On the +schooner's sloping decks, when Dolores and her party climbed aboard, +were a score of nondescript pirates, besides the crew's custodians, at a +loss to account for the escape of the sloop, and worked up to a pitch of +nervousness where they were only fit for sudden, strenuous action with a +merciless taskmaster. And such they speedily had. + +Dolores ordered her three captives to be taken to the great cabin, and +their chains were fastened to the ornately paneled mainmast which ran +down through both decks and formed the support of a gorgeously furnished +sideboard. Then the companionway was locked on them, and the girl sprang +to tremendous life. + +"Aloft with thee, Stumpy!" she cried, selecting him because after Milo +his eyes were keenest of them all. "Keep thy eyes open for Milo's +flares, and mark well the direction. Hanglip, thou surly dog! Take ten +men and lay me out a good anchor astern, with a stout hawser. Be brisk! +Come aboard in ten minutes, or thy back shall smart." + +Sancho's boat had remained at the port quarter, and into this Hanglip +drove his crew while Spotted Dog with the rest of the men got ready an +anchor to lower to them. + +"Caliban, cast off the gaskets from fore and main!" cried Dolores next. +"Where are thy rascals? Plague take thee, hunchback! Couldst not say +there were not men enough? Below with ye, and bring up the schooner's +people. Have sail on this vessel before that anchor takes hold, or I'll +flay thy hump!" + +Cursing venomously, the deformed little demon sprang into the forecastle +and drove up Peters and his four men with kicks and blows. They, too, +were bewildered by the tremendous uproar of sea and wind, and went like +sheep to the fore and main masts at Caliban's bidding. + +"Ready for the anchor--lower away!" roared Hanglip in the boat, where +already was piled coil on coil a great hemp hawser. + +"Handsomely, ye dogs, handsomely!" shrieked Spotted Dog in turn. The +anchor sank into the boat to the screeching of tackles and the groaning +of boat-timbers, and was carried out astern. + +"Carry the end aft!" Dolores commanded; the hawser was taken along and +the end passed around the quarter-deck capstan. "Up with those sails!" +cried the girl now, and Caliban's gang sweated at the halyards, while +slackened sheets permitted the booms to swing and present the luffs to +the screaming gale, bearing no resistance. While the boat pulled away +into the darkness astern, carrying the anchor to the full scope of the +cable, Dolores kept her eyes ever aloft, and over the sea, and upon +every detail of the work. Her eyes fell upon Peters, standing in sullen +mood at the belaying-pin which held a turn of the main-throat halyards. +And as the croaking cry of Caliban ordered "Belay!" she called Peters to +her. + +"Thou'rt sailing-master, hey?" + +"I was." + +"Art still, if thy heart is as stubborn as thy face!" cried Dolores, +laughing at his scowl. "Canst sail thy ship now?" + +"I can sail any ship that floats, but neither I nor your sharks can sail +this schooner now," he replied surlily. "Your false marks did their work +well." + +"Then thou'd rather pull a rope than hold a wheel, hey? 'Tis but a +wooden sailor, after all. I hoped such a ship would boast a seaman as +master. I'll show thee seamanship, sheep-heart!" + +Out of the darkness astern came a roar: + +"Anchor's down! Heave away!" + +And from the darkness aloft Stumpy bawled: + +"There she flares! Mother o' me!" The prayer, curse, whatever the last +words might be, were called forth by a paralyzing flash of lightning +that shone over the raging sea like a gigantic calcium-light. The +schooner's deck resounded with superstitious howls, which rose to awed +cries from the weakest as from trucks and gaff-ends glowed and flickered +the blue brush of St. Elmo's fire. + +"Heave away, heave away!" Dolores's voice rang out on the hubbub, +forcing obedience even in face of terror. The capstan went round to the +urge of a dozen pair of fear-stimulated arms; and fathom by fathom the +great cable came in dripping and glistening; fathom after fathom was +heaped on the deck, and still the schooner remained fast. And ever from +aloft came Stumpy's hail, reporting Milo's flare fast fading in the +distance. + +"You can't do it! I knew it!" shouted Peters defiantly. + +"Peace, sheep!" answered Dolores, slapping him upon the mouth. She stood +at the wheel, and no part of the vessel's situation escaped her. She had +yet a trump to play: a hazardous one, truly, but the big one. The big +fore and main sails swung and crashed idly at their sheets, filling the +air with the thunder of their flinging blocks. At each boom a seaman +stood, and each held the double block of a boom-tackle, waiting the word +that now came. + +"Clap on those boom-tackles!" Dolores commanded, and four men flew to +each as it was hooked to the rigging. "Haul away! Boom the sails square +out!" The great sails filled with a crash as the gale took them on the +fore side, flinging them violently aback. + +"You'll pluck the spars out of her!" screamed Peters, in a frenzy now as +his cherished masts whipped and cracked to the tremendous backward +strain. Dolores ignored the crazed man, but a scornful smile wreathed +about her lips, and her dark eyes gleamed. "Out with them!" she cried. +"More hands there! And heave, ho, heave away on the capstan! Burst thy +arms, bullies! Here comes Hanglip and his bold lads to help ye! Round +with her! Out with them! Heave, good bullies!" + +The girl stood by the wheel, a splendid figure of matchless energy and +courage. Aloft the topmasts bent like whips; Stumpy's voice came down +in ever-increasing fear as his perch grew shakier; the great expanse of +canvas, which should have been treble-reefed even in a floating ship +going forward, tore at boom-tackles and earrings, tacks, and mast-hoops, +shaking the vessel to the keel and filling her with cataclysmic thunder. + +"By the bones of Red Jabez, she comes!" roared Spotted Dog, peering over +the side. "Heave, lads, and never doubt the girl again! Fiends o' +Topheth! See her slide!" + +The schooner shuddered from forefoot to sternpost; the big hawser +slipped in through the lead with gathering speed; the groaning masts +imparted an impulse to her that drove her astern like an arrow, and now, +triumphantly, Dolores cried: + +"An ax! Quickly--cut the hawser! Caliban, get a jib loosed! Hanglip, +open the companionway, and bring up my prisoners. I would have them +enjoy the sail." + +A curling sea poured over the taffrail, sweeping Dolores from her feet; +she met it with a ringing laugh, gripping the wheel as her safeguard, +and the moment the ax severed the hawser she gave the vessel a sheer +with the helm, and again her orders rang out: + +"Let go both boom-tackles! Hoist away the jib! Haul the jib-sheet to +starboard, and stand by fore and main sheets!" + +Out of the darkness ahead came the fluttering of canvas, and soon +Caliban's hoarse croak rang aft: "Hoist away th' jib!" The great booms +swung amidships again when the tackles were cast off, and now the +headsail flew up the stay, the restrained sheet to starboard causing the +canvas to fill aback as had the greater sails before. The pressure was +ahead and to one side; the schooner's head began to fall off, then +faster as she gained momentum, and the fore and main sails again began +to thunder at their blocks. + +"Let draw the jib! Bring in the fore sheet; bear a hand aft here, main +sheet, lads, smartly!" cried Dolores, twirling the wheel to meet the +vessel's swift leeward leap. And as the liberated Feu Follette heeled +dizzily to the gale, under full spread of sail, and her owner and his +guests appeared into the storm, Stumpy's cry rang out: + +"There's the flare--and she's burnin' steady!" + + +TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month. + + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +YELLOW RUFE'S FINISH. + + +"How bears the flare?" Dolores demanded, steadying the helm. + +"Three points on lee-bow!" came from aloft. + +"Sing out when we point for it!" Dolores gave the wheel a few spokes, +and at her command the main-sheet was rendered until the schooner fell +off from the wind, and Stumpy hailed: "Steady! She heads fair for it!" + +"Does it still burn?" + +"Aye, blazing bright! And low down, too, for the seas hide it every +moment!" + +"Keep thy eyes skinned, and seek for the sloop, too." + +The schooner came to a more even keel as she squared away from the gale, +and the splendid speed of the craft sent a thrill through Dolores, as +through the less impressionable pirate of the gang. Fast as Rufe's sloop +was, this dainty plaything of wealth and leisure sped over the snarling +seas at a gait that promised to overhaul the smaller vessel two fathoms +to one. + +Even Rupert Venner and his friends, shivering with the wet and sudden +change from the cabin to the deck though they were, found much to soothe +them in the glorious sweep and swing of the Feu Follette; much to admire +and envy in the perfect poise and _sang froid_ of the magnificent +creature at the wheel. + +Dolores stood on feet as steady as the great, deep eyes that were fixed +on the compass-card before her. Her heavy, lustrous hair streamed about +her from under the golden circlet; in each lightning flash she stood +out, a thing of wild, awful beauty; the rain glistened on her bare +shoulders and arms, rendering her golden skin a gleaming, fairylike +armor. And the blustering wind caught her wet tunic and wrapped it about +her closely and tightly, revealing every grace and glory of her perfect +body. + +"Saints! Was there ever such a creature?" said Tomlin hoarsely. + +Pearse's face was set and grim; he made no rejoinder. Venner, too, kept +silent; but his eyes held venom as he glared at the speaker. Dolores +suddenly raised her eyes from the binnacle, looked toward them as they +crouched shivering in the lee of the deck-house-companion, and she, warm +and glowing in a flimsy, wet garment, laughed mockingly, and called to +them. + +"I am forgetting what is due to my guests. Do ye feel cold? Will ye go +below?" + +And they, shivering and uneasy as they were, were content to shiver if +only they might not lose sight of her. Their reply was unintelligible; +neither would look at the others; yet their mumbled response was +understood, and the girl laughed again, loud, ringing, and full of +allure. + +"Such courage comes only of true sea stock, my friends! I shall not +forget this fortitude when I have done with the schooner." + +"Flare close aboard!" roared Stumpy; then: "Seize my soul if I see the +boat, though, mistress. Satan! Now the flare's gone out!" + +"Whereaway?" cried Dolores shrilly. Big Milo was out there in the +blackness. + +"Right under the bows!" bellowed the lookout. "Luff, or bear away; ye'll +run him down!" + +And from the raging seas off the lee-bow came the deep, calm voice of +Milo, unperturbed as if on dry land, though no boat was to be seen in +the murk. "Hold the course, Sultana, I am here!" + +And on the heels of the words came a flash from the skies, blazing full +upon the dripping figure of the giant as he reached a great arm up, +gripped the lee-rail, and swung himself on board with the unconscious +ease of a perfect athlete. + +"Thy boat, Milo?" inquired Dolores. + +"Sailed under, Sultana. I have held the flare aloft in my hand while +swimming until a moment ago, when the powder burned out." + +"And Rufe?" + +"The sloop is close by. Thou art sailing fair at his stern if thy course +was not changed to avoid me. His topmast is gone; he sails slowly." + +Then without more ado the splendid human animal clutched a backstay and +swarmed aloft with the agility of an ape, showing not a whit of strain +after his battle with the roaring seas. He reached Stumpy, sent that +numbed mariner down, and searched the waters with his keen vision, +waiting for another lightning flash. And when it came, fainter now as +the thunderstorm receded, his resonant voice boomed down: + +"Broad abeam the sloop lies! She runs before the wind!" + +"Slack away the main-sheet!" cried Dolores, heaving the helm up. "Hail +every minute, Milo!" + +"Shall I send him a shot immediately, lady?" roared Hanglip, at the +schooner's foremost gun. + +"Hold with thy shots, villain! Does Rufe deserve no sport? Stand by with +the grappling-hooks. I'll run him down!" + +"The sloop is dead ahead!" hailed Milo, though none on deck could detect +anything of her in the blackness. Dolores listened intently; then +twirled the wheel, and cried: "I hear her! Ready the grapnels?" + +"Aye, ready!" + +"Then watch--and heave!" she commanded; and with the suddenness of light +the schooner swept around in a swift arc, the black shape of the flying +sloop stood out against the angry sea crests, and the two vessels came +together with a crash of timbers and a rattling of gear. + +A distant rumbling of thunder succeeded a faint flash, and wind and rain +came down with increased fury as if to balance the defection of the +electric element. The darkness of Erebus fell upon the surging vessels, +and men groped at the rails in a blind effort to make out a footing for +boarding the sloop. + +"Follow me; I want Yellow Rufe alive!" cried Dolores, leaving the wheel +and springing to the bulwarks. Instinctively Peters stepped to the +wheel, and as he passed his employer he leaned to whisper in his ear: + +"Let them once leave these decks, sir, and we'll up hellum and away!" + +Venner's eyes glittered at the prospect; but he could not see the faces +of his friends; he could only hear Pearse's low tones beside him, and +the mumbled words indicated no great agreement in the scheme. Uncertain, +his mind confused between desire to escape and desire to see more of +Dolores and her hidden cave of wonders, Rupert Venner hesitated in his +decision; and in the next moment it was out of his power to decide. For +Rufe, in desperation now, met the boarders at the rail, backed by his +half-dozen crazed adherents, and murderous steel glittered dully against +the inky sky. + +"Beat down his cringing curs, but leave me Rufe!" cried Dolores, +opposing her own dagger to the sweep of the pirate's cutlas. And as the +schooner's crew roared at Hanglip's heels, storming over to the pitching +sloop's decks to pursue mercilessly the panic-stricken runaways, the +girl pitted agility and splendid knife-craft against the terror-driven +strength and wolfish fury of the trapped traitor. + +"Hah! Thy black heart fails thee!" taunted Dolores, leaping down from +the rail to the schooner's streaming deck and thus avoiding a whistling +stroke of Rufe's cutlas. The pirate fell forward with the impetus of his +blow, and stumbled in a heap at the girl's nimble feet. "Up, man!" she +cried, leaping back to permit him to rise. "What, art afraid of a woman? +Here, then, I prick thee! Now wilt fight?" She darted her dagger swiftly +downward, and the partially healed cross on Rufe's cheek blazed red +again. + +"Woman or devil, I'll see thy heart for that!" swore the pirate, and +rose with a bound and hurled himself at the girl. She stepped aside +agilely and laughed mockingly at him, while as he again stumbled with +the swing of his avoided blow she darted close, and her knife ripped his +sword-arm from wrist to elbow. + +Mouthing crazily with fury, Rufe leaped backward until his shoulders +struck the rigging, and, seizing his cutlas in his left hand, he poised +it by the blade for a deadly javelin cast. + +Now upon the scene flared a great blaze, and Stumpy's scowling face +appeared at the back of it. He, with readier wit than his fellows, had +sought out a tar-pot and lamp; and at the moment his mistress stood +defenseless before the impeding steel, the club-footed pirate poured +lamp-oil into the tar, and cast the flaring wick on top of all. + +A circle of light spread from wheel to foremast, with Yellow Rufe at the +main rigging in the center of it. The light dazzled him for a second, +and his throw was stayed. The three yachtsmen, huddled in their chains +aft, stared in helpless amazement at the tableau; for such it became, +when the fight stopped for a breath and every man's passion-filled face +was lighted by the red glare. + +"Shoot him down!" shouted Pearse in horror. + +And Venner and Tomlin strove for words without success. Venner was dumb +and sick in face of Dolores's peril. Yellow Rufe uttered a grim, +Satanic growl of laughter, and drew back his arm for the cast. His +plight was utterly desperate; he knew death waited for him with +clutching talons, and with his last breath he would reap toll that +should make his name a thing to recall with dread afterward. + +"This for thy witch's heart!" he howled, and his arm quivered. Then out +of the shadows aloft, above the smoky flare, came down the tremendous +shape of Milo, forgotten in his post at the masthead, but never taking +his eyes from his Sultana. + +Like a gorilla he slipped down the backstay with one hand; with the +other hand he reached downward with a swift, sure clutch, and as Rufe's +wrist flexed to cast his javelin Milo's hand gripped him by the neck +from behind and swung him bodily off his feet, while the wide-flung +cutlas flashed through the air and plunged with a hiss over the side. + +"I thank thee again, Milo," said Dolores, slipping her dagger into the +sheath and looking on at Rufe's struggles with the unconcern of one far +apart from the actual conflict. "I wished to take him alive; yet had +almost been forced to cut too deeply. Bring the villain to me. And, +Caliban, get more flares, lanterns, lights, and make us a theater of +justice here." + +She stepped aft, saw Peters at the wheel, and smiled as she realized how +her boarding of the sloop might have resulted. + +"Hah, but it would have availed thee nothing!" she smiled at Venner. "I +read thy heart as I read the stars, friend. Watch how completely Yellow +Rufe pays his debt to me. He has fled me through forest and mountain; +through a sea of howling storm; yet he pays. And thus all men pay who +think to flout Dolores. Keep thy eyes wide, friends, and watch." + +Yellow Rufe was brought before her, and his swarthy face was pallid in +the red light. There was something of the splendid beast about this +fellow, too; a quality that showed even when he faced certain death and +no merciful one. He had run, and when overtaken he had fought; and now +he must pay. + +"Hanglip, to the wheel here!" Dolores commanded. "Six of you bring back +the sloop. The rest attend me! Bring the schooner to her course, +northwest, Hanglip; and, Spotted Dog, rig me a whip at the foregaff-end. +Yellow Rufe, pray or curse while ye may. Thy course is run. There is +nothing left to say. Ten minutes remain to thee." + +The doomed pirate stood in silence while the preparations were being +made; but when Spotted Dog brought down the end of the rope he had rove +through the block at the end of the gaff, and stood grinning +anticipatively before Dolores, Rufe's tongue came loose, and he burst +into a torrent of futile, raving blasphemy. + +"Take the rope end forward, and pass it around the bows, so that the +rope passes beneath the keel," Dolores ordered, and every eager villain +in the band knew now what fate awaited Rufe. The schooner, not being +square-rigged, was badly fitted for the operation of keel-hauling; but +Dolores's inventive brain had devised a refinement of even that +refinement of torture. She waited for the rope end, and when Spotted Dog +brought it aft, on the weather side, passing clear from the gaff to +leeward, under the keel and up to windward, she stood aside so that the +yachtsmen could witness all. + +"Tie his hands, Milo!" she said. It was carried out, in spite of Rufe's +fierce fight against it. "Now place the noose about his throat tightly." +That, too, was done, and now the rope led from Rufe's neck, over the +weather rail, under the schooner, and up to the gaff. Three men stood by +the hauling part of the rope, and at a gesture from the girl six others +joined them. On every face was a little doubt, for none saw exactly what +was coming, least of all Rufe. + +"Now release him!" said Dolores quietly, and Rufe was left standing +alone, his hands tied, but his feet unfettered. He glared around as if +he saw a slim chance yet for life; the hope died the next moment, for +Dolores signed to the men at the rope, they began hauling, and the +terror leaped into Rufe's eyes afresh. + +For a moment Venner and his friends saw what they imagined to be a piece +of grim jesting; but they, as well as Rufe, speedily saw there was no +jest in this. For as the rope tightened, and other roaring ruffians ran +joyously to take a pull at it, Rufe was drawn irresistibly toward the +weather rail with a choking drag on his throat. He seized the rail, and +strained with his every sinew to fight that deadly peril; the rope only +tightened more; it was either go or strangle for him; fight as he might, +he was forced to climb on the rail, to aid in his own funeral. + +The yachtsmen turned dizzy with the awfulness of the man's end; but they +could not take their fascinated eyes from the scene. They saw Rufe +topple over the rail with a choking curse, and saw the rope pull him +under the vessel; they saw the rope quiver to the pirates' lusty pull as +the victim was battered against the keel. And they saw the terrible +figure leap from the sea to leeward and fly to the gaff-end as the men +ran away with the rope to a roaring chorus. But they saw no more. Their +eyes refused to look at a repetition of that horror. And Dolores, +watching them keenly, came to them, after giving final orders regarding +Yellow Rufe's body, took their chains in her hand, and said: + +"When again the thought comes to leave me, gentlemen, think well upon +what I have showed thee. Now come below. I owe thee some refreshment +after a night of storm. 'Twill be approaching dawn ere the schooner can +beat back to my haven. Come. I will serve thee with supper." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE FIRES OF THE FLESH. + + +In the schooner's saloon the atmosphere was peaceful by contrast with +the hurly-burly outside; yet even here the steep slant of the deck, the +shrill, protesting squeal of working frames and beams, the sullen thud +and swish of racing seas along the vessel's skin, kept the storm ever in +mind: the dizzy plunge of the bows into great gray seas, with its +accompanying rise of the stern and the hollow jar and thump of the +rudder-post in its port, kept the interior humming with sound as from a +distant organ. + +Again chained to the mainmast, the three yachtsmen stood gloomily +regarding Dolores, whose capable, battle-wise fingers now performed a +task more in keeping with her sex and charm. Under the great swing-lamp +in the skylight she leaned over the table, mixing wine in low, stout +cups, spreading a silver salver with food from the pantry. And a +thrilling picture she made in the soft glow of the lamp. The beautiful +face was warm with color; the scarlet lips were slightly opened in a +brilliant smile; intent upon her task, she swayed with superb grace to +the tremendous lurches of the driving schooner, ignoring all outside +affairs. + +Her preparations completed, she placed tray and cups at the end of the +table nearest the mainmast, turned around the deep armchair which had +been the owner's own, and sat down, offering a cup and the tray with a +little laugh of satisfaction. + +"Come, friend Rupert," she said, thrilling Venner again with her vibrant +voice, "thou shalt be first. Eat--and drink. See, for thee I do this." +She raised the cup to her lips, and kissed the brim, fixing her +fathomless eyes full on Venner as she did so. + +He struggled with his feelings for a moment, and hated himself heartily +for even debating his attitude. But he fell, as he had done before, +dazzled by her witchery. His eyes blazed, his blood leaped, and he took +the cup with a mumbled attempt at thanks. Dolores smiled at his +confusion, and in that smile was the allure of a Circe. + +Venner's expression became less tense as he noted the faces of his +fellows; for in their eyes he read jealousy, rank and stark, and it +warmed him to the marrow. In the next instant his warmth rose to fever +heat, and malice twisted his features; Dolores had taken another cup, +and now she offered it to Pearse, with a smile yet more gracious than +before. + +"My silent friend, here's to thee, too," she murmured. His cup she +kissed twice, and presented it carefully so that the place she kissed +was against his lips. "Drink. I have sweetened it." + +As Venner's brows darkened, so did John Pearse conquer his first flush +of self-contempt and put on a smile that irradiated his usually serious +face. And Tomlin brightened, too, waiting in what patience he could +muster for his turn, which must come next. To him Dolores turned, cup in +hand, and rising at the same time gave him his wine with a brief: "Here, +drink, too. I must leave thee a while." + +She forced the cup into Tomlin's trembling fingers, gave him never a +glance, but went out of the saloon on her errand. + +When he realized she was gone, Craik Tomlin dashed down the wine like a +petulant boy, and cursed deeply and fiercely. And not until then did +Venner and Pearse awake to the true artistry of the woman; for here, +instead of making of Tomlin a raging foe, willing to plot with all the +power of his alert brain for their ultimate release, she had aroused a +demon of black jealousy in him which promised to set all three by the +ears. + +Restricted as their movements were, they were forced to nurse whatever +feelings Dolores had implanted in them in full sight of each other. And +Tomlin left no doubt as to his feelings. At the farthest scope of his +chain he flung himself down on the slanting floor and crouched there +with dull-glowing eyes bent loweringly upon his friends. Venner laughed +awkwardly, and glanced at Pearse; the laugh died away and left a silence +between them that was vividly accentuated by the manifold voices of the +laboring vessel. For in the swift meeting of eyes, John Pearse and +Venner, host and guest, friends to that moment, saw in each other an +established rival, a potential foe. Involuntarily they drew apart; and +when Dolores returned from the deck she found them spread out like star +rays, having nothing in common except a common center. + +She gave no sign that she noticed them; but her heavy, fringed lids +drooped over eyes brimming with gratification. As she stepped from the +stairs the schooner swung upright, the deck overhead thundered to the +slamming of booms as she came about, and then the cabin sloped the other +way, rolling the scattered wine-cups noisily across the floor. Neither +man looked up; but Tomlin's cup rolled so that it struck his foot, and +he gave voice to a deep oath, terrible in its uncalled-for savagery. +Then Dolores gave them outward notice for the first time. + +With a low, pleasant laugh, she stepped quickly to Tomlin's side, laid a +hand on his sullen head, and forced him to look up at her. + +"I owe thee something, friend," she smiled, and Tomlin flushed hotly +under her close regard. "I treated thee badly in my haste. Come"--she +went to the sideboard, filled another cup with wine, and came back, +kneeling before Tomlin in the attitude of a slave while her big eyes +blazed full into his. + +"Drink, for I like thee best," she whispered, sipping the wine and +putting the brim, warm from her lips, to his. + +And Tomlin drank deeply, greedily, trembling under her close proximity. +He felt her hand take his chain, heard the tinkle of links, and knew, +without seeing, that she had unlocked his fetters and he was free. + +"Now sit here with me, and thou shalt tell me about thy world, my +friend, the world thou shalt take me to." + +Her soft, thrilling voice set Tomlin's blood leaping; and as she spoke +she led him to Venner's great chair and sat him down in it. Then, facing +at the length of the table her other two captives, she stood behind the +big chair, her arms on the top, leaning low to Tomlin's ear, her lips +almost brushing his cheek. + +And she whispered to him musically, seductively; her jeweled fingers +played with his hair; the soft, warm skin of her arms slid over his neck +and face; when, in a frenzy, he reached impulsively for her hand and +gripped it, she laughed yet more deliciously and permitted him to hold +it. + +"Why must you seek another world, Dolores?" Tomlin said hoarsely. "Here +you are queen. Out in the greater world you can be no more. Stay, and +let me stay with you." + +"And would my paltry possessions pay thee for renouncing thy people, thy +home?" she asked. + +"Home? People? God! I renounce Heaven itself if you say yes!" + +"We shall see, my friend," Dolores sighed, and Tomlin felt her tremble +slightly. "My chief desire is to leave behind me this life of herder to +human beasts. To go into the world whence comes such as thee, Tomlin; to +live among the people who can make such as these"--she indicated the +rich furnishing of the saloon, the sideboard silver and plate, the +stained glass of the skylight. + +"All these things I have, and more--nay, but thy treasures are nothing +compared with what I shall show thee in the great chamber--yet must I +keep them hidden because of the beasts that call me Sultana! Where they +came from, these treasures, must be men like thee, Tomlin, women like +the painted women of my gallery, people with the art to make these +things instead of the brute power to steal them. And there I will go, +and thou art to be my guide." + +"Then, in Heaven's name, let us go now!" cried Tomlin, trying to rise. +She laughed in his ear again, and her soft, warm arms pressed him back +in the chair with a power that amazed him. "We shall go, in good +season," she whispered. "But--" The rest was murmured so faintly, yet so +tremendously audible to his superheated brain, that he drew back and +stared up at her with an awful expression of mingled unbelief and horror +distorting his face. + +"Do you know what you say?" he gasped, and shot an apprehensive glance +toward Venner and Pearse. + +"Surely, my friend," she crooned. "Thyself alone, of those who came in +this ship, may return. If I am desirable, see to it that I can be +pleased with thee." Dolores stood up, bent upon him a dazzling smile, +leaned as if to kiss his lips, then with a tinkling little ripple of +mirth blew a kiss instead and ran up the companion-stairs to the deck. + +Tomlin stood glaring after her as if fascinated. His face, deeply +flushed a moment before, had gone deathly white; his profile, turned +under the lamp toward his companions, showed deeply puckered brows over +stony eyes, lips parted as if to utter a cry of horror. And Venner, +fuming inwardly, had seen enough to recall some of his badly scattered +wits. He called Tomlin by name hoarsely, softly, and exclaimed when he +looked around: + +"Tomlin, shall we three be ruined body and soul by that sorceress? Come, +help us out of these chains, and we will make a bid for liberty. We can +reach Peters and such men as are left, by way of the alleyway to the +forecastle; I know where weapons are to be got, and we'll put our fate +on the cast. Come. Pearse is of a like mind, eh, Pearse?" + +Pearse did not reply at once, and Tomlin saved him the trouble; for, +recovering himself with a shudder, he put a hand on the companion-rail +and started up the stairs with a laugh of contempt. + +"I have no concern with your troubles, Venner," he said. "As for +liberty, I am free as air. I believe patience is the medicine you need." + +Tomlin reached the deck with tingling ears, for even Pearse came out of +his reverie to curse him. But curses or benedictions counted nothing at +that moment. In every patch of light he saw Dolores's devilishly lovely +face; in every swing of the vessel he saw her consummate grace; he was a +thirsty man seeking a spring, knowing full well that a draft must kill +him. He stood alone outside the companionway, wondering at the absence +of people, at the absence of Dolores. A solitary man stood at the wheel; +and, looking around for others, Tomlin noticed vaguely that the black +storm was broken, that watery stars were winking down, and that almost +in the zenith a gibbous moon leaned like a brimming dipper of +quicksilver, ready to drop from the inky cloud that had but just +uncovered it. + +Then voices reached his ears from forward, voices full of wondering +anger, and he stepped out clear of the deck-house and peered ahead on +the windward side. There, two miles away, the land loomed black and +forbidding; and high up, on a crest, a great red blaze leaped and +swirled against the flying clouds. + +As he stood, Dolores ran aft, ignoring him utterly in her haste. Her men +grouped themselves along the waist of the schooner, waiting for +commands. The Feu Follette was already doing her best; that is, the best +under such sail as was safe to carry. But there, to windward, and yet +two miles distant, some part of the pirate village was burning, and none +might say yet what part it was. + +The one thing certain was that it could not be the great chamber. That +was of rock; it might be destroyed by an explosion; never by fire. So +there was a ring of exultation in Dolores's tone when she sent the hail +along: + +"Loose both topsails and set them! Caliban, thou small villain, out and +loose the outer jib. Main-sheet here! Oh, haul, bullies! Flat--more +yet--so, belay!" + +Then the girl flung the man from the wheel, seized the spokes herself, +and began to nurse the schooner to windward with truly superhuman art. +Closer yet she brought the graceful craft; closer, until the luffs +trembled and the seas burst fair upon the stem and volleyed stinging +spray the full length of her. And as she drew nearer, the blaze seemed +to diminish and blaze afresh as if fire-fighters were there indeed, but +lacking weapons to fight with. + +"Is it the treasure-house?" Tomlin asked anxiously, stepping beside the +girl. She stood in deep shadow; the dim radiance from the lighted +binnacle touched her face, breast, and arms with soft light, and her +eyes, as they flashed swiftly toward the man, glittered with some subtle +quality that sent a shiver running down his spine. + +"Treasure-house?" she repeated, and her voice was no longer soft and +alluring; it was metallic and menacing. For the second time, first in +Venner, now in Tomlin, she had seen the true source of their +fascination. "No, it is not the treasure-house. It is the council hall, +where thou wert lodged." She snatched her gaze from the compass and +fixed him with the cold, unwinking stare of a snake. "Where thou wert +lodged, my friend who would renounce all for me. Where, had I cared to, +I might have left two of ye, taking with me to safety only the one whose +brains are not afire with soulless gold and jewels." + +Tomlin grew hot and uneasy. "My brain is on fire with your beauty, +Dolores," he returned, trying to force her gaze to meet his again. + +"Prove it to me, then," she replied shortly, and waved him away, +devoting her attention now to making the anchorage, already close to. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +PEARSE ENTERS THE CAVE OF ALADDIN. + + +Lucky it proved that Pascherette had been left behind when the schooner +sailed after Yellow Rufe. Even Dolores, with all her consummate wisdom, +had forgotten the existence of the old woman she had degraded to kitchen +drudge; still more utterly had she forgotten the relationship existing +between the old woman and the late victim of her terrible vengeance. + +Sancho had called the old crone mother, whether with blood reasons or +not none knew. And at bottom, much of Sancho's rebellion had come of +anger at the treatment meted out to her. And it was Sancho's despairing +cry, when Milo cast him out into the Grove, that brought the old woman +from her concealment in the forest. The awful plight of the unlucky +wretch had aroused in the woman's withered breast a demon of revenge +that knew no limits; and the departing schooner, then barely visible to +her, filled her brain with the knowledge that the strangers who came in +that vessel had been the indirect cause of her Sancho's fate. + +She knew they had been placed in the cells behind the council hall; she +knew nothing of Dolores's last-minute decision that had taken them with +her. She knew nothing as to who or how many were left in the camp; but +she knew, she had terrible and ever-present proof in that moaning, +groping, brainless thing that was Sancho, that her mistress had shown a +leaning toward the strangers at the expense of her own people, and that +she herself might expect no mercy if ever caught. And with the low +animal cunning that served her for intellect she knew her penalty could +be no greater if she struck one blow in revenge before taking to the +woods in final flight. + +Her plan was simple. Watching Sancho for a while, so that she might not +lose him, she searched for dry wood among the drenched underbrush, piled +it against the rear of the council hall, and set fire to it, fanning the +faint flame and feeding it, guarding it with her scanty garments, until +the red tongues shot up in a powerful, self-supporting conflagration. + +Then she had darted back to the forest fringe, found Sancho, and turned +his sightless, blank face toward the blaze so that he might feel the +warmth and guess the cause. But she knew nothing of his cracked brain; +she knew only of his physical agonies; the utter absence of interest in +him when she would have shown him what she had done shook her to the +foundations of her own reason; and her eldritch scream pealed up among +the trees as she flung her arms aloft and cursed the place. + +It was the scream that brought Pascherette out of the hut, where she +sheltered from the storm, to see the council hall in flames. It was the +scream that told the little octoroon where the fire had birth. And +Pascherette, too, believed that the three strangers were still within +the cells. She had plans of her own that required the safety of those +men, at least for a while. And her active brain gave her the solution +before the old woman had ceased to curse. + +Like a small, sleek panther Pascherette ran toward the old woman; she +saw Sancho, too, but instinctively knew that after Milo's treatment of +him he could not be dangerous; ignoring the man, she drew her knife as +she ran, and with a brief, panting, "That for thee, witch!" struck the +old woman down at Sancho's stumbling feet. + +Now she gave all her energies to subduing the fire; and, swiftly +rallying every man or woman in the camp she drove them with blows and +shrill invective to beating the blaze with sodden boughs and wet sand. +She set men with poles to batter down the doors to the cells; but the +doors had been built to oppose that kind of entry. Frantically she drove +the fire-fighters to another place, while she heaped up fresh fire +against the doors in the hope of burning down what could not be burst. +And it was the last up-blazing shaft of fire as the doors fell that +Dolores saw in the moment she brought the schooner to anchor. +Pascherette was emerging, singed and blackened, with dark rage in her +glittering eyes at having found the cells empty, when Dolores and her +crew arrived on the scene with Venner and Tomlin and Pearse in their +midst. + +"What! Pascherette again?" cried Dolores, glaring at the girl with red +suspicion in her face. "Is this thy work? Speak!" + +Pascherette stared in surprise at the three strangers, and her painfully +scorched lips strove to answer. Her throat was dry, and at first words +refused to come. But in the pause, when fifty faces glowered at the +girl, something stumbled across the open in the firelight, and Milo's +sharp vision distinguished it. He went up to Pascherette, with deep +concern in his devoted eyes, and laid a strong arm about her trembling +shoulders. She relaxed toward him, and managed to whisper to him. He +flung out his free hand toward the open space, and cried to Dolores: + +"There is the traitor, Sultana! This is the avenger." + +Dolores looked; every eye was turned where Milo pointed; and the brutal +laughter of some of the hardiest pirates mingled with the groans of the +three yachtsmen, whose escape from a horrible death by fire could not +reconcile them to the staggering vengeance that had overtaken the wretch +who had attempted that death. Bathed in an infernal glow, grotesque as a +creature of a diseased brain, the unhuman Sancho staggered across the +glade and into the darkness of the forest, bearing in his handless arms +a ghastly burden in which the hilt of Pascherette's dagger glittered and +flashed as the firelight touched it. + +"Back! Let him go!" cried Dolores; and a score of shouting ruffians +returned from swift pursuit, leaving Sancho and his burden to pass into +the oblivion of the great forest. + +Milo examined the damage, and reported. The cells were useless now, +except merely to confine captives. They did not fit in with Dolores's +plans thus, and she sent Milo to a distance with John Pearse while she +carried into effect a new fancy. Her crew had gone to their own places, +to soothe the fatigues of their night's work in carousal; Pascherette +stood near by, gazing at her mistress with mute appeal that she, too, be +permitted to seek alleviation of her own sore burns. + +"Wait, child," said Dolores, seeing the girl's trouble. "I'll cure thy +hurts soon." + +Then she separated Venner and Tomlin, taking each in turn to a vacant +hut. And to each she whispered patience and faith; to each her voice +imparted a renewed thrill. To Venner she said: + +"Thy anger with me was foolish, good Rupert. I did but smile at thy +friends to make thy task easier. Now see; I leave thee unfettered, and +thus." She drew his head down and lightly kissed his hair, laughing with +a little tremor: "Think of what I asked of thee, Rupert. To-morrow I +shall ask thy decision." + +In turn to Tomlin she whispered: + +"The night has been arduous for thee. I was impatient with thee. Thy vow +of devotion to me rang true, though I doubted it at the moment. +To-morrow I will hear what thy heart speaks. To-night, see, I free thee. +For thy own safety, though, do not venture beyond these doors save with +me. My rascals are fierce creatures of jealousy and suspicion. Good +night, friend." Him, too, she left tingling with her kiss, and whatever +others in the camp did that night, two men found sleep elusive and vain. + +Milo brought Pearse to her at her call, and together they went to the +great stone before the chamber. Milo rolled back the rock, while his +expression showed uneasiness. But he had learned his lesson when +protesting against Pascherette's admission to the cave of mystery, and +uttered no warning now. + +Pascherette, in spite of her burns, bent a roguish face upon Pearse as +that puzzled gentleman waited for some word or motion that should give +him the reason for this unexpected favor. + +Still Dolores said nothing. The rock rolled away, and Milo stood aside, +she entered, touching Pearse on the arm as she passed him, and he +followed meekly, Pascherette bringing up the rear with Milo after the +giant replaced the great stone. Then Dolores turned back to Pearse, +under the soft, red glow of the unseen lamps, and flashed a bewildering +smile upon him. + +"Wilt believe now that I love thee?" she whispered, and her lids drooped +over swimming eyes. "Beyond that great door lies the chamber to enter +which costs death. Art afraid?" + +"Lead on," replied Pearse hoarsely. There was no trace of fear in his +voice or in his eyes; but Dolores warmed gladly to the knowledge that +here at last was a man whose thoughts were bent upon her and not on her +chamber of treasures. + +They stood before the massive sliding door of plate and jewels, and here +the human side in John Pearse showed through for an instant. Under the +great, yellow lantern the gold and silver plates, the glowing rubies, +the glinting emeralds, made a picture of fabulous riches that even he +could not ignore. But at the upward slide of the door his eyes left the +richness of it without a flicker; he waited for the heavy velvet +hangings to be drawn, and when Dolores's eyes sought his they surprised +his deep, ardent gaze fastened full on herself and not upon what might +next be revealed. + +"Enter, man of my heart," she smiled, and stood aside to permit him to +pass. + +In the first steps over the threshold John Pearse saw little save a dim, +cool hall, vast and full of vagrant shadows; then, when Milo had +arranged the lights so that they gradually grew in power, flooding the +chamber with mellow radiance, his soul seemed to burst from his throat +in one choking, stupefied gasp. + +"The Cave of Aladdin!" he choked, and stood open-mouthed while Dolores +laughed softly at his shoulder. + +"Nay," she reproved. "'Tis the Cave of Dolores. 'Tis mine, and"--she +turned her face up toward his alluringly--"may be thine, if thou'rt a +true man!" + +With shrewd artistry she twisted away as he strove to clasp her, and +there she left him standing, in the midst of untold treasures that every +moment were increasingly revealed to him. Without another glance for +him, or apparently another thought, she took Pascherette by the hand and +led her down the chamber to the great chair. Here she busied herself +with salves and lotions to assuage the scald of the girl's fresh burns, +which were more painful than serious. And every moment she was thus +charitably employed her gleaming eyes were fixed upon Pearse from under +concealing lashes; every moment Milo's dusky face was bent upon her from +the end of the chamber with an expression of absolute adoration and +gratitude. For tiny Pascherette was custodian of the giant's green +heart; and honest Milo never sought very deeply for motives. It was +enough for him that Dolores, his Sultana, the being he worshiped as he +worshiped his gods, was ministering with woman's infinite tenderness to +her maid, a creature as humble as himself. + +Pearse, too, even in his intoxication of senses, saw and warmed to this +evidence of real womanliness in one he had small cause to think anything +other than a bewilderingly alluring fury. He could not hide his +thoughts, and Dolores saw them betrayed on his face; Pascherette +surprised the look on her mistress's lovely face that told her the +imperious beauty possessed a heart of living flesh and blood. And +Pascherette shuddered nervously at the fear of what must happen should +that heart ever feel humiliated. + +"Keep still, child," Dolores laughed happily, mistaking the reason for +the girl's shudder. "It is finished now. Thy hurts will pass in thy +sleep. Go to thy big man there, and have him pet thee. I have no need of +thee until I call. Go, take him away. I would be alone with my guest." + +The girl ran to Milo, and together they went down to the gallery beyond +the picture door. Then Dolores set out with her own fair hands wine and +sweetmeats, the confections taken from the yacht, strange and new to +her, but in her mind something desirable to such men as Pearse, else why +had they brought such things? And again using her innate witchery, she +set a chair for Pearse at a distance from her own, where she could look +straight into his face or hide her own, as her fancy dictated. + +"Hast seen the like before?" she smiled, looking at him over the brim of +a chased gold flagon. + +"Never, never, Dolores!" he said, and his eyes blazed into hers. He +moved his chair close to her, and reached for her free hand. + +"What! Hast thou no eyes for these things?" she exclaimed in simulated +surprise, taking her hand away and indicating the wealth around the +walls. "Man, thy eyes are idle; look at those gems, those paintings; +hast ever seen the like of those 'Three Graces,' then, that they have no +interest for thee?" + +"Yes, I have seen the like, wonderful, wonderful being," he returned +hoarsely. "You I have seen; you, you, I see nothing else but you, +Dolores!" + +She dazzled him with a seductive smile, full of fire-specked softnesses, +and offered him her flagon. + +"Drink, comrade. Drink here, and we shall talk of thee and me, and what +concerns us both nearly. Art sure thy eyes are not blinded by the nearer +beauty?" + +"I am not blind! I never saw with clearer vision!" Pearse cried, taking +the flagon with tremorless hand. "I care nothing for these tawdry +gauds." + +"Ah! Then thou'rt the man. Come, thy faithful soul deserves reward. +Come, I will show thee treasures thou hast not dreamed of yet; and all +shall be thine, with me--at a price." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE TREASURE TEST. + + +Dolores gaily took John Pearse by the hand and led him down the chamber +to the dais on which stood the vacant chair of state of the dead Red +Jabez. The great canopied bed still stood there; but it was curtained +in, out of sight, and unused; Dolores preferred her own low couch, with +its strangely beautiful composite furnishings of silk and tiger-skins, +velvet and snowy polar-bear rugs, heaped high with luxurious cushions +that made it a restful lounge by day as well as a sleep-inviting couch +by night. + +Beside the couch, between it and the dais, Milo had set the +treasure-chests, leaving the lids wide-flung, the contents but thinly +concealed by silken shawls. The end of a rope of matchless pearls hung +over the edge of one chest carelessly, without apparent motive; yet when +she guided Pearse to the couch and seated him, Dolores scanned his face +with glinting eyes that peeped out through narrow slits. She saw his +look of interest; then his mouth turned upward in a smile that said +plainly: "Here is a theatrical trick to impress me!" + +"Now thy reward is come," whispered Dolores, leaving him with an arch +smile and kneeling before the big chests. She tore away the shawls and +plunged her hands into the glittering hoard to the wrists, flinging out +upon the couch and the floor, upon Pearse's knees and into his hands, +rubies and emeralds, diamonds and pearls, golden chains and ornaments +for the hair in a bewildering, stupendous litter. And, her face turned +from him, her narrowed eyes were fixed upon him, and in their gleaming +depths burned a smoldering anxiety that was nearing impatience. + +For John Pearse cloaked his feelings better than his fellows; he smiled +at the shower of riches, met her questing glance with a smile, and +smiled again with shaking head when she stood before him, aglow with +yearning for his decision, and asked simply: + +"Well?" + +"Baubles, playthings, Dolores!" he laughed up at her. He seized her +hands, stroked the satin-skinned forearm, and said softly: "These are +not worthy of such a woman as Dolores. These are but the gauds of a +beautiful woman. To fit you, they should be the adornments of a +goddess!" + +"Oh, then thy lips uttered truth!" she cried delightedly. She stooped +swiftly to him, twined her arms about his neck, and laid her warm cheek +to his. "Now I shall show thee treasures indeed, my John!" + +She ran to the one chest yet unopened, and flung away the silk covering. +Here were the gems of the craftsman's art. Stones of unparalleled color +and size were in this chest; but their chief merit lay in their cunning +settings, their consummate delicacy of workmanship. Here the art +collector might find his El Dorado; in all the world such a collection +could scarcely be found in one place. Here were shrines and temples, +carved from single immense stones or pieces of jade; here was a woven +thing of gold and silver, in which the warp and woof lay close as +tapestry, portraying as no tapestry could portray it the fabled valley +of "Sinbad," in which the sands were gold, the sky silver, and the gems +were gems indeed. + +"Is this to thy mind?" Dolores cried, tossing to him a golden ball which +by some amazing internal mechanism played fairy chimes as it whirled +through the air. + +Her lips parted in flushed pleasure at the result of her display, for +John Pearse was smitten with the collector's fever. He missed her ball +through sheer inability to tear his eyes from the other treasures. And +as his brain began to grasp the stupendous truth, to more readily +estimate values, his eyes turned from the more gaudy works of art, and +noticed, for the first time clearly, the pricelessness of many greater +things of canvas and wood, ivory and glass, with which the apartment +abounded. + +"Now thy heart craves my treasures, too, eh?" she chided, gliding to him +and laying a hand on his head. Yet she felt glad of his awakened +interest. It was merely another card she might yet have to play. + +"Astounding!" he gasped. His gaze fastened upon a boule bric-a-brac +stand, on which stood an Aretine vase two feet high, of peerless form +and glaze. The ticking of the great Peter Hele clock drew his attention +to a work of ebony and ivory as scarcely could be believed as coming +from man's hands. + +"Now thou'rt of a kind with thy fellows!" she cried in anger. "Look at +me! No, thy eyes will not deign to seek me now!" + +Pearse snatched his eyes away, and answered her with a laugh that sent +her blood leaping again. + +"My Dolores forgets she demanded my admiration for her treasures," he +said. "What would you have, splendid one? Shall I say these treasures +are still paltry, when I see their countless worth? Still I say you are +the treasure beyond price. These are but a little more fitting for you. +That is all. Am I forgiven?" + +He leaped to his feet, seized her hand, and attempted to slip an arm +about her waist. She, lithe as a leopard, slipped from his grasp with a +glad laugh that rippled in a low murmur to his hot ears, and intensified +the glare that had come into his eyes. She failed to see that glare. It +was the glare of greed; stark and utter greed, that counted no cost and +brooked no opposition in driving for its ends. + +"Thou art forgiven indeed!" she replied, panting and disheveled, a thing +of wondrous loveliness. "So far art thou forgiven that I shall put thy +heart to the grand test at once. Of thy fellows none can compare with +thee for scorn of wealth and desire of me. Sit down again, my man; let +us reveal our inmost hearts to each other." + +She told him, keeping him at provoking distance, of her heart-hunger for +the outside world, the world of art and things of beauty. She thrilled +him with her vibrant voice, mesmerized him with her distant, caressing +touch and glorious, limpid eyes. She made his blood pulse hotly with +desire with her soft-spoken offer of self-surrender to the man who +should lead her from her sovereignty over human beasts and set her feet +in the high places of the earth. + +"And with these my treasures, I shall make my man a king in truth," she +said, slipping along the couch toward him and laying both hands clasped +on his arm. She threw back her head, shaking loose her great masses of +lustrous hair, and poured her soul at him from half-closed, moist eyes +that gleamed like midnight pools in starlight. "Yet must my chosen man +assure me of his love for me, and his contempt for my riches. For, +though my treasures shall be his, yet will I be first in his heart or +forget him." + +"And first you are, and shall be, Dolores," whispered Pearse, leaning +his chin on her forehead and glaring covetously at the littered wealth +of the chests. "What man of warm blood can see any other being or thing +when Dolores is by?" + +"Then come. I believe thee," she said, rising slowly. "Come with me, my +man above price. See here." + +She swept back a piece of tapestry at the rear of the chamber, and +disclosed a dark and gloomy cavern, hewn out of the solid rock, as was +the greater cavern. From a brazier she took a pine splinter, lighted it, +and beckoned Pearse into the cave. And as soon as his eyes adjusted +themselves to the gloom, he saw the place stowed tightly from floor to +ceiling with kegs and half-casks, hooped and marked with black +characters. + +"Gold?" he gasped, perspiration starting to his brows. + +"Gold!" Her rejoinder was tense, almost savage; she glared at him from +under the torch, a quivering shape of disgust. + +"Why, Dolores, don't look like that," he laughed. "I did but wonder. If +this were all gold, it could not enhance your worth in my eyes." + +"Then the proof will be easy. This is not gold. It is gunpowder. Our +whole store. My rascals are not to be trusted with more powder than they +can use at once. From this store I dole them out their rounds; thus are +all safe. But at this moment I have other use for this powder. Stay +here; or no, help me. It will be finished the sooner." + +Dolores ran out into the great chamber again, Pearse following her +wonderingly. She left him in wonder but a short time; for, gathering up +a great armful of treasure she started back to the cave, crying: "Come, +fill thy arms, too." He paused, and she took up his hesitation swiftly, +feeling again a surge of doubt and disgust rise in her breast. She +called to him, scornfully: "What, art afraid? Come, faint one; beyond +here is my secret outlet from this place. Now art satisfied?" + +And John Pearse followed into the cave, a-tingle with the hope that he +was indeed the elect. He saw her fling her riches down on the tops of +the kegs; she bade him do likewise, and then led the way back for more. +And so she went, and so he followed; journey after journey was +completed, until the gunpowder-kegs were almost buried beneath the +wealth of an empire. Then the girl stepped outside, and called Milo. The +giant appeared with silent speed. + +"Milo, burst me one of these kegs," she ordered, and her voice forced +Pearse's attention; it was so cold, passionless, utterly controlled. The +keg was burst, and a trickle of coarse cannon powder ran on the floor. + +"Lay a damp train out to the ledge over the grove, Milo!" + +Milo disappeared through the gallery, trickling moistened powder from +his fingers as he went. Then, when his voice sounded back along the +passage, Dolores again took Pearse by the arm and said, looking him full +in the eyes: "Thy test, friend. Here am I. Out there is the grove, and +beyond it the sea. Take this torch. Put light to the powder train, and +thou and I will depart in the white schooner. We shall leave nothing for +these vultures to fight over. But together we will go far away into thy +world, thee and me." + +"And leave my friends here?" he asked, huskily. + +"Ay, my man, but not alive!" she whispered, thrusting her dark, flushed +face close to his, and letting her lips breathe their fragrance upon +him. "They, thy friends, are not as my beasts. They have the brains of +the white kings of the earth; they have the cunning which makes of all +other races slaves and dependents. Leave them here, living, and in a day +they will rule these rabble and together they will hunt us down. Come, +haste. Put thy fire to the train." + +"Not yet! Tell me what deviltry is to be worked upon my companions." + +"Hah! Then thou'rt but lukewarm in thy love. Am I not Dolores? Am I not +worth thy two friends? Listen, I'll tell thee my price, friend. If thy +friends are to live, then destroy this trash ere we go, so that they get +it not. If thy heart is bent upon saving this treasure, then thy hand +must first put thy friends into their long sleep. Nay, peace! There is +no alternative. The man who mates with me shall be a man indeed; no +petty, squeamish lover whose weak heart sickens at removing a rival." + +"Give me until morning," he replied, dry of throat, and pallid of face. +"It is a terrible thing you ask, Dolores. Yet I dare not say the cost is +too high. As for destroying these treasures, that I know is but a trick +to try me. You could never go out into a new world and take a low +station. That you would have to do if I set fire to that train." He +suddenly darted a look of fierce challenge at her, "There!" he cried. +"The trial is yours!" + +He flung down his torch, and the powder-train began to splutter and +fizz. Dolores flashed a look of approval at him, and burst into a +ringing, happy laugh. She kicked aside the torch, and trampled out and +relaid the train; then ran to Pearse impulsively, and said with simple +earnestness that utterly deceived him: + +"Now I believe in thee again, and for ever. 'Twas but to try thee, John. +We will leave nothing of worth when we go. But that makes it the more +imperative that thy friends have no power to harm us afterward. Think +not that Dolores will take a lower station. I shall be queen wherever I +go, and my man shall be made a king by my power. + +"I give thee until noon to think over thy answer. Go, and the gods +protect thee and make thee faithful to me." + +Calling Milo back, she bade him conduct Pearse from the great chamber, +and as they passed out, little Pascherette peered up at Pearse with an +impudent smile, and with her head on one side like a bird she chattered: + +"White stranger, thou'rt a fool! What Dolores wills, will surely come to +pass. If thy heart fails thee, and thy friends are safe at thy hands, +dost think they will have like scruples? Fool again! One of them will +kill thee and the other, and that man will gain a peerless mate. And, +bend down thy tall head, thou imitation giant--already thy two friends +are liberated, each seeking the life of the other, though neither knows +of the other's freedom!" + +"What?" stammered Pearse, gripping the girl's slim shoulder fiercely. +"If you lie--" + +"Pshaw! One need not lie to befool thee!" Pascherette retorted +scornfully. "Sleep, and if thy throat is not yet slit on thy awakening, +make thy decision quickly, and tell it to Dolores." + +Pearse would have answered her with more questioning, but she laughed at +him, and bade Milo shut him out. So the great rock fell, and Pearse +wandered into the camp, not knowing where he went, and caring little. He +had no place to sleep, so far as he knew; yet he felt no wonder. He +walked through the sleeping-camp, across the grove, and into the forest, +his brain on fire and seething with the problem before him. + +"The treasure, with or without the woman!" he muttered, clenching his +hands savagely. "The treasure! Ye gods! There must be the wealth of +_Monte Cristo_ there!" He broke off into a harsh laugh at thought of his +challenge with the torch. "The witch!" he chuckled. "She was clever, but +John Pearse overreached her. Now I know her heart. But--" + +He wandered on, and his mind was centered upon Venner and Tomlin. The +more he thought over the situation, the more he found his ideas forming +themselves after Dolores's. + +"Why should I share it?" he asked of the winking stars. + +And while he communed with himself regarding her and her demands, +Dolores overlooked Milo in a task that brought a sparkle to her eyes and +a gleaming smile to her lips. They were repacking the great treasure +chests. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +PASCHERETTE DEALS AGAIN. + + +Dolores spent her night in slumber as peaceful as a babe's. When Milo +had completed his task with the treasure chests he went to his own +couch. John Pearse wandered deep into the eery forest, his brain filled +with tumultuous fancies, while Craik Tomlin and Rupert Venner lay in the +dark before the open doors of their separate cells, struggling for a +decision with their own good and evil natures. But Dolores, before +retiring called Pascherette to dress her hair and gave the little +octoroon some secret instructions against the morning. + +"Now to thy bed, girl, and wake with bright eyes," said Dolores, her +toilet completed. "Let thy busy tongue wag its liveliest then; see to it +that the strangers hear whispers and rumors, yet keep them apart and +from harm a while. Thy task with the other rabble is easy. I care not +how they are divided. But divided they must be; to the point of mutiny. +Go, and sweet dreams to thee." + +It was then that a subtle happiness stole into Dolores's face; then her +great luminous eyes closed slowly in utter peace; then that she lay down +with a gentle sigh on her couch of furs and slept care-free and smiling. + +Dreams not of the brightest might have ruffled her calm had she seen the +night watch of her maid. For the moment Pascherette was dismissed, and +gave a second thought to her orders, a light of dawning hope, +prospective triumph, broke over the small, gold-tinted face and +sleepiness fled for the night. + +"Divided they shall be!" she whispered, and hugged herself rapturously. +"Divided to her disaster and--Milo's triumph!" + +Then the maid wrapped herself in a robe, and went out to the camp. + +Like a fantom she appeared to Venner, and as swiftly vanished; but in +the moment that she bent over him she whispered in his ear that Tomlin +was the chosen of Dolores; that he and Pearse were doomed at the hands +of their friend. + +"I tell thee, watch," she said. "By noon to-morrow the truth shall be +shown to thee." And in leaving him she placed in his hands the rapier +that had been taken from him by Dolores. + +To Tomlin next she appeared, and his rapier also she returned; but in +his ear was breathed the name of John Pearse. To find Pearse himself was +harder; but she waited, and shortly before the dawn he emerged from the +forest and walked dully toward his own charred cell. + +"Hah, my friend," she said to him, suddenly appearing from the shades. +"I fear thy tardiness has defeated thee. Now thou'lt need to look to +thyself, for the man Venner has vowed thy life to Dolores, and that of +Tomlin." + +"What! Venner?" + +"Surely. Why not? Is not Dolores worthy such a sacrifice then? Hah, but +Venner is a man of decision. Thy eyes saw the treasure? It's lost to +thee--unless--" she whispered, peering up into his angry face. + +"Unless?" + +"Unless thou prove the better man. Dolores would have thee before all +the rest, friend; but she despises a waverer. I tell thee thy fortune is +yet in thy hands." + +"How?" + +"Here, I have thy sword. Take it, and keep aloof and watch. When thou +canst see men carrying the treasure chests out to the white vessel, then +will be the time to strike. Join thyself with the men who seem faithful +to my mistress. There will be fighting; and the spoils are for the +victor." + +Pearse would have stayed her, but she ran from him with a tantalizing +laugh and vanished into the women's quarters. + +In the morning, when the men had breakfasted, a hum of activity pervaded +the place which was attributable to the octoroon's subtle influence. As +if by prearrangement, men drew apart into little knots, each gathering +about a leader and showing indecision until each man ascertained exactly +where his fellows were going. Then Dolores appeared with Milo, and she +faced four distinct parties before the great stone. + +The sun was metallic in its redness, rising from behind a group of +low-hanging, hazy clouds, casting its fierce beams on the point and the +low shores of the anchorage. A brazen sky overtopped the scene, giving +to green foliage and yellow sands alike, a glare as of terrific +artificial light. + +As Dolores appeared, the party headed by Caliban stepped forward, +muttering angrily, and every man kept hand on knife or cutlass. Caliban +himself, nervous and yet determined, glared at the formidable giant and +suddenly sprang out alone, shaking his first at Milo, and working +himself into greater fury. A frown darkened the face of Dolores; she had +commanded Pascherette to bring about a condition of unrest, but nothing +like this; for in all four parties was an attitude of suspicion of +herself, not of each other. She spoke in a low voice to Milo, then +raised her hand and advanced toward Caliban. + +"Well, whelp of a deformed dog!" she cried. "What do ye seek with me? Is +this the way I've taught thee to beg?" + +"I beg nothing!" screamed Caliban, pacing to and fro restlessly. "We +demand, not beg!" + +"Demand? Have a care for thy loose tongue!" + +"My tongue's my own! We are tired of thy trumpery state. Tired of thy +mystery and falsity. We know thy plot--know thy cunning scheme to carry +thy favorites away from here--to carry away the treasure that is ours, +not thine! Think ye we men will let ye go, to set the dogs of war-ships +upon us? Here and now we demand a settlement." + +"Demand, again? Good Caliban"--she said softly, and smiled upon +him--"thy training has been faulty. Come, I will answer thee." + +"Ye answer us all, or none. I know thee too well to trust thee. Answer +these men, who ask thy reason for keeping these three strangers to the +detriment of thine own people. Sancho paid dearly for his sight of thy +great chamber. Did the stranger who was in there with thee last night +suffer, too?" + +"That's the talk; answer!" shouted the crew, led by Caliban's band and +supported less vociferously by the rest. + +"Silence, then; I will answer!" cried Dolores, quivering with suppressed +rage. She spoke again to Milo, then turned to face the mob, her head +erect, her eyes ablaze. + +She flashed a keen glance toward Pearse, who had sidled over to the band +led by Stumpy, who seemed less accusative than the others; she nodded +faintly, approvingly, and sought the others. Venner stood aloof, on the +fringe of Hanglip's crowd; Tomlin stood almost by the side of Spotted +Dog. + +"I will answer. I see among ye men of troubled minds, who are not yet +disposed to flout my authority. Thee, Caliban, I have forgiven before; +yet here thou art, venturing again to confront me with demands. I will +not reply to thee, nor to any one man or party. To ye all, my people, I +have my answer. In one hour, in the grove, ye shall hear and be +satisfied. That is my answer now. Come Milo." + +She walked slowly and steadily straight through the midst of the +muttering, grumbling mob, Milo at her back like a gargantuan shadow. And +looking neither to one way or the other, meeting eyes that glared in her +path with cold, dignified disdain, she proceeded through the camp, +across the grove, and to the ledge behind the altar. Savage curses +followed her; men jostled at her heels and dared Milo to prevent them; +the giant, calm and cold as his mistress, moved forward like a human +Juggernaut, laying a resistless hand upon a presuming shoulder here, +flinging aside a leering ruffian there. + +And as the mob thinned, and Dolores entered the cool glade, something in +the situation which she had failed to realize before now struck her with +force; she started at the thought, then uttered a low, rippling laugh of +satisfaction. For Pascherette, in her cunning scheme of double-dealing, +had played into her lady's hands to an extent unhoped for by Dolores. + +"Milo, the wolves are ready to tear," she said. "And they shall +tear--not me, but themselves! Didst note the three strangers? Even they +shall help more than I had hoped." She stepped up behind the altar, and +as she waited for Milo's assistance in climbing to the secret entrance +to the great chamber she asked: + +"Thy blow-pipe, hast forgotten its use." + +"As soon forget the use of my fingers, Sultana!" replied the giant, +permitting a grim smile to wrinkle his face for an instant. + +"Then get thy darts. Have thy pipe ready here, thyself concealed, and +watch thy time to strike. But first light the altar fires. The rogues +believe in my magic no longer; I shall teach them anew, and such magic +as shall convince some of them." + +From the camp arose a babel of uproar, men shouting against each other, +curses and threats alike aimed broadcast. And impatient of the delay, +small groups straggled into the grove to wait, Stumpy's party first, +their leader striving fiercely to quiet their noise. Dolores reappeared +soon, dressed in her altar robe, and her flashing eyes told her quickly +that John Pearse wavered between staying with his chosen party and going +in search of his companions. She caught his eye, and smiled brightly at +him, beckoning him to her. + +He went up to the altar slowly, his face dark and sullen. She waited for +him, ignoring the mutterings of the pirates, and as he approached her +she gave him her hand. + +"My friend, it pleases me to see thee among my faithful ones. Hast made +thy decision?" + +"Decision! False woman, the decision was made while yet I was with you. +The decision was yours, not mine." + +"False? Why, good John, what does that mean?" she asked, frank surprise +on her face. + +"Have you not taken Venner for your man? Is he not your chosen mate, at +the price of my life and Tomlin's?" + +"Fool!" she cried, fiercely. "Thy dreams have mixed thy brains. What +nonsense is this? I told thee thou wert my man, at a price. But thy +decision! Time is short. Say quickly what thou wilt do." + +"Prove to me that I have heard that which is untrue, and I give you my +answer at the hour you demanded it--at noon." + +"If thou remain here, the proof shall be shown thee," she replied, dark +with passion. Not yet had she quite seen through the cunning of +Pascherette. And a growing tumult beyond the trees warned her of greater +stress at hand, she had no more time to spare in argument with Pearse. +She waved him back, and with fire in her eyes commanded Stumpy to take +his men to one side. + +"Stand there! Thy rascals will not dare to flout me!" + +"We don't want to, lady," growled Stumpy, sullenly. He motioned his men +to follow, and took up a position at the right of the altar. But he +glared fearlessly at Dolores as he went, and added: "Ye have none more +faithful than Stumpy, if thy heart is still with us and for us. But +things begin to look plaguey rough, Dolores, since ye spared the white +schooner and her owner." + +Swiftly Dolores stepped down and glided to Stumpy's side, his men +drawing back involuntarily, not in sufficient numbers to be able to +cast off their old awe of her. + +"Thy ear, good Stumpy," she whispered. "Art for thy fellow pirates, or +for me? Speak quickly." + +"I'm for you, lady," he replied, shifting awkwardly on his mutilated +foot. "For you, but not if what we heard is true." + +"I tell thee it was false. Now art for me?" She bent upon him a smile of +dazzling beauty, soft-eyed and almost tender, and the pirate's face grew +ashamed; he knelt at her feet in humble obeisance, and the girl laid her +hand on his head, and bade him rise. + +"Then remain faithful, Stumpy, and thou and thy men shall share in my +fortunes. Look well to the stranger there. Keep him with thee. I hear +the vultures coming." + +She returned to the altar, took her place behind the swirling smoke, and +stood motionless, awaiting the arrival of the crowd whose noisy progress +could be traced step by step. And presently they broke into the grove, +unawed and uproarious, Caliban leading. Still the parties kept apart. +Hanglip and Spotted Dog ranged themselves on either side of Caliban's +gang, and every eye glared redly at the statuesque figure at the altar. + +"Answer! Give us yer answer!" cried Caliban. + +"Hear, my people!" Dolores cried, raising her arms for silence. "My +answer is this. Among ye is a traitor. That traitor has spread lies +among ye. Ye are my people, and none other. Did I not save the white +ship for ye? What if I preserved her people. They are here, and here +they shall remain. Had I thought to desert ye, could I not have gone in +the night? Who should say no? Am I not queen of ye all? Then why this +childish talk of leaving ye?" + +Dolores was carefully fighting for time; she wished to dissect the +feeling of the crowd before her, and while she spoke her irrelevant +nothings, her keen eyes roved over every face. And Spotted Dog drew and +held her gaze as no other did; his face was awork with savage unbelief, +his loose lips wreathed and curled in his impatience to speak. At last +his fury could not be longer restrained; he sprang to the front, and +howled: + +"Lies, all lies! Thy chit of a maid--" + +The words were choked in his throat with terrible suddenness. Like +something unearthly, reaching from the unknown, the hand of death +gripped Spotted Dog and he stumbled and fell forward, gnashing his teeth +and clawing futilely at his breast. Dolores did not move. Her expression +did not change. Milo had again proved faithful. + +But others of Spotted Dog's band, the greatest malcontents, stood +forward and peered down at their fallen leader; then with a shout of +rage they leaped up, faced the altar, and urged their fellows on. + +"More infernal witchcraft!" they cried. "Tear the black witch and her +altar down!" + +A moment of frightful silence followed, for the speakers felt the same +mysterious hand that had reached for and grasped their leader. One by +one they dropped in their tracks, smitten none knew how or whence; and +even Pearse, with Stumpy's band, shivered at the terrible uncanniness of +it. Then Caliban shook off his terror, sensed human agency in the silent +death, and looked around for the hand that sped it. As he glared, a dart +entered his own breast; but this one, ill-sped, failed in its mission. +The pirate staggered, his eyes widened, then he seized the protruding +dart. For an instant he hesitated; then taking the direction indicated +by the slanting missile, he flung an arm toward Stumpy's crew and +howled: + +"There's the dog! There's the sudden death! Tear 'em up, bullies! Pull +Stumpy down!" + +In an instant the grove seethed with a terrific conflict, in which +Stumpy's party was set upon by three times the number. And John Pearse +was carried into the thick of the fight; unwilling or not, his skilled +rapier began to take toll of the roaring furies about him. And while the +battle raged, and Dolores stood calmly looking on, one of the pirates +whose duties had kept him at the anchorage of the schooner appeared with +a rush upon the scene and shouted: + +"Lads, ye're being fooled! The slaves are even now taking the treasure +down to the schooner!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +WHILE VICTORY HANGS IN THE BALANCE. + + +The cry rang through the Grove like a trumpet call, and the fight was +stayed instantly. Every eye flashed upon the bringer of the news, and +behind him stood Pascherette, partly hidden by the trees, her small, +eager face peering from behind a trunk. And as she took in the scene, a +great terror stole into her eyes and her lips opened in a gasp. + +The octoroon had played her great coup. She had carried a lie to the +pirate, hoping that his telling of the treasure to his fellows would +precipitate such an assault upon Dolores that nothing could survive it. +Now she saw the attack already launched without her connivance; she saw +the pirate, dead, and saw Stumpy and one of the strangers stoutly +defending the queen. + +As she stared, at a loss, Caliban staggered out in front again, +clutching at his wound, and screamed: + +"Satan seize ye if that witch escapes ye now! Tear her down! Tear her +down! Then none can keep the treasure from ye." + +His last word ended in a sob. From the hidden giant another dart was +sped truer, and Caliban pitched headlong on the steps of the altar. And +Pascherette, terrified now that they would leave their work incomplete, +swarm after the false treasure report, and thus leave her at the mercy +of the enraged Dolores, frantically sought for Milo among the press. She +knew nothing of his secret duty with the blow-pipe: seeing nothing of +him among the defenders, she surmised he was inside on other duty bent. +In desperation she placed all upon a single hazard, and, running out +into the Grove she screamed: + +"The man lies! It is a lie, to make ye forego thy vengeance. There is no +treasure taken away. Make thy work complete!" + +A medley of conflicting cries arose as the pirates again separated into +three parties. Hanglip's crew, with those of the fallen Caliban, +detached themselves from the rest and from two sides threatened the +altar, where Dolores stood like a statue, glaring at her maid with +deadly fury. Hanglip himself seemed irresolute in the face of the maid's +denial; he stood with cutlas raised, not yet sure whether to attack or +first see to the treasure story. The decision was made for him; for the +pirate bringing the news, seized Pascherette in a fierce grip, and with +knife at her breast shouted: + +"This little snake told me the loot was going, lads! Get the job over, +as I do this!" + +Pascherette squirmed in the pirate's grasp, but all her cunning now +could not avail her. The knife flashed downward, and she fell to her +knees, her tiny golden hands pressed to her side, blood trickling +through her fingers. And her face froze in a mask of horror when from +behind Dolores stepped Milo, armed with a great broad-ax, and bent his +deep black eyes full upon her with terrible accusation in them. + +The giant saw the coming storm, and knew the futility of trying to stem +it with his blow-pipe. He emerged, armed with his ax, at the moment when +the pirates, answering their mate's cry with a shout, surged up the +altar steps with blood in their eyes. + +Dolores now shook off her seeming unconcern, and with alert vision took +in the tremendous crisis. Stumpy's band, with Pearse at their leader's +side, had been driven back in the first attack to the rock itself; and +now stood with their backs to it grimly waiting for the second onset. +They had fought hitherto for her; she saw to it that they did not change +their allegiance. Leaping up to the ledge behind the altar, she cried: + +"Stumpy! Thou'rt my man. Bring thy fellows up here; one man may hold a +score here. Milo! Make way for my faithful ones!" + +With Stumpy on the ledge, and his score of men, the battle became dead +for the moment. Few of the pirates had firearms, except on forays, and +then their ammunition was doled out to them. By this means they had ever +been kept in subjection; and now the plan was to prove their undoing; +for they could not reach their prey, whose cutlas points presented an +insurmountable barrier to their storming the rock. And with John Pearse +up there among the defenders, Tomlin and Venner found themselves +wondering just what their own position was. They, unblinded by the rage +of the pirates, saw the futility of storming that rocky wall with steel, +and in the momentary hush and indecision they withdrew from the mob and +stood apart, thinking over what was to come. + +To Dolores, the hesitation of her foes was something she could not +brook, for her great hope now was to set her rascals at each other's +throats to their ultimate annihilation. She whispered into Milo's ear. + +"Get thy blow-pipe again. Send a dart into Hanglip's black throat, and +let every man see how 'tis done." + +The giant obeyed. The slender, six-inch dart sped fair to its mark, and +Hanglip dropped. But as he fell his eyes saw, as did his men, whence had +come the mysterious death that had already taken heavy toll among them. +And Dolores saw her plan work to amazing effect; for Hanglip, with his +last wheezing breath, raised himself on his elbow, and barked: + +"Now ye see the magic! 'Tis but a man's breath. Up, lads, and take pay +for me!" + +The assault started in grim, silent fury. In waves the attackers mounted +the altar; men gave comrades backs, flung them upward, only to catch +them again as they recoiled from the steel of the defense like broken +seas at a rock base. + +But as the fight advanced, and stricken men were piled high on the great +altar, attacking steel reached higher and began to reap results. +Stumpy's men, now fully persuaded of their queen's regard for them, +fought like paladins, roaring out their rough sea-cries as they cut and +stabbed with increasing gusto. Even Pearse fell under the spell of +fierce action; his rapier played among the heavier strokes of cutlas and +broad-knife like summer lightning. And did a hardy pirate gain the ledge +in spite of all, there stood Milo, like a bronze Fate, with deadly ax +poised to turn success into death. Yet Stumpy's little band grew less; +and Dolores, standing over all like an Angel of Doom, saw that something +must be done speedily unless she was to be left with too great a number +of survivors from this lucky conflict. + +"Make a swift assault, Stumpy. Milo, swing that great ax of thine for +only five minutes," she said. Then when the fight raged higher yet, she +drew Pearse by the arm into the secret entrance. + +"Here, friend, are muskets and pistols. Load them while I pass them out. +We shall see how hungry for our blood these wolves are." + +She showed him the store of arms, in a small cave next to the powder +store, and musket powder and bullets were also there. As he loaded the +weapons, she passed them out in armfuls, then gave Stumpy a flask of +powder for priming, and told him to hold out until Milo could bring up +other resources as yet unknown. + +"And," she said, leading Stumpy inside for a moment, "here you see a +powder-train. There, on the floor. Now hear me, my faithful one, should +thy foes still beat thee back, bring all thy men along this passage, but +before ye come, touch a fire to this train. I shall await thee at the +end, Stumpy, and together we shall see these dogs destroyed." + +She called Milo, gave him a command, and then took Pearse with her into +the great chamber. Here she answered his questioning glance with a soft +smile, and seated him in the great chair. + +"Thy sword has done nobly, good John," she said, laying her hand on his +head. "The peril is over now. Rest. In a little while Milo will have +that which will fill these hungry dogs to the gullet. Rest here. I'll +soon be with thee." She leaned down, laid her lips lightly on his face, +and whispered: "And be of good cheer; the end is in sight for thee and +me." + +She left him sitting there, wrapped in his confused thoughts. Then she +flew to help Milo with his new engine of war which was to decide the +day. From a corner of the apartment the giant dragged a brass culverin, +mounted on a swivel, stolen from the poop-rail of some tall Indiaman in +years gone by. This was charged with powder, and Milo searched for +effective missiles for it. He brought a handful of musket balls to +Dolores; she shook her head decidedly after a moment's thought and +objected: "Those round pellets are too merciful for such cattle. What do +they want? Treasure! Give them treasure, good Milo--their fill of it." +As she spoke she ran swiftly into the treasure chamber and seized +handfuls of gold chains, while at her command Milo followed her with +great gold coins in his huge hands. These they rammed into the cannon, +until links of gold fell from the muzzle; then Dolores regarded the +terrible thing with a mirthless laugh and bade Milo get to work with it. + +"Bid thy men fall back into the gallery as if beaten," she said. "And +when the vile bodies of those howling wolves fill the opening, deliver +the treasure to them, and may their souls be shattered with their +bodies! And that none may remain to repeat this day's mischief, when +they break and fly loose, Stumpy and his dogs shall harry them and +pursue them into the depths of the forest. Let the maroons finish what +we so well begin. See thy gun does not harm the-- Wait," she cried, +"hold thy artillery until ye see me across the Grove! I shall give thee +a sign, then loose thy hell-blast." + +Leaving Milo, she ran again through the great chamber and out by the +rock door, which was rolled aside and standing open. Then around the +mass of the mountain and skirting the grove, past the prostrate +Pascherette she sped, casting a glance of bitter hate at the sorely +wounded octoroon, but never halting until she reached a point of the +underbrush immediately behind the spot where Venner and Tomlin still +ranged back and forth uneasily watching the fight. + +She rustled the foliage noisily, and the two men swung around in alarm. +She thrust her head through the leafy screen, and showed them her face +full of tender solicitude. Her great dark eyes were very soft; her +scarlet lips were parted in a rosy smile. Venner glared at her, then +flashed a glance of reawakening distrust at Tomlin, who returned it +tenfold. + +"Peace, good friends," she said, softly, laying a finger on her lips and +nodding toward the raging battle. "Come with me. Both of ye. The day +goes badly with me, and I would undo much that I have done toward ye. +Come quickly, and with caution." + +A momentary distrust for her made them hesitate; then she whispered +intensely: "Haste. This is your opportunity." + +Venner first shook off his moodiness and followed her into the brush; +and Tomlin was close behind him. When she had them in covert, she +stepped out once more, waited to catch Milo's eye at the ledge, then +gave him the sign. And the defenders fell back as if suddenly broken and +beaten. She waited still, until the attackers swarmed over their own +dead, stamping over her altar, and gained the entrance, where they +crowded in a milling, roaring mass. Then she glided back to the +underbrush and said tersely: + +"Come!" + +Venner and Tomlin walked on either side of her, not caring to meet each +other's eye, for their subjection to Dolores's spell was complete +whenever in close proximity to her. Hurriedly she led them around the +cliff to the great entrance, beyond which they had never stepped. And +they went full of tremendous hopes and suspicions, in which the hope +predominated; they failed even to cast a look at their schooner, then +lying free at anchor, with a few men visible on her decks. Three of the +pirates' long boats lay on the shore abreast of her. + +They stood in the entrance to the great chamber, sensing some of the awe +that filled the mysterious place, peering into the gloom where the ruby +lights now failed to cast their glow in the broader light of day +entering the open aperture. Dolores led them in with a gesture and a +smile, and they reached the massive plated sliding door and stood +beneath the yellow lantern, gazing in speechless wonder at the richness +of that barrier. And while they waited, mystified and uneasy, from +beyond the mountain came the crash of Milo's gun, and the tremendous +discharge reverberated through and through the rock, making the passage +where they stood rumble and quake as if the mountain were about to fall. + +Their faces went white, and Dolores gave them a reassuring clasp of the +hand while she pressed the side-post of the door and started the pulley +and weight mechanism that would give them entry. + +"Welcome, friends. Enter," she smiled, standing aside to permit them to +pass. And Rupert Vernier and Craik Tomlin, forgetting their gloomy +thoughts regarding each other, entered the great chamber, and were +brought to a sudden halt at the sight of John Pearse sitting at his ease +through the strife in the high chair of state. + + +TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, +and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a +month. + + + + +The Pirate Woman + +by Captain Dingle + +Author of "The Coolie Ship," "Steward of the Westward," etc. + + +This story began in the All-Story Weekly for November 2. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +DOLORES DEMANDS A DECISION. + + +Milo let loose his infernal blast, and the smashing report was followed +by a hush as of death. Then through the blinding and choking powder-reek +came the groans and shrieks of the mutilated wretches whose evil fate +had placed them in the path of the horribly despatched treasure. The eye +could not penetrate the smoke that filled the narrow rock passage; +Stumpy and his men were blackened and smeared with smoke and sweat, +demoniacal to the ultimate degree; and these were the men Milo hurled +forth now to make the _debacle_ complete. + +"Out upon them!" he cried, urging Stumpy to the ledge. "Leave not one of +these dogs alive, Stumpy, and thy fortune is made. Thy Sultana will +reward thee magnificently. Out with ye!" + +Stumpy hitched his poor clubfoot along in brave haste, and flourished +his cutlas in a hand that dripped red. For once in his stormy life the +crippled pirate felt something of the glow that pervaded the heart of +devoted Milo: for a moment he felt he was redeeming himself by enlisting +his undoubted courage in a worthy cause. + +"At 'em, lads!" he roared, leaping down through the smoke. "Dolores, +Dolores! Give 'em hell, bullies!" + +He stumbled and fell, his crippled foot playing him false. He sprang up +with a curse of pain, bit hard on his lip, and plunged into the huddled +remnants of the attackers, his roaring bullies at his heels. His +onslaught was the one thing needed to put terror into the hearts of the +survivors of Milo's blast. Coming through the leek like so many devils, +Stumpy and his crew put their foes to flight and followed eagerly, +hungrily; the forest rang and echoed with the clash of action and the +smashing of underbrush in panicky flight. + +Now Milo, his duty to his Sultana performed, thought of Pascherette. The +little octoroon lay where she had fallen, a pitiful little huddled heap; +never once had her pain-dulled eyes left the giant, or the place where +he might appear. And now she saw him coming toward her, not as a +ministering angel, but like a figure of wrath, swinging his great +broad-ax in one hand as easily as another man might swing a cutlas. She +shivered as he stood over her, accusing. + +"Milo!" she panted, gazing up at his magnificent height in plaintive +supplication. + +"Serpent!" he replied, and the utter contempt in his voice went to her +heart like a sword-thrust. "Hast a God to pray to before I send thy +false soul adrift?" + +"I have but one God, Milo; to Him I should not pray." + +She fixed her burning gaze upon him, and in her pained eyes blazed all +the tremendous love that actuated her small being. + +"A God thou canst not pray to, traitor? Art afraid, then?" + +"Not afraid, Milo," she whispered, and her eyelids drooped. "I cannot +pray to one who looks down upon me as thou dost." + +"I?" The giant's expression changed to frowning displeasure rather than +anger. "I?" he repeated. + +"Thee, my heart. Thou'rt my god, my all. For thee I have done this +thing. For thee, who even now canst not see where lies the falsity. +Milo"--her weak voice sank to a low murmur--"I beg thy forgiveness. My +love for thee caused me to sin. My life is to pay the supreme price. Let +me die at least in thy forgiveness." + +"Forgive? Forgive thee, who worked for the destruction of the being I +worship? Rather shall I speed thy soul!" + +Pascherette struggled to a kneeling position, crossed her tiny hands on +her panting breast, and looked full into his eyes as a wounded hart +looks at the hunter. Her lip quivered, her small, gold-tinted face, once +so piquant and full of allure, had taken on a gray hue from her pain, +but there was no hiding the great, overwhelming love for the giant that +gleamed in her eyes. + +"Milo," she said, and the word was a caress, "Milo, if thou must, strike +swiftly. Yet again I ask, forgive." + +The giant slowly lowered his great ax, and his honest heart answered the +pitiful plea. His deep chest swelled and throbbed; into his face crept +the look that had been there on that day when he told Pascherette he +loved her--loved her, yet worshiped Dolores as his gods. Letting the ax +fall to his elbow by the thong at the haft, he stooped and tenderly +picked up the girl, carrying her as a child carries a doll; yet his face +was averted from Pascherette's passionate lips that sought to kiss him. + +"Not yet can I forgive thee," he said. "Be content that I shall not kill +thee, girl. Perhaps, if thy acts have failed in their end, I may forgive +thee; not yet." + +He carried her around to the great rock, and through the passage into +the great chamber, bursting in upon a situation of growing intensity. +Dolores sat on a corner of the table, with all her seductive lures in +her beautiful face, smiling invitingly at Rupert Venner. Craik Tomlin +glared at both, yet his gaze seemed hard to restrain from wandering +around the gorgeous chamber, whose wealth he saw now for the first time. +Venner, too, had been seized by the jewel-hunger, although neither he, +nor Tomlin, guessed at the immensely greater wealth that had been +revealed to Pearse. As for Pearse, he sat glowering in his chair, +nervous and smoldering; ready at a hint to draw steel without caring +what the object. He simply saw rivalry where fifteen minutes before he +had thought his own course clear. + +Milo appeared to them; carrying his sobbing burden, and the interruption +brought a blaze of fury to Dolores's face. She went pale, and her hands +clenched and opened nervously. + +"Well, slave?" she cried, and Milo started. Never had she used that tone +to him. + +"Sultana, I thought thou wert alone," he replied, haltingly. "I have +brought Pascherette to thee for forgiveness." + +"I forgive? Pish! What care I for thy chit? Take her where ye will, and +trouble me not with such trash. Out, now! Let me not see her face again, +and I care not what ye do with her. But haste. I have work for thee and +a score of slaves. Bring them here quickly!" + +Silently Milo bore Pascherette to the small room beyond the great +chamber, which had been her resting-place while not in attendance on +Dolores. And there, still shaking his head to her plea, though with +deepening trouble in his eyes, he left her, crying herself into a fitful +slumber. + +Then with slaves dragged from the corners where they had cowered during +the fight, he entered the great chamber, and at Dolores's command set +them to carrying out the closed treasure-chests that stood in their old +places around the walls. + +And the sight of the great chests actually going out brought fiery +jealousy back to the eyes of the three yachtsmen. Now Dolores +half-closed her own inscrutable eyes, and watched them, catlike, +cunning. Pearse sprang from the great chair and began pacing the floor +in a heat. Venner alone seemed to retain any vestige of control over +his feelings; and he rapidly lost his color and began to peer about him. + +One chest went out, and the cries of the slaves could be heard as they +lowered it over the cliff. They returned for another, and now Dolores +leaped to her feet and followed them, flinging over her shoulder a smile +of invitation. Pearse answered instantly; the others paused. Then she +laughed like a siren and held out her hands to the hesitant ones, and +said softly and pleasantly: + +"Have no fears, timid ones. Thy minds are indeed hard to fathom. I but +want to show thee how I am repaying thee for thy sufferings here. Come." + +They followed her, and together they entered the rocky tunnel. At the +end of it the yellow sunlight blazed like a fire, in the circular +aperture was framed a picture of wonderful beauty. The blue sky, flecked +with fleecy cloudlets, filled the upper half of the circle; then the +sparkling sea of deeper blue lifted its dazzling whitecaps to the kiss +of the trades and formed a gem-like background for the brazen sands, the +glowing green-and-purple of the Point, and the dainty ivory-and-gold of +the white schooner. + +It was all mellowed and diminished as seen through a glass at great +distance; and on the shore the men toiling to load a great +treasure-chest into a long-boat looked like tiny manikins posed about a +delicate model of marine life. The second chest yet stood on the +cliff-edge, slaves about it lashing double slings and tackles that led +from a boulder for lowering it down. + +Dolores stepped back, permitting the three men to take in the view +without restriction. And she watched them again, her face enigmatic if +they glanced at her, breaking into an expression of nearing triumph when +they looked away, and left her free to scrutinize them. She saw John +Pearse step a pace behind the others, and his fingers clutched absently +at his rapier-hilt while the veins on his neck stood out and throbbed +like live things. + +"One more chest, perhaps two, and I shall see who will be my man!" she +whispered to herself. + +Then she left them without a word, and returned to the great chamber, +where she snatched up an immense rope of pearls and resumed her seat on +the edge of the table. There she sat, giving them no glance, when the +three men came back, hastily, uneasily, one behind the other, with +Tomlin bringing up the rear, scowling at Venner's back malevolently. + +Idly now Dolores rolled her pearls on the table, and one by one she +crushed them with her dagger-hilt--crushed in one moment the wealth of +many a petty princeling, and still crushed gem after gem without so much +as a flicker of interest on her cool face. The three men glared at her, +and at each other, and the stress they were under could be felt like an +impending electric storm. Tomlin's teeth gritted together harshly, his +lips were dripping saliva, and he could stand it no longer. He stepped +suddenly before Dolores, seized her hands, and cried: + +"Woman, you are mad! Do you know what those things are? They are pearls, +woman, pearls! Stop this crazy destruction, and in God's name let us go +before you madden us." + +Dolores turned her cool gaze upon him, drew her hand away easily yet +without apparent effort, and crushed another pearl between her gleaming +teeth. + +"Pearls?" she repeated, tossing away the shattered gem. "Pearls, yes, +friend. What of it? Do ye value these trifles, then? Pish! I have such +things as these, aye, one for every hair on thy hot head. But let ye +go--ha! That is in thy hands, my friend, thine and thy companions." + +"Yes, we know your price!" gasped Venner hoarsely, staring full into her +eyes. "But what is to prevent us now, when we have you alone, and that +great giant is away, from binding you fast and sailing away with the +treasure you have already put in my vessel?" + +"What can prevent?" she echoed, simulating surprise that such a question +should occur to any one. "Nothing shall prevent, my friend, if any of ye +think to try it. Have I not said my treasure is for the man who wins it. +Am I not waiting for the man able to take it, that I may go with him, +too? Here--" She suddenly flung down the pearls at Tomlin's feet, +glided close to Venner, and thrust her red lips up to him, her violet +eyes like brimming pools behind her drooping lashes. "Here, tie me, my +Rupert. Here are my hands; there my feet. Bind me well, and go if thou +canst. What, wilt thou not? There, I knew thee better than thou knowest +thyself." + +She stepped back with a low laugh, and her arm brushed his cheek, +sending the hot blood surging to his temples. John Pearse crouched +toward Venner, as if waiting for him to lay a finger on Dolores at his +peril. She smiled at all three, and stepped over to the side of the +chamber, where she carelessly pointed out sacred vessels and altar +furnishings, gems of art and jewel-crusted lamps. + +"Here, also, is a reason why ye will not go, my friends. Your eyes, +accustomed to these things in the great world outside, dare not ignore +their worth. And I tell ye that all the treasure now going to the vessel +could not purchase the thousandth part of my real treasure, which I will +not show, until I know my man." She glanced at Pearse as she spoke, and +saw rising greed in his eyes. He had seen the real treasure; he was ripe +for her hand. Milo and his slaves returned for another chest, and +Dolores waited until they had gone; then she glided swiftly toward the +passage, and turned at the door. + +"I shall return in fifteen minutes, gentlemen," she said. "Then my man +must be ready, or I will drop the great rock at the entrance, and leave +ye all three caged here until ye die. For go I will, mated or mateless, +with all my treasure, ere the sun sinks into the western sea." And as +she left them she flashed a look of appeal at John Pearse. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +THE SLUMBERING SAVAGE. + + +Pearse followed her with his eyes until she vanished into the passage; +then with muttering lips and harshly working features he strode down the +chamber to the great tapestry behind which lay the powder store. The +suspicion had come to him that Dolores was fooling them all regarding +her real treasure; for he believed she had shown him everything, and if +those heavy chests contained but a tithe of the whole, life was certain +that the gems around the walls were not what she meant when she said she +had still a thousand times greater riches than the chests contained. + +He tore aside the tapestry, and tried to see through the gloom of the +cavern. His eyes could not pierce the blackness, and he looked around +for a light, while Venner and Tomlin walked toward him with sudden +interest in their faces. Over the tall Hele clock a lantern hung; a +gaudy thing of beaten gold, in which an oil wick burned, gleaming out in +multicolored light through openings glazed with turquoise and sapphire, +ruby, and emerald. He took this down, and impatiently tore away the side +of it to secure a stronger light. Again he went to the powder store, and +now Venner and Tomlin were at his back, peering over his shoulder or +under his arms in curiosity as to his quest. + +And, sensing their presence, he swung around upon them savagely, +muffling the cry that answered the message of his eyes. Flinging the +lantern down, he trampled it out, and with snarling teeth he faced them, +his rapier flickering from the sheath like a dart of lightning. + +"Back!" he barked, and advanced one foot, falling into a guard. "This is +no concern of yours, Venner, nor yours, Tomlin. Back, I say!" + +Tomlin stared into his furious face and laughed greedily. His keen eyes +had seen a vague, shadowy something in the cavern, that filled him with +the same passion which consumed Pearse. + +"So you are the lucky one, eh, Pearse?" he chuckled, and his hand went +to his own rapier. He stepped back a pace, and, never taking his eyes +from Pearse, cried: "Venner, it's you and me against the devil and +Pearse! A pretty plot to fool us, indeed; but Pearse was too eager. Peep +into that hole, man, and see!" + +Venner glared from one to the other, not yet inflamed as they were. But +what he saw in their faces convinced him that great stakes were up to +be played for, and he edged forward bent upon seeing for himself. + +"Back!" screamed Pearse, presenting his rapier at Venner's breast. +Venner persisted, and the steel pricked him. Then, as Tomlin's weapon +rasped out, Venner's blood leaped to fighting-heat with his slight +wound, and in the next instant the three-sided duel was hotly in +progress. + +Three-sided it became after the first exchanges. For Pearse, the most +skilled in fence, applied himself to Venner as his most dangerous foe, +and with the cunning of the serpent Craik Tomlin saw and seized his own +opportunity. Let Pearse and Venner kill each other, or let that end be +accomplished with his outside help, and there was the solution that +Dolores had demanded them to work out; one of them left, to be master of +the wealth of Croesus; to be the mate of a magnificent creature, who +could be goddess or she-devil at will. + +With a satanic chuckle Tomlin drew back, leaving his friends to fight +themselves weary, his own rapier ever presented toward them, urging them +on with lashing tongue. And Venner flashed a look at him as Caesar did at +Brutus, and suffered for his lapse in vigilance. For with the pounce of +a leopard Pearse was upon him, and his rapier grated over Venner's guard +and darted straight at his throat. But Venner's time had not come yet; +Tomlin flashed his own weapon in and parried the stroke for him, backing +away again with a murderous snarl. + +"Not yet, my friends!" he cried. "You're too strong yet, Pearse. At him, +Venner; let me see you draw blood as he has, that I may see my own way +clearer." + +From the other end of the great chamber Dolores watched the conflict +from the concealment of the velvet hangings over the door; and her hands +were clasped in ecstasy, her lips parted to the swift breathing that +agitated her breast; in her blazing eyes her wicked soul lurked, sending +out its evil aura to envelop the combatants and instil deeper hatred +into them. + +The fight raged back and forth around the powder store; once a sudden +onslaught by Pearse forced Venner back to the great chair; Tomlin's +swift rush to keep close brought all three into a tumbled crash at the +dais, and the chair was overturned in a heap of flying draperies that +entangled their feet. And while Pearse and Venner struggled vainly to +maintain their footing, Tomlin began to accomplish his own dire ends. +Crouching, with his dark face full of evil passions, he drove his point +first at one, then at the other, stabbing through the involved silk and +skins. + +In his furious haste to complete his murderous work, he sprang forward +carelessly, his foot became entangled, and he pitched face downward upon +his victims. Now Pearse seized the opening; but when he arose, +stumblingly, there was a different expression on his face, a +horror-stricken realization of Tomlin's treachery. Venner lay, still +unable to disentangle himself, but slightly hurt, and he, too, regarded +Tomlin with a look of sorrow and reawakening sanity. + +"Up, murderer, and fight!" rasped Pearse, stepping astride Venner and +glaring down at Tomlin. "Venner, draw aside. Let me punish this +scoundrel we have called friend; then meet me if you wish." + +Tomlin looked up with a snarl of baffled rage, expecting swift reprisal +for his treacherous attempt. Gone was the last vestige of civilization +from his face; greed of gold, jewel-hunger, blood-lust, all played about +his reddened eyes and cruel, down-drawn mouth. The primitive came +through the veneer of culture and showed him the man he really was. And +evil though his spirit had proved, in this final test his courage showed +up like that of the tiger. He leaned on one elbow, watching Pearse like +a cat, then slowly knelt and stood, keeping his point down. With the +bestial cunning that had overwhelmed him, he circled away from the +trappings and draperies of the chair that had brought him down, and +responded to Pearse's chivalrous waiting with a sneer. + +"You had better have made sure while you had the chance, Pearse," he +grinned, showing his teeth wolfishly. "Venner can wait. There is no +treasure for three; Dolores is mine! Guard!" + +With the word Tomlin made a savage attack without waiting for Pearse to +fall into guard. And Dolores came from her concealment, advanced +half-way down the chamber, and watched with a new intensity that was +not apparent while Venner was in the fight. + +Pearse avoided his opponent's thrust at the expense of a pierced left +hand, which caught the other's point a hand-breadth from his breast. +Then the duel dropped to equality. Swift and silent they fought, silent +save for the rasp and screech of steel on steel, their feet padding +noiselessly on the deep-piled carpet. Venner drew aside and watched, his +eyes losing their hard glare, and some of his old expression returned to +his face. It was as if his resurging emotions were bringing back to him +the shame and remorse of a gentleman inveigled into performing a +despicable action. He, too, saw Dolores approaching; saw the tensity of +her expression; sensed some of the tremendous hopes that actuated her, +now that she saw the rapid culmination of all her plots and seductions. + +She stood quite near to him now, leaning forward in an attitude of utter +anxiety. She saw nothing of Venner; her great, violet eyes were dusky +and full of yearning, her hands clutched at her breast. And all the +intensity of her gaze was fixed upon Tomlin. She responded to his +momentary success when he drove Pearse back with a savage assault, with +a panting little cry of joy; she fell back with widened eyes when a +counter-attack forced Tomlin almost upon her. And her lips opened in a +gasp when a vicious clash of steel told of a pressed onslaught, and +Pearse lunged heavily forward. + +In the instant when Pearse followed his first plunge, Dolores stood in +uncertainty through which dawned jubilation. Then her face went white, +she seemed to lose all her splendid vitality; for her astounded eyes +fastened upon Pearse's rapier-point, protruding a foot from Tomlin's +back, and slowly the stricken man sagged away and fell at her feet, +clutching at the steel at his breast and snarling like a beast. + +A hush fell over the great chamber. Then from a distance came the sound +of voices, voices of men down at the shore, ringing clear and sharp on +the still air, accentuating the deathly hush that clung around the +actors in the scene like a heavy mantle. It startled Dolores into +renewed life. She ran with feverish eagerness toward Tomlin, hurling +aside the others, and crouching upon the body in dry-eyed rage. + +Venner sought to catch the eye of the victor, and saw in Pearse a +reflection of the feelings that had possessed himself. John Pearse +showed every sign of horror and awakened sanity that had marked his own +expression before the fatal fight had started. Their eyes met, and there +was no challenge in them. Both dropped their gaze involuntarily upon the +huddled figures at their feet; and it was Pearse, the man who had +precipitated the conflict at first, who nodded with his head a silent +invitation to withdraw. Venner stepped after him, softly and with bowed +shoulders, shuddering violently as he passed the expiring Tomlin. + +They reached the door together, and with the rocky tunnel open before +them, once more holding up to their eyes the picture of absolute beauty +of sea and sky and shore, they filled their lungs with fresh, wholesome +air, and shook off the last of the evil spell that had held them. + +"In God's name, Pearse, let us fly from this hellish place!" whispered +Venner, dropping his rapier to the rocky floor with a clatter, and +thrusting his hand out in reconciliation. + +"Yes, Venner, and pray Heaven we may forget!" replied Pearse fervently. +"But how shall we get away? The giant and his crew are yet at the +schooner." + +"We must wait. They will return soon for more booty. Then we must seize +the chance. Is that somebody coming now?" + +Milo's great shoulders reared above the cliff, and behind him came the +slaves. They came directly toward the great rock, and Pearse flattened +himself against the wall in the shadow of the portals, pressing Venner +back also with a hand across his chest. + +"Hush! Hide here. Let them enter, and we'll make one leap for the +shore." + +The giant swung into the passage, his black eyes blazing with some +emotion that the hidden pair could not fathom. It was something on the +border of fear, but of what? Fear and Milo was a combination hard of +reconciliation. The slaves at his heels followed dumbly, slaves in +thought and action; if their dulled brains ever awoke, it was but to +the call of animal appetites; they were incapable of devotion such as +Milo's, and as incapable of shock should their obedience fail reward. +They passed into the great chamber, and a throaty cry of alarm burst +from the giant at the sight of his Sultana prone on the floor. + +"Now!" whispered Pearse, taking the lead. "Swift and silent!" + +Like ghosts they ran from the tunnel, glanced around once as they +reached the cliff path, then leaped down the declivity. That swift +glance showed them the camp deserted except for the wondering women, who +wandered idly among the empty huts, ever looking toward the forest +wherein had vanished all their men, waiting with bovine patience for any +one to settle their uncertainty for them. + +And the forest was yet very still. The Feu Follette lay at a single +anchor, heading in the light breeze fair to seaward; a few heads showed +above her rail, and the stops had been cast off from her snowy sails. At +her gangway a single boat lay, the painter made fast on deck; on the +foreshore the other two long-boats were drawn up on the sand, planks +running up to their sides in readiness for the embarkation of yet more +treasure. + +Venner and Pearse raced down the steep path, using little precaution, +sending showers of stones and clods flying before them. And Peters, the +schooner's sailing-master, saw them coming, and his voice rang out +calling for hands to man the boat. Two men answered and entered the boat +as the two fugitives reached the shore and ran along the Point. Pearse +counted the minutes at their disposal, and saw the futility of waiting +for that boat. He clutched eagerly at Venner's arm, and panted in his +ear: + +"Tell them to hold on! Let them get the schooner ready for swift +departure. Come, we must swim for it." + +Venner hesitated but a second. Then his hail went hurtling over the +still haven, and the two seamen scrambled out of the boat again. + +"Swim it is, Pearse," he said, leading the way down to deep water. "Swim +it is, and may the ever-cleansing sea wash out of us the last traces of +insanity." + +Together they plunged into the blue sea and swam swiftly out to the +schooner. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +THE FLIGHT OF THE FEU FOLLETTE. + + +Dolores, flinging herself down upon Craik Tomlin, seized his face +between her hands and raised his head, placing her knee beneath it. She +panted like an exhausted doe, yet the fire that leaped from her eyes +gave the lie to her attitude of sorrowing humility. Her lips moved +feverishly, but she could not or would not speak aloud. Tomlin's eyes +were closed in agony, his teeth were clenched tightly upon his under +lip; he gave no sign that he knew of her presence. And a sudden fury +seized her at his irresponsiveness. She shook his head between her hands +savagely. + +"Wake! Speak!" she cried hoarsely. "Art indeed dead, at the moment of my +triumph?" + +Tomlin's eyelids flickered, and his lips strove to speak. One hand went +weakly to his face, to grasp her fingers. And into her anxious ear he +managed to whisper: + +"Evil luck fought with me, Dolores. Yet I die content if you care." + +"Care!" she echoed, shaking his fingers loose impatiently. "Care? Yes, +this I care, bungler: I care because of all three of thee, thou alone +wert covetous enough to obey my conditions. With thee alive, there was +hope of thy friends' speedy death. With thee dead, which of the others +will wipe his fellow from his path for me? Why, think ye, did I fawn on +John Pearse? But to arouse in thee the demon of jealousy; why did I +smile on Venner, and call him my Rupert? To steel thy arm against him. +And for what?" + +She suddenly laid his head down on the floor, leaned over him with her +lips almost brushing his cheek, and whispered fiercely: "Speak! Canst +live?" + +Tomlin's face lost some of its pain. The thin lips straightened into the +semblance of a faint smile. His glazing eyes opened slightly. + +"I am done for," he whispered. "Dolores, kiss me again. I die for you." + +The beautiful fury sprang to her feet, spurning him. She glared down at +his chalky face in utter scorn. + +"Kiss thee? Thou die for me? Pah! I kiss no carrion. A half-hundred men +have died for me this day, I hope. I kiss him who lives for me and +conquers, not the weakling who dies!" + +Without deigning another glance at her victim, she turned away and went +to meet Milo. He now entered with his slaves. + +"Where are the two strangers?" she demanded harshly. + +Milo returned her stare with a look of simple surprise. He had seen +nothing of them, and had thought of them being yet with his mistress. + +"I saw them not, Sultana," he replied. + +"Saw them not, great clod!" she blazed at him, clenching her hands in +rage. "Are they here, then?" + +Milo looked around in bewilderment. In all her life Dolores had been his +especial care; in her many moments of temper she had perhaps pained his +devoted heart, but never had she used to him the tone she now used. It +seemed to his simple soul that the foundations of his faith were being +wrenched loose. + +"I will find them, Sultana," he said quietly, and turned to leave by the +tunnel. + +"Stay here, thou blind fool!" she commanded him. "I will find them +myself. Here is work more fitting for a slave. How many chests are going +to the ship?" + +"Three." + +"And how many have ye yet empty here?" + +"Three, lady." + +"Then get them quickly. Until I return, bid thy fellows replace the +treasure that is still in the powder store. And haste, for I will leave +this place this day, though all the fiends say no." + +She ran along the tunnel, and Milo set his men to their task. As he +passed along to the powder chamber, a low moan arrested him, and he +halted in sudden remorse for Pascherette, whom he now felt he had judged +harshly. He left his fellows and went to the tiny alcove where the +little octoroon lay, and his great heart leaped in response to the +worship that shone in her dark eyes. He saw the dry and cracked lips, +the flushed face, and fetched water and wine before he would speak to +her. Then, with her small head and slender shoulders against his immense +chest, he gave her drink, soothing her pain with soft speech and +caressing hand. + +Pascherette's wound was deep, and bleeding internally; a fever already +burned in the tiny maid's veins. She peered up at him wistfully, all of +her mischief, all her piquancy gone and replaced by a softened, humbled +expression that wrung Milo's heart-strings. + +"Will ye not kiss me now, Milo?" she whispered, with a pearly drop +brimming from each eye, where laughter had so lately dwelt. + +"Pascherette, thy fault was great," he answered, yet in his face was a +look so forgiving, so excusing, that the girl shivered expectantly and +closed her eyes with a happy sigh. + +Yet the kiss was not given. From the great chamber the angry voice of +Dolores rang out. + +"Milo! Where art thou, slave!" + +And the giant tenderly laid Pascherette down again, and ran in answer. + +"Sultana?" + +"Blind, idle dolt! While thou art fondling that serpent of thine, thy +mistress's affairs may go hang! Haste with the treasure, or feel my +anger. While thy useless eyes were mooning on nothing, the strangers +have escaped. They are even now getting sail on the white vessel. Carry +the chests down to the Point as soon as ye may. I will stay them yet, +and they shall learn the cost of flouting Dolores! Hasten, I tell ye!" + +Milo winced at her address; his black eyes, usually holding the utter +devotion of a noble dog, glittered with tiny sparks of resentment; yet +the habit of years could not be lightly cast off, and he bowed low, even +while Dolores had turned her back on him, and picked up a great empty +chest to carry it to the powder store. Here in the flickering light of a +pine splinter the slaves worked feverishly, their abject eyes sparkling +with borrowed radiance from the riches they handled. + +And while they worked, Dolores emerged from the tunnel, flashed one long +glance of derision at the moving schooner, and sped down the cliff to +stop her flight. + +The Feu Follette was poorly enough manned with Peters and his four men. +With the ready help of Venner and Pearse the getting of the anchor and +the hoisting of the heavy fore and main sails was an arduous job, but it +was accomplished under the tremendous urge of remembrance. None wished +to have the experiences of the past days repeated; Peters was anxious to +get his beautiful vessel into safer waters; the Feu Follette's owner and +his guest were doubly anxious to drop those blue hills of ominous memory +below the horizon forever. They gave scant attention to the three great +iron-bound chests that stood between the guns along the waist; getting +clear occupied every faculty. + +The tide setting directly on the Point, with a breeze dead in from +seaward, forced the schooner perilously close to the bar that had been +her undoing before; but, with the lead going, Peters speedily found that +his previous mishap must undoubtedly have been due to clever misleading. +After touching lightly once, and getting deeper water at the next cast +over the lee side, he understood the trick of the extended false Point +and stood boldly along shore. + +And as the schooner gathered steerage-way, hugging the Point closely, +Dolores ran out along the sandy beach and plunged into the sea abreast +the moving vessel. + +"Here's that vixen woman, sir!" cried Peters angrily, looking toward +Venner for instructions. Peters had the helm, and owner and guest stood +against the companion, ready to lend a hand at the sheets, forward or +aft. + +Venner and Pearse stared at the swimmer, then turned and gazed +searchingly at each other. In the face of each lingered a trace of the +subjection they had fallen under; neither could quite so quickly forget +the allurements of this woman. Her kisses had been as sweet as her fury +had been terrible; and the absence of Craik Tomlin was an additional +incentive to memory. + +"Shall we take her away?" asked Venner, avoiding Pearse's eye as he put +the question. + +"Can't you make more sail, Peters?" was Pearse's reply. + +Venner laughed softly, agreeably; and the next moment Dolores hailed +them. She swam swiftly, with effortless ease, slipping through the sea +like a sparkling nymph in her native element. But the schooner traveled +fast, and, though she lost no ground, she gained but slowly. She hailed +again. + +"Rupert, my Rupert!" and finished the cry with a rippling laugh. "Art +stealing my treasure and leaving me?" + +"By Heavens, Pearse, I had forgotten these chests," said Venner +uneasily. Pearse regarded him closely, fearing that Dolores's spell was +yet powerful. He gripped Venner tightly by the arm, leaned nearer, and +said: + +"Venner, so long as that blood-polluted treasure is on your deck, so +long will you be unable to settle your mind. Bid the hands pitch it into +the sea, for God's sake!" + +A lull in the wind slowed the schooner down, and Dolores gained a +fathom. Her fair face was set toward them in a bewitching smile, and she +waved a gleaming arm at them. Venner fought with himself in silence for +a brief while, then with a shudder stepped to the wheel. + +"Get the hands, Peters," he told the sailing-master, "and heave those +chests overboard. Quickly! You shall lose nothing by this, but don't +delay a moment!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +STUMPY FIRES THE MAGAZINE. + + +Milo and his slaves worked frenziedly at their task, his suddenly bitter +spirit flogging them to unremitting haste. In the giant's troubled face +the smoldering spark of resentment had grown to an incipient blaze that +required but a breath to burst into angry flame. + +One great chest was filled with the choicest of the gems in the powder +store; it was set aside in the entrance beside the tapestry, and another +box was opened before the powder-kegs. Little Pascherette had ceased +moaning, but from time to time a choking sob sounded from her alcove +that increased the hard brilliancy of the light in Milo's eyes. The +great chamber was silent as a mausoleum in the intervals between the +clashing and tinkling of gold and stones in the chest; from the outside, +by way of the rock tunnel, came only the sigh and murmur of the crooning +breeze, the softened plash of the tide on the shore, the scream of +wheeling seabirds. All sound of the schooner had departed; there was no +human note in the whole region. + +Then, as the second chest was almost full, and Milo pulled the third and +last along in readiness, from the secret gallery behind the Grove came +the shouts and oaths of men, weary, footsore men, but men with animal +appetites whetted by the day of bloody conflict. They could be heard at +the great door in the painting of the "Sleeping Venus"; not knowing its +secret their way was barred. But Stumpy's hoarse roar could be heard +calling them back to the ledge, and there was a note of menace in his +tired tones. And mingling with his voice was the voice of a woman of the +camp, raised in shrill complaint. Milo stepped to the picture and +listened. + +"I tell ye the fiend has tricked ye, Stumpy!" the woman cried. + +"Tricked me? Have a care how ye talk that way, woman!" Stumpy's voice +replied warningly. + +"Aye, tricked ye and me and all of us! Even now--come to the cliff, and +I'll show ye." + +The scrambling of heavy feet could be heard in the gallery as men rushed +out in answer. How many men Milo could not determine; but fewer than had +followed Stumpy into the forest in chase of their broken foes. The +slaves at the treasure-chests paused in their work, alarm on their +shining faces, looking ever toward Milo for instructions. + +Milo ran back through the great chamber and out by the tunnel to the +cliff, peering around for Stumpy and hoping to see the schooner putting +back. + +Without Dolores he was at a loss; yet he was not ready to leave his +charge to be gazed upon by untried eyes. His breast swelled nigh to +bursting at sight of the schooner. The Feu Follette was but half a mile +away in a straight line from the cliff; she had been tacking against a +light breeze and flood tide around the Point, and while she had sailed +several miles through the water, she had but just gained past the face +of the cliff. And far from returning, she sailed farther and farther +away as he watched, nursed with such skill of sheet and helm as proved +to Milo's seamanly eye that her people would never return of their free +will. And what of Dolores? His condor's vision picked her out as soon as +the schooner. Her gleaming arms and shoulders swept rhythmically over +and over, cleaving the sea easily and smoothly, her lustrous hair +streaming behind her, and the sun glinting brightly from the gold +circlet around her head. She was gaining foot by foot, and Milo keenly +scrutinized the schooner for signs of surrender. There were none. At the +schooner's rail three heads were visible; but Milo knew neither belonged +to Venner nor Pearse. That persuaded him that the schooner was unlikely +to come back. And the even, tireless manner in which Dolores swam +convinced him that she would follow to the end. Yet he would not utterly +believe she had deserted him. He glared around for the men whose voices +he heard now, raised in anger in chorus with the voices of the woman and +her companions. Stumpy stepped out from the grove path with but four men +behind him; and they were in sore plight. Stumpy himself dangled an idly +swinging sleeve that was stained dark-red to the shoulder. A red sear +across his nose and cheek rendered him a demoniacal figure through the +powder, smoke and sweat. And his mates were tattered and cut, their +shirts bore red splashes to a man; their grimed faces and fiery eyes +held the passions of blooded men who see their reward flying from them. + +"I tell ye she's gone for good!" cried the woman who had brought the +news to Stumpy. "See, she's almost there, and three chests of treasure +have gone in that vessel! Her swimming after it is but a part of her +cuteness. Now d'ye believe, fools!" + +The crippled, battle-scarred pirate glared to seaward with red-rimmed +eyes in which flames of revenge started into life. His twisted, warped +life had been spent in fighting and trickery; to-day his work had +culminated in a brave stand for what he thought to be straight and +right; reward he expected, but he had earned it with blood and sweat, +hoping at the last that some of his earlier transgressions might be +atoned for in his loyalty to his mistress. + +He hurled aside the persistent women, who sought some reassuring word +from him, and mouthing rather than speaking a call to his men to follow, +he plunged again into the grove path and stumbled toward the ledge +entrance. Here he clambered painfully to the gallery, cursing to himself +bitterly, never looking back to see if his men followed, intent only +upon one absorbing thing. Revenge was beyond him, since there were left +no subjects for his revenge. He had never seen the great stone at the +chamber portals left rolled aside; could not even now imagine such a +situation. No, if Dolores were gone in truth, and with her the strangers +and the treasure, then it was certain, he thought, that the great +chamber was sealed forever. And he would see into its mysteries, even +though they proved barren now. He knew the way; Dolores had shown him. + +Feverishly hunting for a flint, he tore some threads from his shirt and +frayed them into tow. Then with his cutlas he struck a spark and ignited +his threads, carefully nursing the tiny flame until he could find a dry +stick. This lasted him until a pine torch was found, and then he crawled +along the gallery in search of the powder train. That, he knew, for she +had told him, would burst the rock asunder anyhow; and that would be +enough, for he had guessed shrewdly that the gallery was connected with +the great chamber by some secret egress. + +And who knew? Might not Dolores have taken in her haste but part of her +vast store? Stumpy knew as well as Red Jabez the tremendous wealth that +had been deposited in that chamber of mysteries; for he had been with +the red chief from the beginning; he had seen with his own eyes the +riches of a hundred ships taken in there, and never a thing come out. + +"She can't have bagged the lot," he muttered, fanning his torch into a +red flare. "But she'll pay for deserting Stumpy, or Stumpy's a liar!" + +He found the powder train, and the moisture had dried from it, leaving +only a little line of dry, quick-igniting powder. He was not sure just +where the magazine was; not sure how long the train would burn before +the explosion. So down he clambered again, searching at the great altar +for the water-vessels he knew should be there. Then, with a jar of +water, he returned to his train, and swiftly swept up the dry powder and +moistened it a little, making a rough slow match of it. + +"Now we'll see the sights!" he growled, and went to the end of the +gallery and flung his torch into the train. + +He watched it for a moment, to be sure that it would burn, then stepped +down from the ledge and drew back a safe distance to watch the upheaval. +To what extent the mine was intended to destroy he had no idea. He +simply knew that Dolores had pointed it out to him as a means of defense +should the gallery be carried in the attack. He supposed, therefore, +that it would shatter the gallery. Doing that, it must surely dislodge +or loosen rock enough for him to break into the great chamber with aid. + +The thought recalled his men to his mind, and he saw for the first time +that they had not followed him. He started down the path toward the +camp, shouting to them by name, eager to give them an inkling of the +treat in store. But his hail was answered by another, and down the path +a woman appeared running, her hair flying, and tremendous excitement in +every line of her face. + +"Stumpy! Stumpy!" she sobbed and cried in hysterical intoxication. "Oh, +Stumpy, the great chamber is open, and it's full of gold and treasure!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +MILO CROSSES THE BAR. + + +Milo watched Stumpy disappear down the grove path, and heard him call to +his men to follow. Then he regarded the receding yacht intently for a +moment, and the last vestige of noble devotion went from his face and +gave place to a great and absorbing bitterness. In that instant, the +foundations, pillars, and capitals of his soul shook and tottered; his +universe changed from a thing of golden beauty and heavenly splendor to +a shameful mockery of truth and faith. + +In that moment his thoughts flew back to little Pascherette, and his +great heart yearned toward her. False she had proved, but to what? To +whom? He asked himself these things as he slowly walked back along the +tunnel, not yet knowing what he would do. He answered his own question. +Pascherette had proven false to falsity; she had schemed against the +schemer; and, in the other tray of the balance she had done these things +for love of him, out of a deep and all-powerful ambition to place him, +Milo the slave, in the high place of the wanton ingrate who had deserted +her people. And the thought hurt him now; he had not yet yielded her the +kiss she craved. Even now the little gold-tinted one might be cold in +death, denied that small consolation because of his obstinate heart. + +He ran along the tunnel and burst through the great chamber, cursing the +idle slaves into silence when they cried their helpless queries at him. +And straight to Pascherette he sped, to fling himself down by her side +and seize her tiny, moist hand in frantic appeal. + +"Pascherette!" he whispered with a dry sob. "Little golden one, speak to +thy Milo. Speak, and forgive!" + +The octoroon gave no sign of life, and the giant dropped her hand and +gently raised her pallid face. His lips sought hers in a passionate +kiss, long and yearning; and slowly her eyelids fluttered and opened. +The dark eyes were misty, yet that longed-for kiss had brought back her +fleeting spirit to recognize her man. She closed her tired eyes again, +with a little sign, and the small, pale lips formed the words: "I am +content, Milo, my god." + +The giant bowed his head over her silent face, and his black eyes +searched for a returning flicker of vitality. It was gone forever. +Pascherette was dead; and Milo laid her head down gently, and drew back +to stare at her with growing rebellion and horror. What gods could there +be to use him thus? He leaped to his feet with arms flung upward. + +"Hah, gods of earth and sea, witness Milo's penitence!" he said +hoarsely. "To Dolores I have given the worship that belonged to ye and +ye have taken terrible atonement. Pity me!" + +He paced the small alcove nervously, seeking light where no light was. +Then the harsh shouts of Stumpy's men resounded through the chamber, and +he stepped outside in alarm. For it was not yet possible for him to +discard the usage of years which forbade intrusion in that secret place. +He saw Stumpy's four men standing open-mouthed in the doorway beneath +the yellow lantern, gazing ludicrously at the magnificence of the +furnishings. The slaves at the powder store stood where he had left +them, idle and aimless, but with an open chest at their feet. This now +attracted the pirates' attention, and with a stamp and a shout they +roared through the great chamber, their faces awork with newly aroused +avarice. + +Just for one second Milo pondered staying them. But his soul had soured; +he uttered a grunt of scornful disgust, and waved a hand at them, +muttering: + +"Revel, ye dogs! Plunge thy hands deep. 'Tis all thine, and the fiend's +blessing go with it!" + +He returned to his dead Pascherette and knelt beside her, patting her +cold hands and speaking to her softly and tenderly. Out in the chamber +the pirates had hurled aside the slaves, and, flinging open the chests, +were glaring with wolfish eyes and dripping jaws at the bewildering mass +of treasure revealed. + +Their noise irritated Milo. He went out again to stop them. And he saw a +pirate snatch up a glittering tiara and place it on his head with a +roaring oath. He saw another snatch the bauble off; and in a breath the +pirates were at each other's throats; cutlases flashed and a savage +fight began at the moment the women stole in to see the mysterious +place, and one of their number ran to bring Stumpy. + +The giant glowered at the snarling men as at some repulsive beasts, +horrified that they should thus desecrate the quiet of his Pascherette's +death-bed. He was not the Milo of old now. His memory had flown back +through the years to the time when he was a youth of position and great +promise in his own land; when, instead of being the cast-off servant of +a beautiful ingrate, he numbered his own servants by hundreds. And a +great dignity stole into his ennobled face. He softly picked up the dead +girl, and advanced toward the rock tunnel. + +Stumpy met him at the door, and the crippled pirate's eyes burned with +the newborn lust of loot. Stumpy made as if to stay the giant with +questions; but he saw the snarling fight at the end of the chamber and +caught the glitter of jewels. With the stumbling speed of a charging, +wounded bull, he rushed in to join battle. + +Running women brushed against Milo in the passage; all the camp's living +people had caught the fever. The giant strode on, until he stood in the +rugged rock portals and gazed once more over the sea. The schooner had +moved but slightly since he last looked at her; he could see Dolores's +head still advancing, and very near to the vessel now. The breeze had +lulled, perhaps preceding a shift of wind; and the visible people on the +deck of the Feu Follette appeared to be running back and forth in +indecision. + +At Milo's right hand the great rock sat on its ledge, ready to fall at a +touch, and his brooding eyes flashed to it with terrible meaning. +Inside, the great chamber resounded with the clash of steel, the shouts +of furious human beasts, and the shrill cries of women urging them on; +for there must be victors, even to such a sordid fight, and to the +victors, spoils. Where victors and spoils are, there harpy women await +them. + +Milo gazed long and passionately into the face of his dead; then he laid +her softly down outside the rock and arose with a fierce light +irradiating his face. + +"Dogs, who would thus break the sleep of my beloved, I give ye good for +evil!" he muttered. "Treasure ye crave: treasure I give ye, and none may +take it from ye!" + +He turned, put his hand upon the great rock and started it from its bed. +And as he moved the mass, the mountain rocked and crashed with the +thunder of the bursting powder-magazine. + +Down came the great rock, pinning Milo beneath it, threatening in its +final fall to crush him and the body of his love. His great arms shot +out and up, every muscle on his colossal frame stood out like ropes, his +back cracked with the tremendous strain. He stiffened his knees, bit +into his lip until the blood gushed; and a groan burst from his breast +as he felt his stout knees stagger. + +His bulging eyes glared ahead over the sea; into the air flew a thousand +fragments of shattered rock; they fell and thrashed the sea into foam a +mile from shore. Rocks fell upon his already overwhelming burden; his +knees bent, and the blood trickled from his nostrils. And with his fast +ebbing breath he breathed his valedictory, fixing his stony eyes upon +Pascherette as upon his deity. + +"Gods of my fathers, receive my spirit into thy halls. Let thy swift +justice overtake the cause of this upheaval; and receive with my spirit +the spirit of the one who loved me." He fell to one knee, and a great +sob shook him. The rock was falling in a shower about him; it rang and +crashed on the gigantic stone that was crushing him. He bent his gaze in +anguish afresh on the dead girl, now almost buried under stone and +earth, and murmured: "Pascherette, I come! I see beyond the blue ocean +and the golden horizon the throne of my gods. Come, golden one, let us +go. There will our faithfulness meet just reward!" + +He pitched forward upon the dead girl, and the great rock crashed down, +building them a tomb grand as the eternal hills. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE TOLL OF THE GODS. + + +Venner's order to heave the treasure-chests overboard was not given +without a pang of regret. It was scarcely obeyed without threats; for +the sailing master had been bitten by the treasure fever before his +owner and guest came on board. Had they not appeared when they did, the +schooner had gone without them, and Peters had already seen a golden +vista ahead of him. He hesitated now, and Venner left the wheel vacant +to urge him. + +"Over with it, I say! At once! Here, Pearse, lend a hand here, man, +before that witch's great eyes mesmerize us again. See, she smiles yet, +and comes nearer." + +Reluctantly the seamen raised one iron-bound chest to the rail and +poised it there. From the water astern rang Dolores's throaty laugh, +even and full breathing, as if she had not swam a fraction of the +half-mile she had covered. + +"Foolish Rupert!" she cried, never relaxing her stroke. "Why waste the +fruits of thy pains? Hast looked inside then? Nay, take me on board, and +let us look together. Thou wilt not see Dolores drown, I swear. Then +look once more into my eyes, my Rupert!" + +She laughed again mockingly, alluringly, and Pearse turned away with a +shudder, not daring to cast a glance in the direction of Venner. + +"Throw the stuff over, I say!" cried Venner hoarsely, and gave the chest +a push that sent it into the rippling sea with a thunderous splash. And +again that mocking laugh rang out astern; it was nearer, and Dolores's +beautiful face was turned up to them with triumph in every feature. She +had seen the struggle going on in her two intended victims; if she could +but gain to within whispering distance of either of them, surely she +would never let them escape her. + +"Come, take me on board, my Rupert. I have a secret to tell thee, but +thee alone!" she cried, and spurted swiftly, gaining abreast of the +main-chains. + +But the eyes of Venner and Pearse were fixed in astonishment upon the +tall cliff they had left; their eyes stared amazedly, and they stood +like statues, hearing none of her seductive words. + +"What do ye see?" she demanded, frowning up at them. + +A score of sharp splashes in the water around the schooner startled her. +She suspected they were hurling missiles at her, and one struck her +arm. She turned swiftly and her face darkened with fury. Then more small +objects fell about her, and one struck her arm. She turned swiftly on +her side to seek the source, and in her ears boomed the tremendous crash +of Stumpy's explosion, rolling far over the sea, reverberating from the +shores and making the air quiver like a solid thing. + +A great mass of rock hurtled overhead, missed the schooner by scant +feet, and Venner shouted in horror: + +"Throw her a line, Pearse! Here, quickly, before she is crushed by such +a rock as that one!" + +The sea was shattered into foam for fathoms around, and every face on +the Feu Follette stared over the rail in helpless astonishment. But on +the face of Dolores glowed a smile of triumph. She feared nothing of +earth or heaven; among the flying rocks she swam on toward the schooner, +smiling up at them, waiting for the rope that meant victory to her. + +And in the brief space before the rope hurtled out, down from the +heavens plunged a high-flung piece of granite fair upon Dolores. She +seemed to sense its shadow, and in the moment it struck her she half +sank, breaking its force. But it followed her down. The mass struck +between her gleaming shoulders, and she flung up her arms in despair, +turning over and over with the impact, then floating unconscious close +by the side of the white schooner that had been her goal. + +"God! Get her aboard!" gasped Pearse. "She's done for. Yet we cannot +leave her there for the sharks, like a beast!" + +Venner and Peters were already trying with boat-hooks to catch Dolores's +tunic. Pearse threw a line over the girl and drew her nearer and the +hooks took hold. They drew her up the side with a care that amounted to +reverence, for in her unconsciousness she was more beautiful than ever, +her fine features molded in dead white, traced with fine blue veins; the +grace of her form was that of a lovely sculpture now, lacking vitality, +but possessing every line of perfection. The blow that had overtaken her +had failed in its terrible threat to crush her. + +"Lay her in the companionway on the lounge," said Venner. He ran to the +saloon and brought up wine. He bathed her temples and wrists with the +liquor, and forced some between her blue lips. And Pearse chafed her +hands and patted them, gazing down at her in silent awe. + +"Venner," he whispered, when her eyes refused to open, "we must let this +settle the score against her. It's a terrible end for such a creature." + +"For my part, Pearse, I would give all I have just to see those great +violet eyes laugh at me again; to hear that mocking laugh from her +maddening lips. God, will she never awake?" + +Astern of the schooner the sun was slowly descending to the western +sea-rim, and as the course was resumed after picking up Dolores, the +Point and the cliff gradually drew out across the path of the sun, until +the outlines of the rock and trees stood out black and sharp. On the +cliff-top a heavy pall of greasy smoke hung low about the shattered +pirates' camp; from fissures high up the frowning side spirals of smoke +testified to the wide-spread destruction that followed the blast. + +They looked at the terrific devastation, and again at its nearer victim. +And as they gazed down at her, Dolores's lips trembled in a faint smile, +her great eyes opened wide, looking directly and fearlessly back at +them. + +"I thank ye, my friends; I knew you would take me," she whispered, and +the two men turned away with a shudder. As she had lived, Dolores was +now meeting her inevitable end, bold and indomitable. + +"Where are you hurt?" inquired Venner lamely. "Let me do something to +ease you." + +"Ease?" she laughed as of old, but her teeth clenched upon her lower lip +immediately, with the pain it caused. "I shall ask ye to ease me +presently, good friends. Grim Death has me by the throat already. But +carry me outside. I am stifling in here. Let me see the ocean and the +sky at least in my passage. And I have something to tell ye also." + +On the gratings around the stern, abaft the wheel, they laid her on soft +cushions. She drank greedily of the wine and water they offered her; +she quivered with eagerness to unburden her mind before her thirst was +quenched forever. She motioned them, to bend over her, and began to +speak in, husky whispers. + +"That chest, thou cast it overboard. Dost know what was in it?" + +Both shook their heads. None had seen inside the chests after they came +from the great chamber. + +"I'll tell ye, then, for the peace of your souls and the tranquillity of +your voyage. Lest thy men be seized with a desire for treasure that +shall work ye mischief, have them open the other two chests. Quickly, +for I am faint." + +Venner went to the chests himself and flung back the lids, which were +bolted on the outside and not locked. He stared for a moment, +unbelievingly, then nodded to Pearse. Pearse stared, too, in amazement, +and one after the other the sailors were called to see. They saw two +great strong-boxes filled to the brim with iron chains, broken cutlases, +rusty bilboes, and rock; a fool's treasure in truth. + +"'Twas a trick to set my rascals at odds," Dolores told them when they +returned to her. "To thee, Pearse, I showed my treasure, and I fear that +blast has buried it beneath a mountain. Milo was to take it out. I +cannot believe it can have been taken away ere that powder blew it to +fragments. It was still in the powder store." + +"Yes, I know," said Pearse quietly. "It was that which precipitated the +fight between us three that killed poor Tomlin." + +"Well, if thou still art hungry for treasure, my friends, there is my +store buried where thou knowest, and I shrewdly fear but few of my +people are left. But I am slipping. Stand aside, that I may close my +eyes on the place I called home." + +Dolores ceased speaking and lay, scarcely stirred by her faint +respiration, gazing over the schooner's stern at the sinking sun. The +golden disk was turning to red and across its darkened face the cliff +and Point stood out in sharp silhouette, which grew larger as the great +glowing sun was distorted and enlarged by the refraction near the +horizon. The breeze had changed, and now blew with gentle strength out +of the west, a fair wind for their homeward course, and the strands of +Dolores's glorious hair blew about her face like tendrils about an +orchid of unearthly beauty. + +Presently she stirred again, and now she summoned all her remaining +vitality to raise herself on an elbow. Pearse and Venner leaned closer, +sensing the end in the tremendous brilliancy of her wide, dry eyes. + +She spoke softly, yet with a thrilling note of yearning that choked her +hearers with harsh sobs. + +"Father, I come," she whispered. "If I have failed in obeying thy +commands, I ask forgiveness, for I am but a woman. A woman with +instincts and yearnings, born of the mother I never knew. Thy very +treasures that were to appease me put the yearning more strongly in my +brain. Thy teachings showed me a world of beasts and savagery; thy +treasures gave me dreams of a world peopled by such as I would be. My +mother's blood forced me to seek this other, better world; thy blood +forced me to seek it wrongfully." + +She paused, and gathered her fleeting breath. + +Then, sitting suddenly upright, she flung both arms out to the setting +sun now lipping the sea, and cried: + +"Gods I know not. Yet must there be such, else had I never known the +devotion of a Milo! Wherever ye be, brave Milo, living or dead, commend +me to thy own gods and forgive me for my ingratitude." She seized Venner +and Pearse by the arms as she fell back, and whispered: "In pity, +friends, set my feet toward the west, and launch my poor body down the +sun path as it sinks into the blue Caribbean that was my only home." + +She relaxed with a little shivering sigh, the glorious eyes closed with +a tired tremor, and the spirit of Dolores the beautiful, the wicked, the +tempestuous, winged its way down the mysterious paths of the dark +unknown. + +"Come," said Venner, suddenly shaking off his abstraction, "time is all +too short if we are to render her this last small service." + +"How shall we do it?" asked Pearse doubtfully. + +"We shall send her down her chosen path in a boat. Peters will load the +dingey with ballast, while you and I will lay Dolores out as well as we +may. Bring me that grating, Pearse. We will speed her in the dress she +loved. Her soul would sicken at a suffocating winding sheet. Hurry, for +the sun is half gone!" + +Swiftly they worked, these men who had cause to remember the departed +siren without great love, and they placed her, secured to a grating, +across the thwarts of the dingey, to which the grating was in turn +secured. Then, all prepared, Peters sprang into the boat, bored a score +of auger-holes in the bottom, and as the great red sun set fierce and +blazing behind the black profile of the cliff, the filling boat was set +adrift, straight down the path of the luminary, bound ever westward, +until the sea gods claimed it and its passenger for their own. + +"Farewell, place of ill-luck!" cried Pearce, as the schooner bore away +before the rising evening breeze. "May I never set my eyes on such evil +shores again." + +"Then you will not come back to seek the treasure?" asked Venner, with a +shadowy flicker of a smile. + +"Not for a thousand times the treasure that lies there!" cried Pearse +vehemently. "And I have seen it! The horror of this will haunt me until +my dying day. I only hope God will look kindly upon that poor woman, +that's all." + +"I hope so, too," rejoined Venner thoughtfully. "With a white woman's +opportunities, what a woman she could have been." + +But the gods are inscrutable. Only the warm mantle of the setting sun +gave a hint that Dolores might be even now entering into a place of +eternal rest, where her sins of ignorance and untutored instincts would +not count too heavily against her. The sea is very benign to its elect; +a calm sea in the setting sun received Dolores in arms of infinite +benignity. + + +(The end.) + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original edition have been corrected. In Chapter V, "inscrutaable" was +changed to "inscrutable"; in Chapter X, "Let me show thee they master" +was changed to "Let me show thee thy master"; in Chapter XVII, "could +not enchance your worth" was changed to "could not enhance your worth"; +in Chapter XVIII, "shaking his first at Milo" was changed to "shaking +his fist at Milo"; and in Chapter XXI, "protruding a foot for Tomlin's +back" was changed to "protruding a foot from Tomlin's back".] + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following summary originally appeared at the +beginning of the serial's second installment.] + + +PRECEDING CHAPTERS BRIEFLY RETOLD + +Within his mysterious stronghold, "The Cave of Terrible Things," on the +Maroon coast of Jamaica, washed by the waters of the Caribbean Sea, Red +Jabez, Sultan of Pirates, had just died. + +Dolores, his daughter, "a splendidly lithe, glowing creature of beauty +and passion," "a royal woman conscious of mental and physical +perfection," succeeded her father as tyrant over the motley crew of +Spaniard and Briton, Creole and mulatto, Carib and octoroon, and +coal-black negroes. + +Milo, the giant Abyssinian, who knew no fear and no law save the will of +this capricious creature, served Dolores as body-guard and chief. + +Pascherette, "a gleaming, gold-tinted creature, a miniature model of +Aphrodite," beloved of Milo, was her maid and attendant. + +Moved to mutiny by Rufe, the Spaniard, the pirates had risen in revolt +to loot the rich treasure of the dead Sultan's cave; but supported by +Milo, Dolores had cowed them, no less by her dagger than her threats. + +But discontent rode the soul of the Sultana. She longed for other lands, +other people. With Milo's aid she determined to capture the first sail +that passed her shore, and escape. + +When Rupert Venner and his guests, Craik Tomlin and John Pearce, aboard +the Venner yacht, Feu Follette, passed that way, they were easily +induced to go ashore. + +In the midst of a reception accorded them by Dolores, the party beheld +Yellow Rufe and a band of mulattoes and blacks making for the schooner, +from whose rail shots crackled. + +Venner raised a cry of treachery and called, "Come, fellows!" But the +woman held him as much by her eyes as by her promise: "I shall preserve +thy ship, and give thee back an eye for an eye, if thy men are harmed." + +Then she sprang down the cliff like a deer. + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following summary originally appeared at the +beginning of the serial's third installment. The summary at the +beginning of the serial's fourth installment, if one was present, was +not available when preparing this electronic edition.] + + +PRECEDING CHAPTERS BRIEFLY RETOLD + +On the death of Red Jabez, Dolores, "a glowing creature of beauty and +passion," took over her father's rule of the pirates of the Maroon coast +of Jamaica. + +With the help of her faithful slave, Milo, the Abyssinian giant, she +crushed a rising insurrection among her riffraff subjects, whose +cupidity had been played upon by Rufe, the Spaniard. + +But Dolores was herself the victim of discontent. Loathing her outlaw +subjects and the island, she determined to seize the first boat that +passed her way, and escape with her jewels and her gold. + +When the pleasure yacht, Feu Follette, came that way, she sent Milo and +her maid, Pascherette, to decoy Rupert Venner and his guests, Craik +Tomlin and John Pearse, to the island. + +In the midst of her reception to her captive-guests, she beheld Rufe and +a band of insurgent blacks and mulattoes attacking the crew of the +schooner, while Sancho, whom she had despatched to care for the vessel +while in the harbor, was joining in the attack. + +Then she rushed over the cliff and into the water, and boarded the boat, +followed by her loyal Milo. + +After a long and bloody struggle, the woman's ruse of firing the ship +with a keg of powder won the day, and Rufe and Sancho fled into the +wilderness, while from the schooner's topmast flew the Sultana's own +flag. + +Demanding that the traitors, Rufe and Sancho, be rounded up, Dolores +threw her three guests into chains, while she accused Pascherette of +abetting the treason of Sancho. + +Then Dolores turned to Venner with the offer of her love if he would +sail away with her, having first despatched his friends. When the man, +whose soul was racked with passion for the beautiful black panther, +recoiled from her condition, she left him in his chains. + +Next she dealt with Sancho, whom Pascherette had lured back to the +woman's mercy; and Sancho emerged from Dolores's presence a driveling +imbecile. + +When Milo beheld at this moment the fleeing form of Yellow Rufe, made +distinguishable by vivid lightning, Dolores determined to complete her +punishments. + +The Spaniard was making good his escape when Milo took up the pursuit in +the little sailboat. Dolores and her crew would follow, by the light of +his flares, in the schooner. + +With the untamed soul of a woman who had never known defeat, Dolores +drove her crew and defied the wind and the waves, and the Feu Follette +was liberated from the mud and swung to the gale as the cry rang out: +"There's the flare--and she's burnin' steady!" + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Pirate Woman, by Aylward Edward Dingle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PIRATE WOMAN *** + +***** This file should be named 30057.txt or 30057.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/0/5/30057/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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