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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jack Harkaway and His Son's Escape From the
+Brigand's of Greece, by Bracebridge Hemyng
+
+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: Jack Harkaway and His Son's Escape From the Brigand's of Greece
+
+Author: Bracebridge Hemyng
+
+Posting Date: April 12, 2014 [EBook #7335]
+Release Date: January, 2005
+First Posted: April 15, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JACK HARKAWAY AND SON'S ESCAPE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Michelle Shephard, Charles Franks and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al
+Haines.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  JACK HARKAWAY
+  AND HIS SON'S
+  ESCAPE FROM THE BRIGANDS
+  OF GREECE.
+
+  BEING THE CONTINUATION OF
+  "JACK HARKAWAY AND HIS
+  SON'S ADVENTURES IN GREECE."
+
+  BY
+  BRACEBRIDGE HEMYNG
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Bother the beggars"--said Mr Mole"--Adv in Greece, Vol
+II--_Frontispiece_]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE CONTESSA'S LETTER TO MR. MOLE--ON PLEASURE BENT--THE
+MENDICANT FRIAR--MIDNIGHT MARAUDERS--HOUSE BREAKING.
+
+
+When Mrs. Harkaway's maid returned to the villa, she got scolded for
+being so long upon an errand of some importance with which she had been
+entrusted.
+
+Thereupon, she was prepared with twenty excuses, all of which were any
+thing but the truth.
+
+The words of warning which the brigand had called after her had not
+been without their due effect.
+
+"She had been detained," she said, "by the Contessa Maraviglia for the
+letter which she brought back to Mr. Mole."
+
+The letter was an invitation to a grand ball which was to be given by
+the contessa at the Palazzo Maraviglia, and to which the Harkaways were
+going.
+
+Dick Harvey had been at work in this business, and had made the
+contessa believe indirectly that Mr. Mole was a most graceful dancer,
+and that it would be an eternal shame for a _bal masque_ to take
+place in the neighbourhood without being graced by his--Mole's--presence.
+
+The result was that during lunch Mr. Mole received from the maid the
+following singular effusion.
+
+"Al Illustrissimo Signor Mole," which, being translated, means, "To the
+illustrious Mr. Mole."
+
+"Hullo!" said the tutor, looking around him and dropping his eye on
+Dick, "who is this from?"
+
+"From the Contessa Maraviglia," replied the girl.
+
+Mr. Mole gave her a piercing glance.
+
+The contessa's letter was a sort of puzzle to poor old Mole.
+
+"The Contessa Maraviglia begs the honour of the Signor Mole's company
+on the 16th instant. She can accept no refusal, as the _fete_ is
+especially organised in honour of Signor Mole, whose rare excellence in
+the poetry of motion has elevated dancing into an art."
+
+Isaac Mole read and re-read this singular letter, until he grew more
+and more fogged.
+
+He thought that the contessa had failed to express herself clearly in
+English on account of her imperfect knowledge of our language; but he
+was soon corrected in this impression.
+
+The lady in question, it transpired, was English.
+
+So poor Mole did what he thought best under the circumstances, and that
+was to consult with Dick Harvey.
+
+"Dear me!" echoed Dick, innocently; "why, you have made an impression
+here, Mr. Mole."
+
+"Do you think so?" said Mole, doubtfully.
+
+"Beyond question. This contessa is smitten, sir, with your attractions;
+but I can assist you here."
+
+"You can?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Thank you, my dear Harvey, thank you," replied Mr. Mole eagerly.
+
+"Yes; I can let the contessa know that there is no hope for her."
+
+Isaac Mole's vanity was tickled at this.
+
+"Don't you think it would be cruel to undeceive her?"
+
+"Cruel, sir!" said Dick, with severe air, "no, sir; I don't. It is my
+duty to tell her all."
+
+Mr. Mole looked alarmed.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"That you are a married man."
+
+"I say, I say--"
+
+"Yes, sir, very much married," pursued Dick, relentlessly; "that you
+have had three wives, and were nearly taking a fourth."
+
+"Don't, Dick."
+
+"All more or less black."
+
+"Dick, Dick!"
+
+"However, there is no help for it; you will have to go to this ball."
+
+"Never."
+
+"You will, though. The contessa has heard of your fame in the ball
+room--"
+
+"What!"
+
+"In bygone years, no doubt--and she does not know of the little matters
+which have happened since to spoil your activity, if not your grace."
+
+As he alluded to the "little matters," he glanced at Mr. Mole's wooden
+legs.
+
+Mr. Mole thought it over, and then he read through the letter again.
+
+"You are right, Harvey," he said with an air of determination; "and my
+mind's made up."
+
+"Is it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"So much the better, for your absence would be sadly missed at the
+ball."
+
+"You misunderstand me, Harvey; I shall not go."
+
+Dick looked frightened.
+
+"Don't say that, Mr. Mole, I beg, don't; it would be dangerous."
+
+"What on earth do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that this lady is English by birth, but she has lived in the
+land of the Borgias, where they yet know how to use poison."
+
+"Harvey!"
+
+"And if her love were slighted, she might recollect it."
+
+Mr. Mole looked precious uncomfortable.
+
+"It is really very embarrassing, Harvey," said he; "my personal
+attractions are likely to get me into trouble."
+
+And yet, in spite of his embarrassment, Mr. Mole was not altogether
+displeased at the fancy.
+
+He strutted up and down, showing the fall in his back to the best
+advantage, and was very evidently conscious that he was rather a fine
+man.
+
+"Yes, sir," said Harvey, with great gravity; "your fatal beauty is
+likely to lead you into a mess."
+
+At the words "fatal beauty," Mr. Mole made a grimace.
+
+It was rather a strong dose for even him to swallow.
+
+"Draw it mild, Harvey," said he, "pray draw it mild."
+
+Dick shook his head with great seriousness.
+
+"Don't you be deceived, Mr. Mole," said he; "use the greatest care, for
+this poor countess is to be pitied. Her love is likely to turn to
+violent hate if she finds herself slighted--the poignard or the
+poisoned chalice may yet be called to play a part in your career."
+
+Mr. Mole turned pale.
+
+Yet he tried to laugh.
+
+A hollow ghastly laugh it was too, that told how he felt more plainly
+than words could have done.
+
+"Don't, Harvey; don't, I beg!" he said in faltering tones; "it sounds
+like some dreadful thing one sees upon the stage."
+
+"In all these southern countries you know, Mr. Mole, a man's life is
+not worth much."
+
+"Harvey!"
+
+"A hired assassin or bravo will cut a throat or stab a man in the back
+for a few francs."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"I should advise you not to keep out after dark--and avoid dark
+corners. These people can poison you, too, with a bouquet or a jewel.
+Accept a flower or a nosegay, but don't smell it."
+
+"Harvey."
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"Is it your wish to make me uncomfortable?"
+
+"How can you think it?"
+
+"Do you wish me to dream all night, and disturb Mrs. Mole, and not to
+get a wink of sleep?"
+
+"Certainly not; that's why I am giving you advice; but pray understand
+the contessa thinks you are a single man."
+
+"Good gracious me; it is very unpleasant to have a contessa in love
+with one."
+
+"I don't know that; most men wouldn't say so. There are, I'll be bound,
+forty men within a mile of this house who would give their ears to have
+received such a letter."
+
+Mr. Mole smiled--a self-satisfied, complacent smile,
+
+"Do you think so?"
+
+"I know it."
+
+Mole lifted his collar and shot his cuffs over his hands, as he stomped
+across the room, and looked into a glass.
+
+"Well, well, Harvey, I suppose I must go to the ball; but you will bear
+me witness that I only go for reasons of prudence, and that I am not
+going to be led away by any little silly reasons of vanity?"
+
+"Of course," returned Dick, gravely.
+
+"Besides, I go disguised."
+
+"Certainly"
+
+"And what disguise would you recommend?"
+
+"Why that is a matter for reflection," said Dick. "I should think that
+you ought almost to keep up the character."
+
+"The character!" said Mole. "What character?"
+
+"A Terpsichorean personage," replied Dick, with the air of one
+discussing a grave problem. "Say, for instance, a ballet girl."
+
+Mr. Mole gasped.
+
+"No, no; not a ballet girl."
+
+"A fairy queen, then."
+
+"Don't, Dick; don't, I beg."
+
+"Or, if you object to the costume of the gentler sex, what do you say
+to the spangles and wand of a harlequin?"
+
+"Do you really think that such a costume would become me?"
+
+"Do I think?" iterated Dick. "Do I _know!_ Of course it would
+become you. You will look the part to the life: it wants a figure to
+show off such a dress and to be shown off by it."
+
+"But what about my--my wooden legs, Dick?"
+
+"Oh, I'll provide you with cork ones, and here they are," said Harvey,
+producing a pair.
+
+And so it was settled.
+
+Mr. Mole was to go to the ball, and his disguise was to be well-known
+spangles and colours of a harlequin.
+
+Harvey himself chose a clown's costume and carried over his shoulder
+Mole's wooden legs, in case any thing happened to the cork ones he was
+walking on for the first time.
+
+Harkaway was to go as a knight of old.
+
+Magog Brand selected the character of Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre
+Dame.
+
+Jefferson selected the character of Julius Caesar, a costume which his
+fine, stalwart form set off to considerable advantage.
+
+Mrs. Harkaway was to go as Diana, the huntress, and Mrs. Harvey made
+Marie Stuart her choice.
+
+Little Emily and Paquita went in dresses of the Charles the Second
+period.
+
+These young ladies were escorted by young Jack and Harry Girdwood, who
+were richly habited as young Venetian nobles of the sixteenth century.
+
+As they passed through the garden door a man stood in their path.
+
+He wore a long serge gown, with a cowl, like a mendicant monk, and as
+they approached he put out his open hand for alms.
+
+"Bother the beggars!" said Mr. Mole, tartly.
+
+The monk shrank back into his cowl, and stood aside while the party
+went by.
+
+The garden door was held by the maid servant while they passed on, and
+when they were out of hearing, she dropped a small silver coin into the
+mendicant friar's hand.
+
+"There," she said, "I can spare you something, father, although those
+rich English cannot or will not, the heretics and pagans!"
+
+The friar, who was seemingly an aged man, muttered his thanks, and the
+girl retired and closed the door, locking it behind her.
+
+No sooner was the door closed than the mendicant monk whistled a low
+but very distinct note, and lo! two men appeared upon the scene.
+
+It looked as though they had just come up trap-doors in the earth, so
+suddenly did they show in sight.
+
+"Captain Mathias," said the disguised monk to the first who came up, "I
+have learnt all we wish to know."
+
+"You have?" ejaculated, not the man addressed by the mendicant monk,
+but the other. "Out with it, then."
+
+"Still your impatience, Toro, if you can.--"
+
+"Bah!"
+
+"Well, then, learn that Mole goes as--"
+
+"Bother Mole!" interrupted Toro, harshly. "How does our great foe go?"
+
+"Harkaway?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"An English knight of old."
+
+"It shall be my task," said Toro, "to keep up his character, and give
+it a realistic look by a hand-to-hand fight."
+
+"Don't be rash," said the mendicant friar, "or you may chance to be
+beaten."
+
+"I can risk my life on it."
+
+"You have--you do; every hour that you live here imperils it. Did you
+see the party go?"
+
+"I did," said Mathias.
+
+The latter was no other than the captain of the brigands. Already they
+were upon a footing of equality, for the two adventurers had had
+opportunities, which they had not failed to seize.
+
+They had courage, ready wit, presence of mind, boldness daring, and
+cunning, and so it fell out that they who had made the acquaintance of
+the brigand's gang under such very unpleasant auspices, became two of
+the principal members of it within a few days.
+
+But to resume.
+
+"Tell me, Hunston," said Toro, "does Jefferson go to the ball?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"How disguised?"
+
+"Julius Caesar."
+
+The Italian said nothing, but his lips moved, and his lowering brow was
+as expressive as words could be to his old comrade.
+
+It boded ill for Jefferson.
+
+They had met in fair fight, and he, Toro, had been defeated.
+
+That defeat was as bitter as gall to him.
+
+He would be avenged.
+
+And if he could not cope with the doughty Anglo-American, then let him
+look to it.
+
+What strength and skill failed to achieve, the assassin's knife would
+accomplish.
+
+"Did you see the girl that attended him to the gate?" demanded the
+mendicant friar, or Hunston, as it would be better to call him, since
+there is no further need of concealment.
+
+"I did."
+
+"And recognised her, Mathias?" he asked of the brigand captain.
+
+"Yes; it is the pretty girl we stopped with her lover, the coy
+Marietta."
+
+"Now that they are well off, we may as well set to work," said Hunston.
+
+"Good."
+
+Hunston threw back his friar's cowl and produced a key.
+
+"They have had many a good hunt for this," he said, with his old
+sinister laugh.
+
+"I dare say."
+
+"It was a lucky thing that the dainty little Marietta dropped it."
+
+"Yes, it makes matters much easier for us to begin with."
+
+The door yielded to the touch of the sham mendicant friar, and the
+three worthies entered the grounds.
+
+Silently they stepped across a grassplot, keeping a thick shrubbery
+between them and the house as far as they could, when just as they
+gained the shelter of a trellissed verandah, a dog within set up a most
+alarming noise.
+
+The three robbers exchanged uneasy glances.
+
+"Curse the beast!" muttered Mathias the captain; "he will ruin us."
+
+Toro got ready his long hunting-knife and looked about.
+
+But the dog was out of sight.
+
+A lucky thing it was too for our old friend little Mike, for a touch
+with that ugly instrument would soon have stopped his singing.
+
+Now, just above the verandah was a half-opened window, and into this
+Mathias peered anxiously.
+
+No signs of Mike.
+
+A voice was heard now calling to the faithful guardian of the house to
+be silent, but Mike refused emphatically to be comforted; thereupon,
+the person very imprudently called the dog to her and tied him up.
+
+This did not quiet him.
+
+So the person in question tripped down the garden to see if there was
+really any reason for the dog's singular behaviour.
+
+In passing down the path she went so close to the verandah, that the
+skirts of her dress actually brushed aside the creeping plants which
+garnished the trellis work.
+
+"Snarling, barking little beast!" quoth Marietta to herself, "and all
+about nothing; I wish they would lose him."
+
+But when she got to the bottom of the garden and discovered the garden
+door open, she altered her tone.
+
+"How very silly of me to leave the door unlocked," she said to herself.
+"Poor little fellow, poor Mike, I'm coming, good dog. Heard someone, I
+suppose. Good gracious, what's that? I thought I saw something move
+there. I'm getting as nervous as a cat ever since those men stopped us
+and made me kiss them, the beasts. Ugh I how I loathe them, although
+there was one of them that was really not very bad-looking. I wonder
+where that poor old friar went to. What was that? Oh, how nervous I
+feel. I wish they had left me some one in the house besides that old
+deaf Constantino; he's nice company truly for a girl. Bother the dog,
+what a noise he is kicking up."
+
+And chatting thus, Marietta re-entered the house.
+
+Meanwhile Mathias had clambered up the iron balcony and pushing open
+the glass door, or rather window, he entered the room.
+
+It was the dining-room, and the remnants of a very sumptuous repast
+were yet upon the table.
+
+"I'll just take a glass of wine."
+
+He did, too.
+
+He took several glasses of wine, and then, as the fumes of the good
+liquor mounted to his brain, he grew generous, and he lowered a bottle
+out of the window to his two comrades beneath.
+
+Toro grasped it, and sucked down a good half of it before it left his
+lips.
+
+Then Hunston finished it off at a draught.
+
+When Mathias had regaled himself, he made a move to the door.
+
+There was no one about.
+
+Not a sound.
+
+Now was his time.
+
+His object was to explore the house, and ascertain in what particular
+part of it the cash, the jewels, and the plate were kept.
+
+When they had secured these, they could content themselves for the
+present at least.
+
+Firstly, therefore, he tied up the silver spoons and knives and forks
+from the dinner table in a napkin, and dropped the bundle into Toro's
+hat below.
+
+Then he crept back through the room into the passage.
+
+This done, he waited for a while to listen, and assuring himself that
+the coast was clear, he crept up.
+
+On the next landing there were seven doors.
+
+Six were shut, so he peeped into the seventh room, and just then he
+heard a noise below.
+
+Someone coming up stairs.
+
+What could he do?
+
+He stole back to the stairs and listened. It was Marietta.
+
+It was really a most embarrassing job now, for there was no retreat, so
+he crept upon tip-toe into the room, of which the door stood ajar.
+
+It was a bedroom, dimly lighted by an oil lamp.
+
+A cursory glance showed him that this room had only been lately
+vacated, and that one or more of the ladies had been dressing here for
+the ball.
+
+Within a few feet of the door was a looking-glass let into the wall as
+a panel, and reaching from floor to ceiling.
+
+Mathias listened in great anxiety for the footsteps on the stairs, and
+every moment they sounded nearer and nearer.
+
+"I hope she will not come in here," thought the robber, "else I shall
+have to make her sure."
+
+He showed how he meant to "make her sure" by toying with the hilt of
+his dagger.
+
+Mathias crouched down, and crept under the bed, just in time, as the
+pert young lady skipped into the room.
+
+Her first care was to turn up the lamp, and by its light she looked
+about her.
+
+"I think they might have taken me to the ball with them," she said,
+saucily shaking her curls off her face. "I should have looked better
+than some of them, I'll be bound. I'm dead beat with fatigue. I've had
+all the work dressing them, and they are to get all the fun."
+
+She was silent for some few minutes, and Mathias grew anxious.
+
+What could be going forward?
+
+He would vastly like to know.
+
+Unable to control his curiosity, he peeped out, and then he saw pretty
+Marietta's portrait in the long looking-glass panel.
+
+She looked prettier than ever now, for, shocking to relate, the young
+lady was undressing.
+
+Mathias was not to say a bashful man, so he did not draw back.
+
+On the contrary, he stared with all his eyes.
+
+Pretty Marietta little thought, as she stood before the glass, that
+such a desperate villain was watching every movement.
+
+Marietta, wholly unconscious that she was watched by the vile brigand
+chief, walked up and down before the glass, shooting admiring glances
+at herself over her white and well rounded shoulders.
+
+"Dress, and rank, and money do wonders," she said. "Why are we not all
+about equal? I'm as good as the best of them, I'm sure, and very much
+better looking."
+
+With this mixture of feminine vanity and republican sentiments, she
+bustled about, putting the room a bit in order.
+
+Now her first job was to put away several dresses.
+
+The first of these was a short Spanish skirt of pink satin, with deep
+black lace flounces.
+
+"I wonder how I should look in this?" she murmured.
+
+She held up the dress beside her to test the colour against her
+complexion.
+
+"Beautiful!"
+
+Beautiful; yes, this was her frank opinion, and, really, we are by no
+means sure but that her own estimate was very near the mark.
+
+On went the dress.
+
+She strutted up and down, and then, when she had feasted her eyes
+enough upon her own loveliness, she plaited her hair, and, twisting it
+up into a rich knot behind, she stuck a high comb into it, and fastened
+the thick lace veil about her.
+
+Mathias watched it all.
+
+He gloated over that pretty little picture, and, shameless rascal!
+chuckled to think how little she suspected his presence.
+
+"There," she said, folding the veil about her head with the most
+coquettish manner, "if I don't look the prettiest senorita alive, why,
+call me--call me anything odious--yes, even an Englishwoman--ha, ha,
+ha! How that would please my mistress!"
+
+And then she figured about before the glass, and capered through a
+Spanish bolero with considerable grace and dexterity, while she sang an
+impromptu verse to an old air.
+
+The verse was naturally doggerel, and maybe given in English as
+follows--
+
+                      "Sweet Marietta,
+                         Rarely has been
+                       A sweeter or better
+                         Face or form seen;
+                       My chestnut tresses,
+                         And my Spanish fall,
+                       Would eclipse all the dresses
+                         At the masked ball.
+                       Then why, Marietta.
+                         Dally?--ah, no!
+                       Pluck up, you'd better,
+                         Your courage and go!"
+
+And as she came to the last line, this impudent little maid whirled round,
+spinning her skirts about her like a top.
+
+Mathias was enraptured.
+
+With difficulty he kept himself from applauding.
+
+"She'd make her fortune upon the stage," he said to himself.
+
+Marietta had made quite a conquest; a double conquest, it might almost
+be said.
+
+The hidden robber was enraptured, and she was scarcely less pleased with
+herself.
+
+"I'll go," she said to herself, "Why should I not? They'll never find it
+out; I can do just as Cenerentola (Cinderella) did, and who knows but
+that some prince might fall over head and ears in love with me? I can get
+back long before they do."
+
+Out she skipped too, and tripped down the stairs.
+
+She was off to the ball.
+
+Little dreamt she that for the last half hour her life hung upon the
+most slender thread.
+
+And now, the coast being clear, the three brigands prepared to carry out
+their plans.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+AT THE CONTESSA'S FETE--A ROMANTIC ADVENTURE BETWEEN CERTAIN OLD FRIENDS.
+
+
+The most brilliant fete of the year was that given by the
+rich Contessa Maraviglia at her palazzo.
+
+All the rank and fashion of the land were there.
+
+The palazzo itself was a building of great beauty, and stood in grounds
+of great extent.
+
+The contessa, who was a widow, had a princely fortune, and she spent
+it lavishly too.
+
+Upon the night of the masquerade the gardens were brilliantly lighted.
+
+Upon the miniature lake there was a fairy gondola, with a coloured
+lantern dangling at the prow, and hung with curtains of pale blue silk
+gauze.
+
+In this gondola a lady was seated.
+
+She had taken to the gondola, not alone for the sake of the freshness of
+the breeze upon the water, but to read without interruption a letter she
+had received from a mysterious man who professed to be deeply smitten
+with her charms, and who, the messenger of love let fall, was a prince.
+
+She wore a black domino, but was not masked, for as she threw back its
+folds to breathe more freely, you could see that her only veil was a
+thick fall of black lace, fastened to a high comb in the back of her
+head.
+
+"I hope he will not be long," said she to herself, while her heart beat
+high with expectation. "His note says clearly enough on the lake in the
+fairy gondola. Well, it will certainly be nice to be a princess, but I
+do hope that his highness may prove to be a dashing, handsome youth,
+such as a Cinderella might sigh for. Hush, boatman!"
+
+"Lady?"
+
+"Do you hear?"
+
+"Someone singing on the bank yonder? Yes! I hear, lady."
+
+"Row that way."
+
+A voice was heard carolling gently the serenade--"Fair shines the moon
+to-night."
+
+The voice meant well, evidently, but something rather spoilt the effect.
+
+It was not altogether in tune, nor had the singer the best idea in the
+world of time.
+
+Perhaps his singing was spoilt by excess of love.
+
+Perhaps by liquor.
+
+The latter idea was suggested by a certain unsteadiness that would
+appear to indicate both love and liquor.
+
+Be that as it may, the singer was not at all aware of the disadvantages
+under which he laboured.
+
+On the contrary, he had the greatest belief in himself.
+
+"Boatman," exclaimed the lady, impatiently, "row me ashore."
+
+"Yes, lady."
+
+He obeyed, as he spoke, and as the boat grounded, the hidden minstrel
+stepped forward.
+
+The gallant was rather a tall man, masked and habited in a long cloak,
+which almost concealed a glittering and gorgeous costume beneath.
+
+This cavalier hastened to tender the lady his hand and to assist her to
+disembark.
+
+As soon as she was fairly upon _terra firma_ the gentleman led her
+away to a more secluded part of the garden, and then ensued a brief but
+highly interesting conversation.
+
+It took place in the Italian language.
+
+That beautiful tongue was not to say elegantly spoken upon either side.
+
+The gentleman spoke as a foreigner, but imperfectly acquainted with the
+idiom.
+
+"Sir," said the lady, after an embarrassing silence upon his part, "I
+scarcely know if I ought to be here."
+
+"Nor I either, my dear lady," began the gallant.
+
+But then, aware that this was not exactly what might have been expected
+of him, he stammered and broke down.
+
+"Poor prince," thought the lady, with a very unladylike chuckle to
+herself. "How embarrassed he is."
+
+The cavalier stared at her through the great eyes in his mask, as he
+muttered to himself--
+
+"She is evidently in love with me very badly; I am curious to learn how
+a princess makes love. I am anxious only of course to study it as a
+matter of curiosity."
+
+"I ought not to have come here, prince," said the lady, in a nervous
+tone.
+
+Prince!
+
+The word made the masked gentleman stare.
+
+"Prince! I suppose that she can't know I am a married man, and goes
+straight to the question. This is popping the question sharply."
+
+He had never been made love to before by a lady of any degree, much
+less by a princess, so he was exceedingly anxious to see how she would
+begin upon this occasion.
+
+But after they had got to a quiet and remote part of the garden, they
+came to a dead lock.
+
+Not a word was spoken upon either side.
+
+"I wish he would say something to me," thought the lady.
+
+She was not used to such bashful suitors.
+
+"I have kept your appointment, sir," she said, "although I fear I am
+very wrong."
+
+"My appointment," muttered the cavalier in English, "Come, I like
+that."
+
+However, he added in the softest tones he could assume--
+
+"Fear nothing, princess, I am not a dangerous man."
+
+She thought he was, though, for as he said this he chuckled.
+
+The lady dropped her eyes before his bold glance and looked as timid as
+you could wish.
+
+Now this appeared only to encourage the gentleman, for he seized her
+round the waist and pressed a kiss upon the only part of her cheek
+which was left uncovered by her veil.
+
+She struggled feebly, oh, very feebly to release herself; but that
+libertine masker held her firmly; that is, as firmly as possible, for
+he was not very strong upon his pins.
+
+"Sir, you must not take advantage of my unprotected situation," she
+faltered.
+
+"I should be very sorry to, my coy princess," said the gallant.
+
+These words set her heart beating like clockwork.
+
+"He means well," she thought, growing quite easy in her mind.
+
+Meanwhile the ardent young lover, growing bolder by encouragement,
+wanted to remove her veil.
+
+"Grant me one favour, my princess," he said. "Let me bask in the
+sunshine of your eyes; let me feast my vision upon your rare beauty."
+
+The lady was enraptured at such poetical imagery.
+
+"It sounds like a lovely book," she murmured in ecstasy.
+
+But she would not accede to his request.
+
+She was so filled with joy, so supremely happy, that she feared to
+break the enchanting spell by any accident.
+
+"Desist, prince," she said, struggling gently in his embrace,
+
+"I must gaze on that angelic face," said the passionate Adonis.
+
+"Why," exclaimed the lady, "since you know it so well?"
+
+"Know it!" exclaimed the gallant in surprise.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I have never seen it."
+
+"Yet your letter praises each feature to the skies."
+
+"My letter!"
+
+He was staggered evidently.
+
+"Undoubtedly."
+
+"I sent no letter."
+
+The lady was amazed "If you sent no letter, why are you here?" she
+demanded.
+
+"In obedience to yours," responded the gallant.
+
+"My what?"
+
+"Your note--your ever-to-be-treasured missive," gushed the swain.
+
+Now what would have followed in the way of explanations it is
+impossible to say, for at the momentous crisis, a voice close by was
+heard repeating softly a couplet heard before--
+
+                   "Dear Marietta,
+                      Never had been
+                    A sweeter or neater
+                      Face or form seen."
+
+The lady started and screamed, and would have fallen had not the
+protecting arm of the gentleman been there to catch her.
+
+But her veil fell aside.
+
+When the lover saw her face, he was staggered, and he nearly let her
+fall.
+
+"Marietta!" he exclaimed, "Marietta! Mrs. Harkaway's maid, by all
+that's wonderful."
+
+"Oho," screamed the lady, "you're standing on my toe!" saying which she
+jerked herself back, and dragging his foot away too, down he went.
+
+"It's Mr. Mole," shrieked the lady; and catching up her pink skirt and
+black lace flounces, she fled precipitately along the path, leaving her
+admirer scrambling in the most undignified manner upon the gravel walk.
+
+Poor Mr. Mole.
+
+But oh, poor Marietta; how sadly was she disappointed with her prince.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MR. MOLE--THE THREE DEVILS AND THEIR DEVILMENT--THE CONTESSA'S
+JEWELS--AN ALARM.
+
+
+"Mr. Mole--Mr. Mole!"
+
+It was Harvey's voice.
+
+Now Mr. Mole was convinced at once that Dick was at the bottom of this
+comical conspiracy in which he had been made to look so ridiculous. So
+he resolved at first not to make any reply.
+
+But Harvey was guided to the spot by information which had been
+furnished him concerning Mr. Mole, and soon he appeared in sight.
+
+"Mr. Mole--Mr. Mole!" exclaimed Dick, in grave reproof.
+
+"Help me up, Harvey," said Mole, "and don't be a fool."
+
+"Well, that's polite."
+
+"Quite as polite as you can expect."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Oh, you know what I mean well enough."
+
+"I'm hanged if I do!" protested Harvey, stoutly.
+
+His manner caught Mr. Mole immediately.
+
+So this led the old gentleman to reflect.
+
+If Dick did not know, it would be as well to keep the adventure to
+himself.
+
+"Is it possible, Harvey, that you don't know what has occurred?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You don't know about Marietta?"
+
+"No."
+
+This decided Mole.
+
+"Marietta is here."
+
+"Never!" said Dick, in accents of deep mystery.
+
+"A fact."
+
+"Never! And who the dickens is Marietta when she is at home?"
+
+"Mrs. Harkaway's maid, to be sure."
+
+Dick burst out laughing at this.
+
+"Why, Mr. Mole," he cried, "what a sly old fox you are."
+
+Mr. Mole stared again.
+
+"I don't quite understand what you are driving at, Mr. Harvey," said
+he.
+
+"Don't you, though?--well, I do, old Slyboots."
+
+"Harvey!"
+
+"Oh, don't you try to come the old soldier over me."
+
+"Sir!" said Mr. Mole, rearing himself up to his full height upon his
+timbers, "I don't understand your slangy allusions to the ancient
+military."
+
+"Why, it is clear enough that you brought her."
+
+"I what?" almost shrieked Mr. Mole, indignantly.
+
+"Brought her, and your poor wife ought to know of it."
+
+"Sir?" said Mole, "if you are bent on insulting me, I shall leave your
+company."
+
+"Go it, Mole," said Dick, laughing until the tears came into his eyes;
+"go it. The fact is, you have been sneaking about after that little
+girl for a long while past; there can be no doubt about it."
+
+"Harvey, I repudiate your vile insinuations with scorn, The fact is,
+that in your anxiety to fix some wickedness never contemplated upon me,
+you forget all the most important part of the tale."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Why, that girl has left the villa unprotected."
+
+"Nonsense! there's old Constantino there."
+
+"Useless."
+
+"And Mike."
+
+"He barks, but don't bite."
+
+"Besides; you may be mistaken," urged Dick.
+
+"Not I. I knew her at once, and what's more, she recognised me."
+
+"The deuce!"
+
+"And she bolted directly I pronounced her name."
+
+"How was she dressed?"
+
+Mr. Mole gave a hurried description of Marietta's dress, and they want
+off in search through the house and grounds after the flighty Marietta.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In another part of the grounds three men met.
+
+"Hunston."
+
+"Toro."
+
+"Captain."
+
+"Here."
+
+"All safe?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Good!"
+
+"What have you learnt, Toro?"
+
+"Not much."
+
+"And you, captain?"
+
+"Nothing, or next to nothing," was the reply.
+
+"And you, Hunston?"
+
+"I have gained knowledge," answered the latter; "good, useful
+knowledge."
+
+The other two laughed heartily at this reply.
+
+"You were always of a studious turn of mind, Hunston."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!"
+
+[Illustration: "'WHAT HAVE YOU DISCOVERED?' ASKED THE CAPTAIN"--ADV IN
+GREECE, VOL II, PAGE 21]
+
+It may be as well to mention that they had sought a secluded part of
+the contessa's gardens, and met now by appointment.
+
+They were all three arrayed in that peculiar style of costume which the
+prince of darkness is popularly supposed to don when he makes his
+appearance to German students, in certain weird and wild works of
+fiction, or in the supernatural drama.
+
+It sounded really remarkable to hear these three men, disguised as
+devils, discussing matters generally in such an offhand manner.
+
+The dresses of all three were alike nearly in every particular.
+
+The only mark of distinction between them was a small straight feather
+they wore in their caps.
+
+One wore a yellow feather.
+
+Another had a feather of brilliant red.
+
+The third one's feather was of a bright emerald green.
+
+Now these feathers were small, but yet, by reason of the conspicuous
+colours, could be seen at a considerable distance.
+
+"What is it you have discovered?" asked the captain.
+
+"Out with it, Hunston," said Toro, in his old impatient way.
+
+"Well, in the first place," was Hunston's reply, "our letters to old
+Mole and to the girl Marietta were perfectly successful."
+
+"Of course."
+
+"The vanity of the one, and the conceit of the other, made it an easy
+matter."
+
+"It did."
+
+"I saw the interview from a snug place of concealment, and took care to
+let her know it."
+
+"How?"
+
+"By humming her song which you heard her sing up at the villa."
+
+The latter looked somewhat alarmed at this.
+
+"Was that prudent?"
+
+"Of course she did not see me, only we must get a thorough hold over
+this girl, so as to have her as an accomplice in the enemy's camp
+always."
+
+"Good."
+
+"Now let us get back to the ball-room, and see what is to be picked up
+there."
+
+Back they went, and arrived in the large ball-room just as a dance was
+being got up.
+
+The three diabolical companions deemed it prudent now to separate, that
+no undue attention might be drawn upon their movements.
+
+And they went sauntering about the rooms, each upon the look-out for
+any slice of luck which might turn up.
+
+Hunston had added a long red cloak to his costume, so as to envelope
+his figure and cover his arm, for fear of accidentally running across
+Harkaway or Harvey, or in fact, any of the party.
+
+In this cloak he was wrapped, and silently watching two young and
+lovely girls, whose grace and elegance were commanding universal
+admiration.
+
+One was fair as a lily, with light, golden, wavy hair, and full blue
+eyes.
+
+This beautiful girl it was who excited Hunston's curiosity
+
+"Who can she be? Perhaps Harvey's daughter," he thought
+
+Now these two were equally lovely to gaze upon, the beauty of each
+being of a totally different character.
+
+"If we can but spirit little Emily away to the mountains," said Hunston
+to himself, "I shall be able to repay them for all I have suffered.
+Nay, more, I shall be able to satisfy the greed of Mathias and the
+band, by making the accursed Harkaway disgorge some of his enormous
+wealth."
+
+A hand was placed upon his shoulder.
+
+"Hah!"
+
+"It is I," said a voice in his ear.
+
+And looking up, he beheld the devil in the red feather.
+
+"Mathias."
+
+"Hush! I have to rejoin a lady now, to whom I am engaged for the
+dance."
+
+"The dance!"
+
+Mathias nodded.
+
+"She accepted at once a dance with the devil; I'll lead her a devil of
+a dance."
+
+And the brigand captain laughed hugely at his own conceit.
+
+But Hunston was not in laughing humour.
+
+"I'm glad to find you so merry, captain."
+
+The Greek did not observe his gloomy manner; he only replied--"You will
+be merry, too, when I tell you the cause."
+
+"I have no thought for the pleasures of these fools," said Hunston,
+gruffly; "I only think of business."
+
+"I too."
+
+"And yet you are going to dance, Captain Mathias."
+
+"For business reasons, solely," said the Greek.
+
+"Ho ho!"
+
+"My partner is positively bristling with diamonds," said the brigand,
+significantly.
+
+Hunston was interested immediately.
+
+"Diamonds?"
+
+"Aye! diamonds; and such diamonds, too. There is one as big as a nut, I
+swear."
+
+"I must see this lady."
+
+"You shall."
+
+"Where is she to be seen?"
+
+"Come with me," said the captain.
+
+Away they went, squeezing through the crowds of dancers and maskers,
+until they came to the smaller ball-room, where a lady stood in
+conversation with a big man, admirably got up as a knight of the olden
+time.
+
+The lady Hunston recognised at a glance, from the description which
+Mathias had given of her jewels.
+
+Her finely-rounded arms were encircled by bracelets, set with the
+richest diamonds, that matched a necklet of priceless worth apparently.
+
+She wore a tiara, too, of the same costly making and setting.
+
+The dance began.
+
+It was a waltz.
+
+Now the gallant Mathias acquitted himself to perfection in the dance,
+carrying his fair and richly-attired partner through the crowded room
+without getting at all jostled by the dancers.
+
+Hunston followed their movements with the greatest possible interest,
+and as they shot past him for the third time round the room, he
+contrived to take from the Greek captain's hand one of the lady's
+bracelets which he had with some dexterity removed.
+
+The next round he was less successful.
+
+As they shot past, the brigand's hand was outstretched, but Hunston
+missed it, and a glittering object dropped to the floor. Hunston
+stooped to recover it, when--
+
+"The lady has dropped something," said a voice in his ear.
+
+"What lady?" he demanded, recovering himself quickly,
+
+"The contessa."
+
+"Ah! I see. But was it the contessa?" he asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Yes. It is the lady dancing with your half-brother."
+
+"Eh!"
+
+Hunston started a little after these words.
+
+They sounded very unpleasantly in his ear.
+
+He had evidently been associated with Mathias by the speaker.
+
+Now the latter was a strange-looking little being.
+
+A stunted man, with broad, square shoulders, and got up to represent
+the description which Victor Hugo has given us of his creation of
+Quasimodo.
+
+"That is the contessa?" said Hunston, recovering his presence of mind.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I am very glad of it, for I shall be able to restore this to its
+proper owner."
+
+"Of course."
+
+Hunston arose, and with a slight inclination of the head, crossed the
+room, as if in search of the contessa.
+
+The dwarf regarded him eagerly as he went.
+
+"That's a rum one," he said to himself. "He means to pocket the
+contessa's bracelet. What a swindle! I thought there was something more
+devilish about him than his dress."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Hunston fled precipitately to the gardens.
+
+Close by the spot where he had previously met his companions in crime,
+there was a man awaiting him with a big bundle.
+
+"Matteo, is it you?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Good; give me the other dress out. Quick! I must change, and be back
+before my absence can be noticed."
+
+As he spoke, he had already torn from the hands of the man Matteo a
+pair of trunks of blue cloth slashed with amber silk, and quick as an
+eye could wink, he was into them.
+
+And then he fastened on a similarly coloured mantle.
+
+"Tell me, Matteo, does that change me?"
+
+"Yes, perfectly."
+
+"Good! take this."
+
+"What, jewels?"
+
+"Hush! hear all, see all, and say nothing. Away with you, now."
+
+"Yes. Where to?"
+
+"Back to the mountains, where we can always guard what we ourselves
+have made."
+
+"True."
+
+Just then there was a commotion in the ball-room, and a voice was heard
+to cry out--
+
+"The contessa has lost her richest diamonds and other precious stones.
+There are robbers here. No one must leave the grounds."
+
+"By Heaven!" ejaculated Hunston; "we are lost."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+HUNSTON'S ADVENTURE--MOLE IN A MAZE--HE MEETS AN EVIL SPIRIT--GROSS
+OUTRAGE ON HIS WOODEN LEGS--MATHIAS IN TROUBLE-THE ASSASSIN'S
+KNIFE.
+
+
+Quasimodo, who had detected one of the devils, was Magog Brand.
+
+The audacity of the fearless Greek had carried him through so far, but
+Quasimodo had spoilt him at last.
+
+A number of gentlemen in the company began to inquire very minutely
+into the affair.
+
+Prominent amongst them was Harkaway.
+
+He and Jefferson, prompt to act as ever, inquired into the
+circumstances of this gross outrage, and then it was elicited that the
+depredator was seen last in diabolical costume.
+
+"A devil!" ejaculated one of the company. "Of course, I saw the man
+myself."
+
+"I too," said another.
+
+"Yes, he wore a red feather in his high-crowned hat."
+
+"No," said another; "a feather, it is true, but the feather was green,
+I am sure."
+
+Upon this, Magog Brand came forward.
+
+"I saw it all done," he said. "I saw the man who did it"
+
+"What, rob the contessa?"
+
+"Yes, and as soon as I saw what It meant, I gave the alarm; but the
+devil disappeared like greased lightning."
+
+"There!" exclaimed half a dozen at once, "I said it was the devil."
+
+"Yes," added one of the guests, eagerly. "What coloured feather had
+he?"
+
+"Red," ejaculated another, immediately.
+
+"Green," retorted the opposite faction, loudly, but Magog Brand said--
+
+"It was neither red nor green," said he, "but a bright yellow."
+
+Now, while this inquiry was being proceeded with, nobody happened to
+observe one singular circumstance.
+
+That was the presence, the whole of the time, in the motley-coloured
+crowd, of one of the diabolical trio in question.
+
+This very devil no sooner heard the question raised about the coloured
+feathers in their head gear, than he doffed his hat unperceived and
+pulled out the feather.
+
+And then, as the controversy grew warmer, he sneaked off.
+
+He made all possible haste for the garden gate.
+
+Once here he was about to rush through, when he was accosted by two
+men, whose uniform gave him an unpleasant twinge.
+
+They were gendarmes.
+
+"You cannot leave the ground yet, sir," said one of them sharply.
+
+"I don't wish to," replied the devil, promptly. "I come to bring you
+orders."
+
+"I beg your pardon," said the gendarme.
+
+"A robbery has been committed."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"That is the reason you have had your orders to guard the gate. Oh, you
+know it. Well, what you don't know is that the robbery is supposed to
+have been committed by a masker dressed as I am. Take particular note
+of my dress."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+The gendarme grinned as he said this.
+
+"Keep your eyes open. These are the contessa's particular orders."
+
+"Trust me, sir."
+
+"There is a reward if you capture the thief."
+
+The gendarme laughed at this, and said, with an air of
+self-confidence--"I think I shall get him."
+
+The merry devil slapped the gendarme upon the back heartily.
+
+"You are the sort of man for my money."
+
+Saying which, he turned and left the spot.
+
+Making his way to a place in the grounds previously agreed upon, he ran
+across the brigand Matteo armed with a change of dress for him.
+
+The spot selected was up one of the narrowest alleys in the grounds, at
+the end of which was a species of Hampton Court maze in miniature.
+
+Just as the diabolical one was about to divest himself of half of his
+skin, Matteo gave the alarm.
+
+"The devil!" ejaculated the masker, which was, perhaps, the most
+natural exclamation he could make, all things considered. "What can
+this be? Somebody watched me here."
+
+He waited a minute or so in anxiety.
+
+An unsteady footfall was heard upon the gravel walk, and a man in a
+cloak came staggering along.
+
+"They may call this a grand _fete_ if they like," he mumbled. "I
+call it a shabby affair. Why, there's not a respectable drink in the
+place. The lucky thing is that I have provided my own."
+
+He had a bottle with him, and he sucked at it from time to time as he
+staggered on, until all of a sudden he ran on to the alarmed masker,
+who was growing impatient to change his garments.
+
+The staggering one looked up, and seeing such an alarming figure
+towering over him, he gave a wild howl and fled.
+
+"The devil! the devil!" he shouted wildly. "Help! help!"
+
+"Stop that fool, Matteo, or he will bring the whole house down about
+our ears."
+
+Matteo seized the merrymaker, and was about to make short work with
+him, when his superior held his hand.
+
+"Put by your knife," he said; "not that. Hold him tight and threaten
+him; but no knife."
+
+But for this timely interference, it would have gone hard with the
+unfortunate new-comer, who was our old friend Mole.
+
+Mole, it should be noted, had been compelled to change his cork legs,
+on which he could scarcely stand, for his old, familiar stumps, which
+Harvey had brought with him in case any accident should occur.
+
+"Forgive me, Mr. Devil," he implored, in drunken tones, "oh, forgive
+me."
+
+"Mole!" exclaimed the devil, in a thrilling voice, "your evil deeds are
+known to me."
+
+"Oh, oh, oh!" groaned the wretched Isaac, piteously.
+
+"Your time has come."
+
+"Mercy, mercy!" gasped Mole.
+
+"Never."
+
+"Give me a little time, Mr. Devil."
+
+"No."
+
+"Oh, do, do, for the sake of my twins," said Mole, in his most
+persuasive manner, "and I'll stand any thing you like to--hic--to name.
+Don't take me away, but come and liquor up with me."
+
+"Silence!" thundered the irritable devil
+
+"I'm dumb."
+
+"Away with you, and repent."
+
+Mole staggered off.
+
+As soon as he was gone, Matteo assisted his master to change his
+garments, and in the space of five minutes at the outside, the devil
+disappeared, and was replaced by a gay cavalier, habited in a rich
+costume of blue slashed with amber, and a broad-brimmed sombrero.
+
+The excitement occasioned by the impudent robbery of the contessa
+Maraviglia's jewels had not by any means subsided, so the confusion
+prevailing in consequence was highly favourable to Hunston's new
+villany for trapping little Emily.
+
+Nearing the entrance to the ball-room, he came to a conservatory, into
+which Mr. Mole had strolled, or let us say staggered, and then dropped
+into a seat.
+
+Hunston glided in unperceived by Mole, and concealed himself behind
+some thick shrubs close to him.
+
+Mole was bent upon making himself comfortable.
+
+The irrepressible bottle was out again.
+
+"I feel," mumbled Mole, little thinking there was a listener near, "I
+feel that I am a devil of a fellow. All the ladies love me, and all the
+men fear me. I'm too much for anyone of them, ha, ha, ha! I've taken a
+rise out of the devil himself."
+
+Here he had a suck at the bottle.
+
+"I'm getting quite familiar with evil spirits to-night," he said
+grinning; "I don't think he will see me again in a hurry--he, he!" He
+raised the bottle again to his lips, when a ghostly voice sounded in
+his ear--
+
+"Beware!"
+
+He turned pale, and then got very red in the face.
+
+"Who's there?" said Mole, looking nervously round; "come in, don't
+knock; what a fool I am."
+
+"Remember!" said the same hollow voice as before.
+
+"Oh, Lor', oh, Lor'!" cried Mole; "I'm gone; he's there again."
+
+"Beware!"
+
+"I'm gone, I'm going," cried Mole; "oh, Lor', oh, Lor'!"
+
+And off he ran, Hunston following closely behind him.
+
+Now Hunston got near enough to him to see that he was really trying to
+get little Emily and Paquita to take care of him for a time, and walk
+with him in the grounds.
+
+"There will be two of them to take care of," said Hunston, following
+them up as closely as was prudent; "that complicates matters. I hope
+Matteo has taken his measures carefully."
+
+Matteo had.
+
+They drew near to the entrance of the maze, and then Hunston began to
+look anxiously about him for Matteo and the rest of their accomplices.
+
+"I think we had better return," he heard little Emily say.
+
+Suddenly a whistle was blown, and five or six men sprang out from the
+maze.
+
+In less time than it takes to record the outrage, the two girls were
+seized and borne off in stout, relentless arms, their cries being
+stifled by thick wraps thrown over their heads.
+
+"To the small gate," exclaimed Hunston.
+
+Mole recognised the familiar voice of Hunston, and the whole danger
+flashed into his mind at once, sobering him most effectually.
+
+"Hunston, you villain, I know you!" he cried. "And I will lose my life
+rather than harm should come to these dear girls."
+
+Hunston turned and faced him savagely.
+
+"If you know me, Mole," he said meaningly, "then beware of me."
+
+Mole's only reply was to grapple with him with all his strength.
+
+But the foolish old man was hurled to the ground, and then one of the
+brigands fell upon him, brandishing a huge knife.
+
+Hunston here interfered, and gave a command which made the men laugh
+very heartily.
+
+A fresh outrage was perpetrated, and in the space of two minutes, Mr.
+Mole found himself alone, and on his back.
+
+"Hunston, you black-hearted thief," he cried, "I'll follow you if--"
+
+He tried to rise, but down he went again.
+
+He was lop-sided.
+
+And why?
+
+The brigands had amputated one of his wooden legs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Leaving them for a moment, let us return to Mathias.
+
+That daring scoundrel was not satisfied with having escaped a great
+danger scot free, and made a very rich prize, but he must needs return
+to the Palazzo Maraviglia in another dress, in quest of fresh plunder.
+
+The fact was that he was flushed with wine.
+
+Else he would have thought twice of returning.
+
+Mingling with the crowd in the large ball-room, he came to a group
+discussing the late robbery in great excitement, and as he was pressing
+forward to learn what he could, he became entangled in a lady's lace
+flounces.
+
+He turned sharply to apologise, and recognised the figure at once.
+
+"The lovely Marietta," Mathias exclaimed.
+
+She heard him, and made off to the other end of the room, closely
+followed by Mathias, who had conceived a violent fancy for her.
+
+"Stay, Senorita," he exclaimed, seizing her hand.
+
+"What do you want with me?" said Marietta.
+
+"Only to plead--"
+
+"Nonsense," she exclaimed, interrupting him abruptly; "you don't know
+me."
+
+"Let me plead--"
+
+"Bother!"
+
+"Nay," said the persistent robber, "if you will not hear me speak, hear
+me sing."
+
+And then, being an admirable mimic, he imitated her strut before the
+looking-glass, and general coquettish behaviour in the dressing-room at
+the villa, while he sang in a falsetto voice--
+
+                        "Sweet Marietta,
+                           Rarely has been
+                         A sweeter or better
+                           Face or form seen.
+                         Dear Marietta!"
+
+"Hah!" cried the girl, starting back as if she had been shot.
+
+Her first impulse was to faint.
+
+But as soon as she gained the cooler air without, she recovered, and
+collecting her senses a little, she gave a pretty shrewd guess at the
+truth.
+
+She was silly, yet not a bad-natured girl.
+
+She saw her duty plainly enough.
+
+She must make herself known at once to her master.
+
+Harkaway was close at hand, discussing the robbery still with
+Jefferson.
+
+The whole of this party were of course known to Marietta; so she made
+straight up to Harkaway, and said hurriedly--
+
+"Have that man seized, sir--see, that one who is following me. I am
+Marietta. He has just said something to me which convinces me that he
+was hiding in the villa to-night."
+
+"Hullo!" exclaimed Harkaway, not a little startled at this sudden
+address; "why, what in Heaven's name--"
+
+"Lose no time," interrupted Marietta eagerly, "or he will go--see, he
+has taken the alarm."
+
+"The girl's right," said Jefferson, striding off after Mathias.
+
+The latter now began to perceive that he had made a false step, and he
+hurried through the crowded room towards the door, and was just passing
+out, when a dwarfed and ugly figure leaped upon him.
+
+So sudden was the attack that Mathias was capsized, and together they
+rolled upon the floor.
+
+"Let go!" said the Greek fiercely, "or I'll--"
+
+"Not me!" exclaimed Magog Brand--for he was the Greek's assailant. "I
+know you, my yellow-feathered devil, even though you have shed your
+skin!"
+
+"Let go," hissed the Greek brigand, with compressed lips, "or I'll have
+your life!"
+
+"I'll not let go," cried the brave little Brand. "I have got you,
+villain, and will hold you. Ah!"
+
+Mathias scrambled up, and tried to fly, but he was met with a blow from
+Jefferson's fist which might have felled an ox in the shambles.
+
+He dropped lifeless on the ground beside Magog,
+
+And then a sudden outcry arose, for it was found that in that brief
+struggle poor Magog Brand had been cruelly used.
+
+A long-bladed poignard was buried up to the hilt in his side.
+
+Poor Brand.
+
+Death must have been almost instantaneous.
+
+They tore the mask from Mathias' face, and thereupon an agent of the
+secret police stepped forward and made known who it was.
+
+"This is the notorious Mathias," he said. "One of the most daring of
+the brigands hereabouts; we have been wanting him badly for some time
+past."
+
+"You have got him," said Harkaway, "but oh!" he added, glancing at the
+lifeless form of Magog Brand, "at what a price for us!"
+
+At this juncture Harvey reached the spot, and taking in the whole scene
+at a glance, he dropped on his knees beside the body of Magog Brand,
+where Jefferson was already kneeling, seemingly half stupefied by the
+catastrophe.
+
+"He has fainted," said he to Harvey.
+
+Harvey shook his head mournfully.
+
+"He'll never faint again, Jefferson."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"You surely--no, no, Brand, dear old boy, look up."
+
+He faltered and broke down.
+
+"Yes, Jefferson," said Harvey in deep emotion. "Poor Magog Brand is at
+the end of his troubles and pleasures alike--he is dead!"
+
+[Illustration: "'MURDER! ABDUCTION! SHOUTED MOLE HUNSTON IS HERE"--ADV
+IN GREECE VOL II PAGE 39.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE PURSUIT OF THE BRIGANDS--THE BATTLE--VARYING FORTUNES--HOW
+HUNSTON AND TORO WERE LAID BY THE HEELS.
+
+
+Consternation was upon every face.
+
+The catastrophe was so sudden and unlocked for, that the people about
+were half stupefied with fear.
+
+On one side lay poor Magog Brand, lately so full of life and animation.
+
+On the other was his assassin, felled by the dead man's best friend,
+the doughty Jefferson, and with scarcely more life in him than his
+victim.
+
+And while the people were staring hopelessly at each other thus, a
+voice was heard giving the alarm hard by.
+
+"Poor Brand, your murderer shall not escape," said Jefferson bitterly.
+
+The noise continued, and presently the voice was recognised.
+
+"It is Mole," cried Harkaway.
+
+He was right.
+
+Just then the poor old gentleman appeared upon the scene.
+
+"Harkaway, Jefferson, Harvey!" he cried.
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"Murder!" returned Mole. "Hunston is here."
+
+"By Heaven! I thought it," ejaculated Jefferson.
+
+"He has carried off Emily and Paquita."
+
+"What?"
+
+"I interfered, but they were too many for me. See how they have used
+me."
+
+"Was he with the brigands?" demanded Harkaway.
+
+"I suppose so. A whole mob of ruffians."
+
+"Where are they gone?"
+
+"By the small gate."
+
+A hurried explanation ensued with the agent of the secret police, who
+gave them a few words of comfort.
+
+"He'll never be able to pass my men at the gate," said the officer,
+with great confidence.
+
+This was doubtful.
+
+They knew too well Hunston's boldness and audacity.
+
+But they lost no time in getting up a pursuit.
+
+The contessa's stables were well furnished, and two horses were
+speedily saddled for Harkaway and Jefferson.
+
+Harvey, too impatient to wait for a mount, had rushed wildly away in
+the direction of the small gate, followed by Mr. Mole.
+
+Here he saw to his dismay that a scramble had taken place, in which the
+gendarmes had got decidedly the worst of it.
+
+The two who had been on guard at the gate had got very roughly handled,
+one having a broken crown and the other showing an ugly wound in the
+side.
+
+"They have gone this way, then?" exclaimed Harvey, eagerly.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Which way?"
+
+"They made for the right," faltered one of the wounded men.
+
+"Is it long?"
+
+"No; a few moments."
+
+"They can not get far," said the gendarme with the broken pate; "the
+two girls were struggling hard with him."
+
+"Hurrah!" cried Harvey. "I'll save my child yet."
+
+"You are not the first in the hunt," said the other gendarme, speaking
+with evident pain; "there are two black men after them."
+
+"That must be Sunday and Monday," exclaimed Harvey.
+
+And off he ran.
+
+He bounded over the ground like a deer, and when he got about half a
+mile further on, he came suddenly upon two men struggling.
+
+One of them was a negro.
+
+Who, in fact, but our old friend the Prince of Limbi, the faithful
+Monday?
+
+The other was one of the Greeks, a face unknown to Harvey, but one who
+has already figured in these pages.
+
+Matteo!
+
+And lying on the ground near him was a brigand struck down dead by
+brave Monday.
+
+As Harvey came up, it was nearing the end of what had been a precious
+tough fight. Monday was uppermost, and Matteo, who had gradually
+succumbed to the wiry negro, was by this time in a very queer way
+indeed.
+
+Monday held him by the throat, and in spite of his desperate efforts to
+set himself free, Matteo had lost his breath.
+
+And there he lay completely at the negro's mercy.
+
+"There, you dam tief!" exclaimed the Prince of Limbi, "take dat, an'
+dat, an' dat, an' now, be golly, have dis for a little bit in."
+
+At every word he pressed harder and harder and jerked his adversary
+back.
+
+The "little bit in" settled Matteo completely.
+
+Something seemed to crack in the wretched Greek's throat, and he
+dropped back.
+
+"Monday, Monday!" said Harvey, eagerly, "where are they?"
+
+"Hullo, Massa Dick!" said faithful Monday; "I'se gwine to give this
+fellar toko an' den I'll jine yar."
+
+"He's done for," said Dick, hastily. "Come now."
+
+"He might come too," said Monday, in some doubt.
+
+"No fear."
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+"Why, he'll never trouble anyone more," returned Harvey; "tell me,
+where have they gone?"
+
+"They went straight on."
+
+"This road?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Good. Come or stay. I'll go," exclaimed Harvey.
+
+And off he ran.
+
+Monday gave his silent enemy a shake to see if it was all over.
+
+"He's a gone coon," he said to himself. "I'll bolt off after Massa
+Dick."
+
+Away he ran at a good swinging trot.
+
+In about ten minutes more he came up with him.
+
+And this was under the most alarming circumstances.
+
+Not very long after this a horseman dashed up to the spot, and only
+drew rein to give a glance at the lifeless form of the wretched Matteo.
+
+"He's dead," said the horseman, who was none other than Jack Harkaway.
+"This looks like some of Dick's handiwork. Dick or some of our party. I
+hope Dick is safe." Saying which, he whipped up his horse, and tore on
+at a mad gallop.
+
+A very few moments after this he came up with the brigands with their
+captives.
+
+Just in the nick of time.
+
+Hunston and Toro were there both with their hands full, while the
+Greeks had all their work to do to take care of the two captive girls.
+
+Little Emily and Paquita, having now recovered from their surprise,
+were lending assistance to the cause by keeping all the Greeks fully
+occupied in looking after them.
+
+And while they were thus occupied, Sunday and Dick Harvey were engaged
+with Toro and Hunston.
+
+Dick had rushed so violently upon Hunston that the latter was toppled
+over, and it looked as though Harvey was about to make short work with
+their old enemy.
+
+But alas for Sunday!
+
+The poor negro was overmatched.
+
+His heart was good, but the weight and enormous strength of the Italian
+were too much for him to vanquish.
+
+That he had not as yet succumbed to Toro, was due only to his vastly
+superior agility and activity.
+
+It was all in vain for the Italian ruffian to try and close with him.
+
+Sunday would not have this.
+
+He knew that his chance lay in keeping Toro at a respectful distance.
+
+And so he danced round him, dropping in an occasional smart rap which
+goaded the Italian to fury.
+
+"Help!" cried Hunston. "Cut him down! cut him down!"
+
+One of the brigands rushed at Harvey knife in hand, and thus created a
+momentary diversion in his favour.
+
+Had not Harkaway just then appeared upon the scene it might have gone
+hard with his comrade Dick.
+
+Prompt, however, to act at this critical juncture, Harkaway spurred his
+horse into the group and rode them down.
+
+Then reining up, he flung himself from his horse, and went into the
+melee.
+
+"I'm in it, Dick, old boy," cried Jack; "here's one for Harkaway."
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted Dick, in great excitement. "A Harkaway! a Harkaway to
+the rescue!"
+
+Toro turned to Harkaway with a cry of rage.
+
+"Curse you!" he exclaimed; "I'll have your life now, or you shall have
+mine."
+
+"By all means," said old Jack, cheerfully.
+
+"Cur!"
+
+"Come, now," said Harkaway, with subdued rage, "I can't stand that;
+take this!"
+
+And before Toro knew where he was, he got it.
+
+It was not as pleasant as he could have wished when he did get it.
+
+A devil of a thud it came upon his nose, a fair blow with Harkaway's
+fist, and being delivered straight from the shoulder, it seemed to the
+Italian like the kick of a donkey.
+
+Toro shook all over.
+
+His eyes flashed fireworks, and he was half stunned for the moment.
+
+Harkaway's triumph was but temporary.
+
+One of the Greeks, who was watching the conflict between these giants
+of the combat in great interest, had by now crept up behind Jack, and
+seizing him suddenly round the middle, hurled him to the ground.
+
+"Ha, ha!" yelled Toro.
+
+And bounding forward, he fell upon Harkaway, knife in hand.
+
+"At last, at last, your life is in my hands," he cried in fiend-like
+joy.
+
+The knife gleamed in the air.
+
+A piercing shriek from little Emily was heard.
+
+A cry of fear from Paquita, and suddenly the latter, disengaging
+herself from her captors, bounded forward and seized Toro by the hair.
+
+She dragged him back with all her strength, and little as it was, it
+saved the life of Jack Harkaway.
+
+Jack put forth all his strength at this most critical juncture, and
+succeeded in grappling once more with his herculean opponent.
+
+Toro lost his balance.
+
+A moment more and he was rolling upon the ground in deadly battle with
+brave Jack Harkaway.
+
+So fierce a strife could not last long.
+
+In the heat of the combat cries were heard encouraging Harkaway and
+Harvey to fresh exertions, and up dashed the bold Monday, closely
+followed by Jefferson and several gentlemen from the contessa's fete.
+
+The Greeks now began to lose heart.
+
+The odds were veering round to the wrong side.
+
+Greeks can fight moderately well when they are three or four to one
+Englishman, but when the numbers are equal, they do not care to provoke
+hostilities.
+
+And so they blew upon their whistles for assistance, and soon the
+answering calls came in every direction, causing the gravest fears to
+the Harkaway faction.
+
+"Hah!" ejaculated Jefferson; "they are coming to help you. But at least
+I'll make sure of you, Master Toro."
+
+The Italian did not shirk the encounter.
+
+Toro, to do him justice, was, with all his faults, no coward.
+
+He had felt the weight of Jefferson's arm, and he had reason to
+remember it.
+
+Yet he met his old adversary boldly.
+
+Jefferson fell upon the huge Italian with tiger-like fury, and in spite
+of his prodigious size and weight, he lifted him in his arms, swung him
+round, and hurled him to the ground.
+
+The Greeks now, seeing their leaders in such dire peril, thought of
+avenging themselves by the most dastardly o| expedients.
+
+"Kill the girls!" cried one of them.
+
+The hint was caught up with avidity.
+
+A savage yell responded to the bloodthirsty suggestion, and the lives
+of the two innocent girls were in real peril.
+
+"Look to the girls!" shouted Dick Harvey, who was fully occupied with
+two of the Greek brigands who were pressing him closely.
+
+There was a cheer in response to this appeal, and over went two of the
+Greeks.
+
+Jefferson too lent a hand at this juncture.
+
+Finding himself free from Toro's attentions, for the huge Italian had
+received such a desperate shaking with his fall that he was not fit for
+much now, he rushed into the _melee_, and dealt out such slogging
+blows that there were at least a dozen bleeding noses and black eyes
+distributed amongst the bandits in rather less time than it takes to
+note the fact.
+
+The Greeks were thoroughly discouraged.
+
+This unpleasant British mode of attack was not at all to their liking.
+
+They could do pretty well with knives or swords, or even with firearms,
+but they could only regard men who used their fists in the lights of
+savages.
+
+Gradually they retreated before the fierce onslaught of the Britishers
+and their gallant Yankee ally.
+
+This was no small triumph.
+
+The brigands mustered at least twenty men.
+
+Their enemies were five.
+
+The five were Harkaway, Harvey, Jefferson, and the two negroes Sunday
+and Monday.
+
+The chicken-hearted Greeks, however, did not altogether turn tail, for
+ere they could get fairly off this hardly-contested field, they
+received considerable reinforcements.
+
+About ten more Greeks put in an appearance.
+
+A ragged, ruffianly crew, and ill armed.
+
+The Harkaway party were not armed at all.
+
+The Greeks fell back and made attempts to re-form in something like
+good order.
+
+But Jefferson saw the danger, and he followed them up closely.
+
+Jack and Dick Harvey were at his heels.
+
+Neither of our old friends were inferior to the bold Jefferson in
+courage; but they did not possess his great advantages of size and
+strength.
+
+Jefferson's right arm went out like a battering ram, and each time he
+struck out, down dropped his man.
+
+At all events, the brigands did not give any particular signs of coming
+up for a repetition dose.
+
+The huge American dashed into the thick of the enemy.
+
+The assassination of poor little Magog Brand had fired his fury, and
+his charge was something terrific.
+
+He dashed into the midst of the half cowed bandits, and swinging his
+arms around him like the sails of a windmill, he "grassed" a man at
+every stroke.
+
+But this could not last for long.
+
+As the Greeks grew stronger in numbers, they stood upon the defensive.
+
+They were reassured.
+
+They had seven-and-twenty men against the five.
+
+The five, too, large-hearted though they were, had the two girls to
+look after.
+
+Amongst the latest comers upon the bandits' side was one man who was a
+petty officer of the brigands, and he gave a few hurried commands,
+which had the effect of putting Harkaway and his friends into a very
+awkward predicament.
+
+"Load and fire," said the brigand, "Shoot them all down."
+
+If they could but succeed in getting a shot or two at the bold
+Jefferson, or at any of the party, it would speedily be all over with
+them.
+
+But now, when individual bravery could no longer avail them, they had a
+rare slice of luck.
+
+Suddenly a rattling volley of musketry was heard, and three of the
+Greeks bit the dust, while a number of cries told that several were
+hit.
+
+And then a detachment of gendarmes dashed up into the open at a
+swinging trot.
+
+And who headed this very welcome party?
+
+Who but two youths that have been heard of before in these pages?
+
+Who indeed but young Jack Harkaway and his friend Harry Girdwood?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+SUNDAY RUBS OFF AN OLD SCORE--THE BRIGANDS--WHAT HAPPENED AT
+THE PORTER'S LODGE--A STRANGE BLIND BEGGAR.
+
+
+"Hurrah!"
+
+"Give them another."
+
+"Load again."
+
+"Another volley."
+
+A rapid, irregular discharge followed, and the Greeks, with cries of
+fear and rage, dropped their arms and fled precipitately, panic-stricken.
+
+The gendarmes followed them up, and several were knocked over and
+secured; and behind them the brigands had left no less than seven of
+their number who had not been able to get off.
+
+Amongst those seven were two men that it was no small gratification to
+the Harkaway party to see once more in their power.
+
+These two men were Hunston and Toro the Italian.
+
+Sunday stood over the latter, leathering into his half insensible
+carcase in a way that threatened to cover it with bruises; and at every
+blow he had something fresh to say.
+
+"Take dat!" he exclaimed, punching into Toro's ribs, "you dam nigger."
+
+Toro, dazed with what he had suffered in his shaking, could offer no
+resistance.
+
+"And dere's another, you ugly tief!" said the virtuous Sunday. "I'll
+gib you what for; you shall hab what Paddy gib the drum, you 'fernal
+black skunk; I show yar what John up the orchard is, you--you Italian
+organ-grinding sweep--You chestnut-munching beast!"
+
+Sunday had never forgotten his first acquaintance with Toro.
+
+The reader will doubtless bear it in mind, since with it is connected
+one of the most startling episodes of Jack Harkaway's history, in his
+voyage round the world with young Jack.
+
+It was at the hotel in New York that the Harkaways first met with
+Sunday, too, for here they were the means of rescuing him from the
+brutal violence of the ruffian Toro.
+
+It was, in fact, this which led up to that scene of terror--the firing
+of the hotel by Hunston and Toro.
+
+Sunday had suffered at Toro's hands, but had never had his whack back.
+
+But now the darkey showed the half insensible Italian the full
+signification of "John up de orchard," and likewise of "what for," and
+"what Paddy gave the drum."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Hunston and Toro were thrown into prison, with the few brigands
+captured and their discomfited chieftain Mathias.
+
+Such was the end of their exploit.
+
+When once they were in prison, however, it required some exertion on
+the part of the authorities to keep them there.
+
+The gang were unceasing in their endeavours to release them.
+
+Artifices of every kind were tried to accomplish it, but the Harkaways
+had foreseen that no stone would be left unturned by the murderous
+friends of the captured robbers; and they knew the good old-fashioned
+saying--"forewarned, forearmed.'"
+
+The prison in which they we re confined was situated at the waterside,
+and it was approachable by boat, where the entrance was beneath a low,
+vaulted archway.
+
+The day after the capture of the notorious robbers, a poor cripple
+hobbled up to the porter's lodge, dragging himself painfully along by
+the aid of a stick in one hand and a crutch under his other arm.
+
+"Move off," said the porter gruffly; "we have nothing to give away
+here."
+
+"I don't ask your charity," replied the cripple humbly; "accept this,
+good sir, as a peace offering."
+
+And then, to the porter's surprise, he dropped a coin into his hand.
+
+The porter looked hard at the coin in his hand, and then at the
+cripple.
+
+He was a man of no sentiment, this porter, and so he asked the generous
+donor bluntly what he wanted for the money.
+
+"I only want you to show some consideration and kindness, if possible,
+to some of the unfortunate inmates of this place," was the reply.
+
+"Prisoners?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"If you expect that," said the porter "you had better take back your
+money, for I have nothing to do with the prisoners."
+
+The cripple looked grave, and he muttered to himself--
+
+"This fool is beastly conscientious. If he had only proved a bit of a
+rogue, there was a chance--the ass!"
+
+But he did not mean to yield the point yet.
+
+"You are a very good man," he said to the porter, "a worthy honest
+fellow, and you will know that I don't mean to offer you any thing like
+a bribe."
+
+The porter started.
+
+"A bribe!" he said, with an expletive. "You had better not."
+
+"Ahem!" coughed the cripple. "My friend, I have confined in this prison
+my son, a poor misguided boy--"
+
+"They are mostly that," said the porter shortly.
+
+"But he is innocent."
+
+"They are all innocent," said the porter.
+
+"All?"
+
+"According to their own showing."
+
+"But my boy is."
+
+"No doubt"
+
+"And I only want to beg you to do what you can to soften his lot--a
+hard lot it is, too."
+
+"I can do nothing, I tell you," said the porter; "I never see the
+prisoners."
+
+"I thought--"
+
+"At least, when I say never, I mean only when they are allowed to walk
+in the prison yard."
+
+"That is here?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"When is that?"
+
+"Once a day; sometimes more than that, if the doctor orders it."
+
+"The doctor must order it, then?" said the cripple to himself.
+
+"What is your son in for?" asked the porter.
+
+"For an unfortunate resemblance he bears to a notorious brigand."
+
+"Bah!" exclaimed the porter. "They don't imprison a man for being like
+another."
+
+"Yes, they do; my unlucky son has been taken for Mathias the brigand."
+
+"What," ejaculated the doorkeeper, "do you mean that Mathias is not
+Mathias?"
+
+"I mean that my son has been taken for Mathias, to whom, indeed, he is
+so like that nothing but the capture of the real culprit can save my
+son."
+
+The doorkeeper eyed the cripple sharply.
+
+But the latter stood it coolly enough.
+
+"Well," said the door porter, "if that is the case, it is certainly a
+very hard job for your son. What do you want me to do for him? I can't
+let him out."
+
+"My friend," exclaimed the cripple, "think you I would suggest such a
+thing? No, all I would ask of you is to soothe him with a kind word."
+
+"I'll tell him when next he comes out."
+
+"At what time did you say?" asked the cripple, looking on the ground as
+though he only put the question casually.
+
+"At twelve."
+
+The cripple's eyes glistened as he heard this.
+
+"Well, well," he said, pressing some more money into the door porter's
+hand, "I'll call again, and perhaps you may have seen my boy, and
+comforted him with the assurance that I'll save him, in spite of all
+the ill these accursed English people can work by the aid of their
+money."
+
+"Oh, that's it, is it?" said the porter. "The English are at work in
+it, eh?"
+
+"Yes. They owe him some spite, and money, you know, can buy any
+thing--any thing." And blessing the gatekeeper, he hobbled off.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Near the prison he overtook a blind man begging by the roadside, and
+while stopping to drop a coin in his hat, the cripple contrived to
+whisper a few hurried words to this effect--
+
+"I have made a step--almost made a breach in the fortress."
+
+"You have!"
+
+And the blind man turned his head to the right and to the left, almost
+as though looking out to see if they were unwatched.
+
+"Yes; the prison yard is only the other side of the gate. Now that gate
+is kept by a porter who is already in our interest."
+
+"Good, good, Tomaso!" quoth the blind man.
+
+"Now, listen."
+
+"Go on," returned the blind man, in an eager tone.
+
+"At noon the prisoners are in the yard. If we could but get that gate
+open for an instant, and have our men ready hereabouts for a rush--"
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"Who can tell what may happen?"
+
+"Good again--good again! ha, ha, ha! that's brave, that is. Why, the
+mob of idle sightseers who crowd about the prison gates at noon to
+watch the prisoners might all be poor blind wretches or helpless
+cripples like you and I."
+
+"Of course."
+
+"And if the gate is left open but one instant--a single inch, no
+more--why, worlds might be done."
+
+"A horse ready saddled near at hand might be worth thinking of."
+
+"True."
+
+"And a small keg of gunpowder blown up under the archway by the
+waterside entrance would divert attention."
+
+"Tomaso," ejaculated the blind man, "you're born to be a captain of
+brigands some day!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+HOW TOMASO HELPED HIS FRIENDS IN TROUBLE--THE SKIRMISH IN THE
+PRISON--MATHIAS THE BRIGAND.
+
+
+Tomaso, before the day was over, changed his garments and abandoned
+crutch and stick, and when he turned out with flaxen-dyed hair and
+spectacles, and presented himself at the other great entrance of the
+prison, as a German traveller who desired to go over the place, no one
+could possibly have imagined it to be the old cripple whose paternal
+lamentation had so touched the doorkeeper's heart.
+
+"You have got here a notorious brigand, as I have heard tell," said the
+visitor.
+
+"We have, sir," was the governor's reply; "a very remarkable man he is,
+too."
+
+"Ah, so I have heard," said the visitor. "He is called Demetrius, I
+believe?"
+
+"Nay; his name is Mathias."
+
+The visitor looked surprised at this information.
+
+"Mathias--Mathias!" he repeated to himself. "I was misinformed, then. I
+certainly thought that his name was Demetrius."
+
+The governor smiled.
+
+"You may be right, all the same," said he.
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Why, Mathias is but his avowed name; he may be known by a dozen
+different _aliases_."
+
+"Is it possible?" ejaculated the sham German traveller.
+
+"Indeed it is. These robbers are mostly adepts at disguise. Would you
+like to see this Mathias?" demanded the governor, courteously.
+
+"Vastly."
+
+"Well, sir, I'll only warn you of one thing."
+
+"Indeed! What is it?"
+
+"A disappointment awaits you in this."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Instead of seeing a ferocious fellow, such as you might expect,
+Mathias is really a very pleasant and innocent-looking man."
+
+The governor of the prison then led the visitors through the long stone
+corridors of the place where Mathias was confined.
+
+They stopped before a door of great thickness, heavily barred, and
+studded with iron bolts and nails.
+
+The governor tapped at a small grated trap in the door, and it was
+pulled aside.
+
+At the grating a broad-shouldered fellow appeared, who touched his cap
+at the visitors.
+
+"So that is Mathias," said the German gentleman.
+
+"No, no," said the governor; "that is the gaoler who is shut up with
+him."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"So that he might be watched night and day; the authorities have doomed
+him to--"
+
+"To what?"
+
+"To death," replied the governor, in a low but impressive voice.
+
+"He is young."
+
+"In years, yes," answered the governor, "but old in crime. This man has
+been guilty of nearly every crime under the sun--brigandage is one of
+his least offences. His last exploit, however, is the worst."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"Murder."
+
+"Murder!"
+
+And the German traveller looked inexpressibly shocked.
+
+"Murder is a capital crime in every land."
+
+"And rightly too," said the visitor, "rightly, too. But, sir, excuse my
+curiosity--"
+
+"Ask all you will," returned the governor.
+
+"This man had, I was told, a bold, dashing fellow to second him in all
+his exploits."
+
+"An Italian?"
+
+"No."
+
+"An Englishman?"
+
+"No, no, sir, you mistake; I mean a Greek--a handsome, dashing
+fellow--a great favourite with the ladies--brave and daring."
+
+"And how is this Apollo called?"
+
+"Tomaso."
+
+The governor burst into a loud fit of laughter at this,
+
+"You are altogether mistaken about that brigand--that Tomaso. He is a
+scrubby and ill-favoured scamp--a sneaking, crawling rascal, capable of
+all the villany of his master, but not possessed of his courage."
+
+Had the governor been looking at the visitor's face just then, he might
+have had his suspicions aroused.
+
+The sham German philanthropist glared ferociously as this description
+was given.
+
+The prisoner, who was seated at a rough deal table at the further end
+of the cell, here arose at the gaoler's order, and came to the window.
+
+A single glance sufficed to show that a very noticeable change had
+taken place in the appearance of Mathias.
+
+His face was pale and haggard, and the whole of one side of it, the
+eye, cheek bone, and forehead were bruised.
+
+This was the mark that Jefferson had set upon him.
+
+This was the bold American's only vengeance for the deathblow which the
+brigand had dealt upon his faithful friend and companion Magog Brand.
+
+Jefferson's right arm came down like a steam hammer, and any man who
+had felt its full force as the scoundrel Mathias had did not forget it
+very readily.
+
+Such a desperate shaking had it given Mathias that he had not yet
+recovered.
+
+The bold, defiant bearing of the man was gone, and he looked ten years
+older than when Tomaso and he had last met.
+
+It struck the visitor at once.
+
+"Dear, dear me," exclaimed the latter, "is it possible that this can be
+the redoubtable Mathias?"
+
+"It is he," said the governor, "yet scarcely so gay as is his wont, eh,
+Mathias?"
+
+The prisoner shrugged his shoulders and sighed.
+
+"Laugh on, your excellency," he said, rather bitterly, "it is your turn
+now."
+
+"Now!"
+
+"Aye, now. It may not always be."
+
+"Why, surely you never think of getting out of this?"
+
+"Indeed, I think of nothing else morning, noon, and night."
+
+The governor gave a sharp glance about.
+
+He looked toward the gaoler.
+
+Now the gaoler was a huge fellow, over six feet high and broad in
+proportion, one who could have tackled Toro himself, as far as weight
+and sheer brute strength went.
+
+"Your excellency," replied Mathias, "when I leave this place, my exit
+will be due to no violence. Bad as I am, I am not altogether what they
+would make out."
+
+"Poor Mathias!" said the governor ironically, "one would almost think
+that murder was not his line of business."
+
+"Your excellency," said the prison, drawing near to the grated window,
+"I repent sincerely of that poor little gentleman's death; it was no
+assassin's stab in the dark, but a most unfortunate blow in a fight,
+remember."
+
+"Bravo! Mathias! bravo!" ejaculated the visitor.
+
+The prisoner looked up.
+
+A strange expression flitted across his face.
+
+Mathias was an adept in the art of dissimulation, and his face was
+schooled to tell neither more nor less than he wished.
+
+"Now, your excellency," said the visitor, "this rascal appears
+strangely self-possessed."
+
+"He does."
+
+"What does it mean?"
+
+"Brag."
+
+"Humph!"
+
+"Ah, you do not know him, sir, as well as I do."
+
+"Perhaps not; but it might just be possible that he is in league with
+some of his comrades outside."
+
+The governor smiled incredulously.
+
+"Impossible."
+
+"What if that scoundrel, Tomaso, of whom we were speaking, should be at
+work?"
+
+The prisoner's eyes glistened at this word.
+
+A slight flash of intelligence passed between the prisoner and the
+visitor.
+
+It was but momentary, and so slight as to be utterly unobserved by
+either the gaoler or the governor.
+
+"And if such could be the case, sir, what could he possibly do, eh?
+What on earth, that's what I ask."
+
+"There's no saying."
+
+"Indeed you're right."
+
+"Only he ought to be well guarded when you change him from one prison
+to another, or--"
+
+"Stop, stop, my dear sir, why change him? He will never leave this
+place alive," said the governor.
+
+"Never?"
+
+"Never!"
+
+"But surely you don't keep your prisoners all confined in these
+stifling places?"
+
+"We do, though."
+
+"And never let them breathe the air? Why, it is torture."
+
+"They do breathe the air. At noon every day they are allowed to walk
+for an hour in the prison yard."
+
+"At noon?"
+
+"At noon."
+
+The visitor fixed his eyes strangely upon the prisoner.
+
+"Very good; if I may be allowed to trespass again, I should like to see
+how this fellow bears himself in the yard amongst his fellow-criminals."
+
+"By all means."
+
+"I'll come, then, at noon."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At noon next day the German traveller was as good as his word.
+
+The governor, full of his wonted courtesy, accompanied him to the yard,
+where all the prisoners were walking round two and two.
+
+Some of the more desperate men were fastened by a single handcuff to
+the wrist of another man--a warder.
+
+Of this category was the brigand Mathias.
+
+His companion was a huge fellow, who topped him by a head and
+shoulders, and their wrists were linked securely together by a
+strong--if slender--pair of handcuffs.
+
+The visitor's countenance fell when he observed this.
+
+It upset all his plans at one fell swoop.
+
+However, he did not utterly despair, but made an effort to get over the
+difficulty.
+
+"Your excellency," said he, "this is indeed cruel."
+
+"What," demanded the governor, "fastening them to the gaoler?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I only order it in special cases, such as that of Mathias."
+
+"He is then very dangerous?"
+
+"Well, I scarcely believe that, only such precautions are the
+established rules."
+
+"I regret that."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Partly on the score of humanity," was the reply.
+
+"Ah, you would be too tender-hearted," said the governor.
+
+"No. But I also regret it because I hoped to see the brigand more like
+he appears when not under restraint. I suppose you would not like to
+set him free?"
+
+The governor shook his head.
+
+"That is against custom, and I should really not like to do it."
+
+The visitor reflected a moment as they walked on.
+
+He could not abandon his scheme now that he had gone so far.
+
+The effort should be made all the same.
+
+They walked up to the porter's lodge beside the gates, where an eager
+crowd had assembled for a glimpse of the prisoners.
+
+"And do you open those gates to admit the prisoners?" asked the visitor
+innocently.
+
+"No, sir," replied the governor; "this little side door is all we open.
+Now watch how it is done. This bar, which is like a lever, stops the
+door, and renders it immovable, now--hah!"
+
+The fallacy of his words was shown ere they were fairly uttered.
+
+The visitor whistled in a very peculiar way.
+
+And there was a sudden silent rush at the door in question.
+
+The bar, immovable as it was, fell before that desperate onslaught, and
+the door was carried off its hinges.
+
+The ragged and miserable-looking mob turned like magic into a crowd of
+armed desperadoes. And in they pressed.
+
+On they came, tearing down the gates and dashing every thing before
+them.
+
+The poor gatekeeper was trampled under foot, and the warders and
+governor got hustled and cruelly handled.
+
+The mob of armed invaders made for Mathias and his companion, and bore
+them bodily outside the gates.
+
+The brigands then wrenched off the handcuffs.
+
+Once outside the gates, a horse was found waiting.
+
+Suddenly there was a loud cry heard.
+
+"The soldiers--the soldiers!"
+
+The whole of the guard-room had turned out.
+
+A charge was made, and it looked as though the rescue of Mathias were
+likely to cost them dear.
+
+Cries of defiance and rage were heard.
+
+Just when matters were at the worst for the robber band, a deafening
+explosion was heard, that shook the solid building to its base.
+
+The soldiers turned back and re-formed at their officer's command.
+
+Then it was that the brigands, headed by the sham visitor, Tomaso,
+found their chance.
+
+Up till now, the retreat had been cut off by the unpleasant appearance
+of the military.
+
+"There goes the powder keg under the water gate," cried Tomaso. "Lose
+not a moment. Follow me."
+
+A desperate rush was made, and the brigands got clear of the prison.
+
+The soldiers were divided into two lots, one party being sent in
+pursuit, the other remaining to guard the prison.
+
+The roll-call of the prisoners made this discovery.
+
+"How many prisoners have escaped?" inquired the governor.
+
+"Three absentees, your excellency," said the head man of the prison.
+"One is an Italian, calling himself Toro; another an Englishman,
+calling himself Hunston; and the third, the brigand chief Mathias."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+A DEEP-LAID PLOT.
+
+
+The news of the escape, or rescue--call it what you will--of the three
+desperadoes soon became known.
+
+Emily and Mrs. Harvey were much alarmed.
+
+The dogged obstinacy with which attempt after attempt was made by the
+villains made them imagine they were unsafe in such a lonely place.
+
+Accordingly, a grand consultation was held, the result of which was
+that the Prince of Limbi was sent into the town to take rooms for the
+whole party at one of the two hotels the place could boast of.
+
+And the next day they all quitted the villa.
+
+The hotel in which our friends had secured apartments was a large
+straggling building, right at the extremity of the ill-built street
+which formed the chief part of the town.
+
+Mr. Mole had been very particular when they went there in his inquiries
+about the brigands.
+
+Would the party be quite safe from molestation?
+
+The urbane proprietor, with many low bows, assured his excellency the
+Englishman that there was not the slightest possibility of their being
+molested.
+
+The other male members of the party really troubled themselves very
+little about the brigands.
+
+By ten o'clock, the day after the masquerade, hardly a person was
+stirring in the town.
+
+A casual observer would have said there was literally no one to be
+seen. But hush!
+
+Soft, cautious footsteps may be heard, and anyone whose eyes are
+accustomed to the gloom might have seen three figures creeping quietly
+down the street on the side opposite the hotel.
+Right over against that building they paused.
+
+"That is the place" said one of the three, a giant almost in size.
+
+"Curse them! they always manage to get comfortable quarters, while I am
+an outcast," said another, who spoke like an Englishman.
+
+"Death, gentlemen! what better quarters can you desire than my cave, in
+which you have spent several pleasant evenings?"
+
+"Bah! Captain Mathias, you have never tasted the sweets of
+civilisation."
+
+"And, Signor Hunstani, how much the better are you through having
+tasted those sweets?"
+
+"Peace, peace!" growled the giant. "Let us unite in thought and action,
+and to-night obtain our long-sought revenge."
+
+"Well, Toro, I am sure I don't want to quarrel with anyone, except
+Harkaway."
+
+"Curse him! and especially that American."
+
+"Hush! let your curses be not loud but deep; you'll awake the town if
+you swear so."
+
+"Have I not good cause to? Has he not beaten and put me to shame?"
+
+"And have I not suffered equal pain and shame? Yet I am content to bide
+my time; you should have patience, Toro."
+
+"Come, come to business, my friends," said Captain Mathias; "there is
+the house where our foe resides. How are we to proceed?"
+
+"Quietly; hush!" said Hunston. "Confound it, how still the air is; the
+whole street seems to echo back the lightest whisper."
+
+"Let me get once inside, and I care not if all the street hears,"
+muttered Toro.
+
+"Which proves you care not if you are unsuccessful," said the Greek.
+
+"How so?"
+
+"If we are heard, we shall have the whole street in arms against us,
+and I fancy these Inglesi, with their boys and the blacks, are quite
+sufficient for the three of us."
+
+"Bah!" exclaimed Toro.
+
+"Seriously, though, let us consider how to get into this place," said
+Hunston.
+
+"There's the door facing us."
+
+"But have you the key?"
+
+"No, but I could send my foot through that plank as easily as
+anything," growled Toro.
+
+"Certainly, and you would undoubtedly alarm the whole household by
+doing so, whereas we wish to catch them sleeping."
+
+"Well, then, how about the windows?"
+
+"Too high to reach," said Hunston, "unless we had a ladder."
+
+"And I doubt if such a thing can be found in the town," interposed
+Captain Mathias.
+
+"Well, then, let us see what there is at the back of the house.
+Captain, you have eyes like a cat or an owl; just glance up and down
+the street to see if there is anyone about."
+
+The Greek looked in all directions.
+
+"Not even a mouse is stirring," said he.
+
+So the three villains, drawing their cloaks closely round them, stole
+silently away from the shelter of the friendly doorway, where the
+foregoing conversation had taken place, and proceeded round to the back
+of the hotel.
+
+To reach the point desired, they had, of course, to cross the road,
+which was tolerably wide, and then skirt a kind of paddock.
+
+There were few stars to be seen, and the moon--a new one, and perhaps
+not yet fully acquainted with her business--was partly hidden behind
+some clouds, though not so entirely obscured but that the forms of the
+three brigands cast deep shadows on the ground.
+
+But surely that is not a shadow, which as they move, moves also from an
+adjoining doorway, and follows them.
+
+Like them, it is wrapped in a cloak; like them, it stalks along slowly
+and erect, but unlike them, it makes no noise.
+
+Its footfall is silent as that of the panther lurking in the jungle.
+
+Its very breath, if it has any, seems hushed.
+
+The three villains go slowly, and the shadow, or substance, whatever it
+may be, keeps the same pace, till they reach the open field at the back
+of the hotel.
+
+Hunston, Toro, and the Greek then stand side by side looking towards
+the hotel, but the shadow sinks down out of sight by the side of the
+fence.
+
+Another hasty look round, and then the Greek brigand pronounced that
+they were safe.
+
+"No fear of being interrupted here."
+
+"Well now let us settle," said Toro; "I am anxious to be at them."
+
+"But see," said Hunston, "there are lights moving; it is not safe yet."
+
+"Not till half-an-hour after midnight."
+
+"And now----"
+
+"It is half-past ten o'clock."
+
+"Two hours," groaned Toro.
+
+"Better wait four than fail," said Hunston.
+
+"Cold-blooded Englishman, what know you of the furious rate at which my
+blood boils in my veins? In that house is the man who struck me to the
+earth."
+
+"Wait two hours, then you may have a good chance of paying off the
+score."
+
+"And I will, too, with greater interest than even usurer charged his
+hapless client. I wonder which room the cursed Americano sleeps in."
+
+"The third room on the right-hand side of the first corridor, where you
+ascend the great staircase."
+
+Captain Mathias said this as promptly and positively as though he
+himself had shown our friends to bed.
+
+After a pause he continued--
+
+"Mr. and Mrs. Harkaway have the first room; Mr. and Mrs. Harvey the
+second; the third is a double-bedded apartment, one couch being
+occupied by the American, the other by the two boys."
+
+"You seem to have pretty exact information, captain," said Hunston.
+
+"Yes, there is little going on there that does not come to my ears. One
+of the porters is a spy in my employ."
+
+"Why did you not get a key from him?"
+
+"I have one; it opens the back door."
+
+Toro had, during the last bit of conversation, been growling to himself
+a choice vocabulary of Italian oaths, occasionally shaking his fist at
+the building which contained the objects of his hatred.
+
+He now turned to his companions.
+
+"And where do you propose to pass the two hours that must elapse?"
+
+"At the bottom of yonder field is a thicket, where we shall be free
+from observation. We can smoke our pipes there. By-the-bye, the patrol
+goes round about midnight."
+
+"We must be cautious," said Hunston.
+
+"Come along, then."
+
+The three villains then walked off in the direction of the thicket
+where they were to hide.
+
+A minute afterwards a shadow rose from the ditch where he had been
+crouching, and stood looking after them long after they had been lost
+in the gloom.
+
+"Just in time," muttered the so-called shadow, who was in good truth as
+substantial flesh and blood as any in Greece.
+
+"If I had not wandered hither in search of my daughter, probably
+half-a-dozen murders would have been committed. However, I'll thwart the
+rascals, as sure as my name is Petrus."
+
+For Petrus it was, from Magic Island, who had been playing spy on the
+movements of the three conspirators.
+
+He stood there in deep thought for a few minutes.
+
+"I must warn some of the people in the hotel, but I should like to get
+this business over without alarming Mrs. Harkaway or the other lady.
+The question is, how?"
+
+He reached the front door of the hotel, and pulled at the bell handle.
+
+After an interval of two or three minutes, a light shone through the
+keyhole, and a voice asked--
+
+"Who is there?"
+
+"A traveller, in search of food and bed."
+
+"Are you alone?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Then the door was unbolted, and the traveller entered.
+
+"Is the proprietor of the hotel in bed yet?" he asked.
+
+"I don't know, sir."
+
+"He must be roused at once. I have important news for him from a
+distant land."
+
+The porter stared, but did not seem inclined to call the proprietor,
+noticing which, Petrus said--
+
+"I shall be sorry to alarm all the house, when I only want one person;
+but if you don't quickly bring him, I'll ring half a dozen of these
+bells at such a rate that he'll think the house is on fire."
+
+Seeing the stranger was in earnest, the porter went to the proprietor's
+room, and soon returned with him to the hall where Petrus was waiting.
+
+"I should like to have a few words with you _in private_, sir,"
+said the traveller, with a strong emphasis on the words we have
+italicised.
+
+"Certainly. You may go to bed, Theodorus."
+
+The porter somewhat sulkily retired to a kind of pantry, where he
+slept, and the proprietor of the hotel, softly following, turned the
+key upon him.
+
+"I have my doubts about that fellow," he said as he returned. "But now,
+sir, what is your pleasure with me?"
+
+Petrus at once told him what he had heard, and great was the alarm of
+the hotel-keeper.
+
+"What shall we do? Send for the police?"
+
+Petrus, after a short silence, said--
+
+"No."
+
+"What then? I cannot allow my guests to be murdered. Why, these
+scoundrels have already made one attempt on Mr. Harkaway and his
+friends at a masquerade."
+
+Just at that moment a guttural voice was heard singing--
+
+                     "Ole Ikey Mole
+                      Was a lushy ole soul,
+                      And a lushy ole soul was he."
+
+"Now den, you nigger, be quiet," said another voice.
+
+"Who are these people?" asked Petrus.
+
+"Two black men in attendance on the Harkaway party," said the
+proprietor of the hotel.
+
+"Just the men. I know a little of them. I have fought side by side with
+them. Now I have a proposal to make, which is that we put these
+brigands to flight in a ludicrous manner, which will annoy them more
+than being beaten in fight. Myself and the black men will do it with
+your assistance and permission."
+
+"Anything, so that there is no bloodshed."
+
+"That I will guarantee. Please call the two worthy dark-skins."
+
+Sunday and Monday, who had been keeping it up in the kitchen, were
+called and acquainted with the state of affairs.
+
+"What, Massa Petrus," said Sunday in surprise, "what you do here? Am
+you got dat black rascal pirate with you?"
+
+"No; the pirate chief is dead. You will find his bones on the
+island--Magic Island, as young Jack Harkaway named it. Yes, my revenge
+is complete. The pirate died as my slave; but now to explain to you my
+plan to punish the three brigands."
+
+Sunday rolled his eyes fearfully, as he listened to the details of the
+plot.
+
+"Gorra, massa, I'd like to tar and feather dat big rascal."
+
+"Tar!" said Petrus. "Ha, ha, ha! that is a good idea. Listen--but first
+show me the place where the gentlemen sleep."
+
+The hotel-keeper led the way to the corridor, and pointed out the
+sleeping apartments of the Harkaway party.
+
+Petrus then held another short consultation with the two black men and
+the hotel-keeper, the result of which was that the latter retired,
+leaving Sunday, Monday, and Petrus to work their will with the invaders
+when they appeared.
+
+And then, as there was but little time to spare, they set to work with
+a will to make all the necessary preparations.
+
+Over each door they screwed into the wall an iron hook, to which was
+attached a pulley and a cord.
+
+Then they went into the lower regions and hunted through the store
+rooms.
+
+The first place they lighted upon was a kind of paint shop, full of
+paints, oils and such-like things.
+
+"Dis is jes de shop for to cook de goose ob dem willins," said Sunday.
+
+"And here's de pots to cook 'em in," said Monday, pointing to some iron
+vessels resembling pails, but made so that the bottoms could be
+removed.
+
+The pails, as we will call them, were something like sugar loaves, with
+the tops cut off and turned base upwards.
+
+When full, the weight of the liquid kept the bottom in its place, but
+it was evident that if the bottom was removed, as it easily could be,
+the contents would escape.
+
+Petrus, after an inspection, pronounced them "just the thing," adding--
+
+"Now we must fill them with tar."
+
+"No, no," said Monday. "Put tar in one, wery hot; in nodder put dis
+here paint, also werry hot; and in de oder put water, bilin' hot."
+
+"Good."
+
+Then the three sat down by the large fireplace in the kitchen, and
+deliberately began their cooking.
+
+Monday devoted his attention to the heating of several pounds of mixed
+paint.
+
+Sunday boiled a barrel of tar, while Petrus attended to a large
+cauldron of water.
+
+Ten minutes before the hands of the clock pointed to half-past twelve,
+all the cooks had completed their work.
+
+The paint, tar, and water, all at boiling heat, had been placed in the
+iron pails with the movable bottoms, and one of these had been hung
+over each bedroom door.
+
+The hot water over Harkaway's door, the paint over Harvey's, and the
+tar over that in which the two boys and Jefferson reposed.
+
+A string was attached to each pail, and passed over a pulley, the end
+being conveyed to a recess where the three watchers were concealed.
+They were armed.
+
+Sunday, Monday, and Petrus each had a six-chambered revolver, loaded.
+
+Then came the clang of the old-fashioned clock as it proclaimed
+half-past twelve.
+
+Breathless silence prevailed both inside the house and out.
+
+"Lights out," whispered Petrus, when, after a short pause, a slight
+grating noise was heard at the back door.
+
+In an instant all was darkness, except that the moon shone through a
+narrow window at the extreme end of the corridor.
+
+A few minutes afterwards Petrus, who was watching, saw three dark
+figures come gliding into the long passage.
+
+The first was a tall, bulky figure--Toro.
+
+The second the Greek, and the third was evidently Hunston.
+
+A plan of operations had been agreed upon--that was quite certain; for
+Toro, without the least hesitation, proceeded to Jefferson's door, the
+Greek placing himself outside Harvey's apartment, while Hunston
+stationed himself at the room occupied by Harkaway.
+
+Then they waited for a signal, evidently intending to rush in
+simultaneously.
+
+"Now!" said Hunston, in a loud whisper.
+
+"Now!" echoed Petrus.
+
+Before the brigands could rush into the rooms occupied by those they
+sought to destroy, Petrus pulled the three strings he held in his hand,
+and, good Heaven! what a spluttering and swearing at once commenced.
+
+Hunston was drenched and scalded.
+
+"A million curses!" he roared.
+
+"Help! Look here, Toro."
+
+But Toro could not look.
+
+A deluge of hot tar had streamed over his head, filling eyes, ears,
+nose, and mouth, saturating his hair and running down inside his
+clothing.
+
+"Furies!" he screamed, "I'll have the life of the villain who has done
+this! Mathias, out with your knife, man."
+
+But the poor Greek was utterly cowed; the paint had destroyed all his
+senses save that of feeling, which was fully exercised.
+
+Hunston, although severely scalded, managed to keep a certain
+proportion of his wits about him.
+
+"Come, lads--quick, as you value your lives!" he exclaimed. "Away! we
+must not risk capture."
+
+He endeavoured to drag them away.
+
+At that moment, however, another actor appeared on the scene.
+
+This was Nero.
+
+That wide-awake member of the monkey tribe had been doomed to share
+Sunday's apartments, where a neat bed had been made for him in one
+corner.
+
+Hearing a noise, and, perhaps missing his companion (brother, Jefferson
+said), he came down, carrying in his dexter paw a well-filled pillow.
+
+He seemed to recognise Toro at once.
+
+The valorous ape leaped forward, and gave his Italian foe such a
+bolstering as Toro had never before heard of, while the three
+spectators laughed and applauded loudly.
+
+Crack!
+
+The ticking of the pillow gave way, and a shower of feathers enveloped
+the unhappy son of Italy, whose oaths and execrations were literally
+smothered.
+
+"Golly! an't he a downy cove?" said Monday.
+
+At this juncture, Hunston managed to grasp his companions by the hand,
+and dragged them downstairs and out at the back door.
+
+Only just in time, however, for Jefferson, hearing the noise, rushed
+out, in scanty costume, it is true, but fully armed with pistol and
+bowie knife, and eager for the fray.
+
+"What is the matter?" he demanded.
+
+Petrus explained briefly.
+
+Jefferson rushed to the door and fired two shots after the fugitives,
+who, however, managed to get away.
+
+Then the door was securely bolted, and after the affair had been
+explained to all the alarmed inmates of the house, they retired to bed,
+but not before Harkaway and his friends had shaken Petrus warmly by the
+hand, with a promise that he should see his beloved daughter in the
+morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE BRIGAND'S CONSPIRACY--THE ARAB ASTROLOGER--HARVEY'S FIRST
+APPEARANCE AS A MESMERIST.
+
+
+"They are making fresh efforts to get Mathias out," said Dick Harvey to
+his friend Harkaway.
+
+This was the beginning of a conversation which took place at the
+residence of the Harkaway party just three days after the daring and
+audacious attack on the hotel.
+
+Mathias had been captured by the patrol while endeavouring to escape,
+and thrown in gaol again.
+
+"Hang their impudence!" said Jefferson. "Will nothing daunt them? I
+wish one of them had entered my room the other night; I would have held
+him faster than it seems the prisons here can."
+
+"These two restless vagabonds are up to their games again," exclaimed
+Dick.
+
+"You mean Toro?"
+
+"Aye, and Hunston."
+
+"What have they done now?" demanded Jefferson.
+
+"They have been trying to tamper with the gaolers."
+
+"How was it discovered?"
+
+"The traitor, whoever he may be, let fall a letter that he was carrying
+to Mathias."
+
+"That's lucky. Well, did they discover any thing?"
+
+"No; it was written in cypher."
+
+"The cunning rascals!"
+
+"Now, I've got more news for you," Dick went on to say.
+
+"Out with it, then."
+
+"You have heard of the Arab who tells fortunes in the town?"
+
+"Mehemed Sadan, the great necromancer?"
+
+"Yes. Would you be surprised to learn that he is one of Mathias' band?"
+
+"Why, those scoundrels have a finger in every pie."
+
+"True," said Harvey. "Now, I have a notion to offer you. I propose that
+we go there and test the truth of what I say."
+
+"How?"
+
+"I'll tell you that as we go. Are you agreed?"
+
+"I'm willing," said Harkaway; "any thing for a little excitement."
+
+Off they went.
+
+Mehemed Sadan, the Arabian magician, carried on his occult practices in
+a house in the best part of the town, and all his surroundings tended
+to show that the "black art" had proved a most profitable commerce to
+him.
+
+When Harkaway, Jefferson, and Harvey arrived there, they were ushered
+into the presence of the magician by a negro fancifully attired,
+wearing silver bands round his wrists and ankles, from which dangled
+chains with small bells attached.
+
+Mehemed Sadan was seated on a high-backed chair, close by a long table,
+on which was a long cloth of black velvet, covered with mystic signs
+and letters, which were all so much Greek to the visitors.
+
+The room was filled with all kinds of things calculated to impress the
+vulgar with superstitious awe.
+
+The effect was altogether lost upon Dick Harvey, for he made a point of
+nodding at the Arab astrologer in the most familiar manner.
+
+"Morning to you, old fellow," he said, cheerfully.
+
+"Salaam, sahib," responded the necromancer, gravely.
+
+"Hullo!" said Jefferson, opening his eyes, "why, this Arab talks
+Hindustani."
+
+"Leave it to me," said Dick Harvey, in an undertone.
+
+The Arab then said some few words to the company generally, which the
+company generally could make rather less of than if they had been
+addressed in Chinese.
+
+"He's talking no known language under the sun," said Harkaway. "It's my
+opinion he has got the cheek to talk regular right-down gibberish to
+us."
+
+It was true.
+
+The words, or sounds, let us say, which the necromancer was uttering,
+only sounded but too much like "hokey-pokey kickeraboo abracadabra,"
+and the rest of the mysterious sounds with which the conjurer at
+juvenile parties seeks to invest his performance with additional
+wonder, for the benefit of his youthful audience.
+
+Dick was in a rage.
+
+"Confound his impudence," he exclaimed; "I'll give him one."
+
+So he let out in this wise--
+
+"Chi ki hi-u-thundrinold umbuggo--canardly keep my thievinirons off
+your wool--I should like to land you just one on the smeller and tap
+your claret."
+
+At which, to the surprise of the magician, the visitors burst out
+laughing.
+
+The Arab necromancer now asked them, in very good Greek, the object of
+their visit.
+
+"We shall not understand much if we are addressed in Greek," said
+Harkaway; "try him in Italian."
+
+And then they found that the conjurer spoke Italian as well, or better,
+than any of the party.
+
+"Can you tell me," said Jack Harkaway, by way of beginning business,
+"if I shall succeed in the present object of my desires or not?"
+
+The magician bowed his head gravely.
+
+Then he opened a large volume covered with mystic characters.
+
+For a minute or two he appeared to be lost in deep study, and then he
+gave his reply.
+
+"Your desires tend to the downfall of some lawless men, I find," he
+said, watching them keenly, as if he expected to see them jump up in
+surprise at his words.
+
+"They do."
+
+"And you will not succeed."
+
+"Does your art tell you where I shall fail?" asked Jack.
+
+"No; I only see disappointment and trouble for you and yours."
+
+"Dear, dear, how very shocking," exclaimed Harkaway, winking at Harvey.
+
+"Dreadful!" added Dick, with a terrified look, and putting his tongue
+out at the magician.
+
+"What else does your art tell you?" demanded Jefferson, who was anxious
+to know how far the necromancer would venture to try and humbug them.
+
+"I see here," said the conjurer, drawing his finger along a line of
+something on an open "book of fate," that looked like Arabic, "I see
+here that your lives are menaced, one and all, through the keeping of a
+wretched man under restraint."
+
+The visitors looked at each other and exchanged a smile.
+
+"Your art is at fault," said Jefferson; "we have no one under
+restraint."
+
+"You are in some way connected with it."
+
+"Wrong again."
+
+The wizard looked uncomfortable at this.
+
+"Strange," he said, "and yet I read it here as clearly as you might
+yourself if it were written in a book."
+
+"You are mistaken," said Jefferson; "we are in no way concerned in any
+thing of the kind."
+
+The wizard pored over the mystic tome again.
+
+"I can say no more then," he said, "for here you are clearly indicated.
+You especially are mentioned as being the immediate cause of his
+downfall."
+
+"How am I indicated?" demanded Jefferson.
+
+"By the letter J."
+
+"Which you take for?"
+
+"Your initial."
+
+"Humph! not far out. What an audacious humbug the fellow is," said
+Jefferson to Jack.
+
+Now, during the foregoing scene, young Jack and Harry Girdwood had
+joined the party, and Dick Harvey was observed to be in close
+conversation with them.
+
+At this point Harvey turned from the two lads towards Jefferson.
+
+"The astrologer is right," he said, gravely.
+
+"What the devil do you mean?" exclaimed Jefferson.
+
+"You are right, sir," added Dick to the magician himself.
+
+The latter bowed.
+
+"I doubt it not," he said; "the stars do not speak falsely."
+
+"No, no."
+
+"And so you may convince your friend that I say no more nor less than
+the truth."
+
+"I can," said Dick, in a voice as solemn as that of the necromancer
+himself, "for I am a mesmerist, and I have here with me a clairvoyant
+of great power."
+
+The conjurer started.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Here."
+
+He held out his hand to young Jack and led him forward.
+
+Harkaway and Jefferson stared again.
+
+"Hullo!" ejaculated old Jack; "what the deuce is madcap Dick up to
+now?"
+
+"Can't hazard a guess," said Jefferson.
+
+"Mesmerism can not read the future as my art does," said the
+necromancer.
+
+"It can," said Dick; "it corroborates all you have said. I'll give you
+a proof of it before our friends here."
+
+And then, before he could object, Dick made a mesmeric pass or two
+across young Jack's face, and immediately it appeared to take effect.
+
+Young Jack's eyes were closed, and for a moment there played about his
+mouth a merry smile of mischief, and then he appeared to be in a state
+of coma.
+
+Never was mesmerism effected with such little trouble.
+
+"Now tell me," said Dick, with all the tricks of manner of the
+professional mesmerist, "tell me to what this person alludes?"
+
+"He speaks of Mathias, the brigand chief."
+
+"True," said Dick; "and will Mathias escape?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You hear," said Dick, turning towards the necromancer.
+
+"I do."
+
+"And therefore it is useless to try and effect the liberation of this
+Mathias?"
+
+"Quite," returned young Jack. "The wizard here is trying all he can
+himself, but he will be discovered by the police and thrown into
+prison."
+
+"Hah!" exclaimed Dick, "do you hear that?"
+
+"I do," returned the necromancer, "but it is false."
+
+"It is true," said Dick. "So beware."
+
+ [Illustration: 'SPEAK,' SAID DICK, MAKING MESMERIC PASSES ACROSS
+JACK'S FACE"--ADV. IN GREECE, VOL. II PAGE 64.]
+
+"Ask him more," said the wizard, eagerly. "Ask him more."
+
+"What shall I ask?" demanded Dick.
+
+"Ask him--yet, mark me, I don't believe a word of it--ask him, for
+curiosity, what follows."
+
+"Follows what?"
+
+"What he said last."
+
+"You mean what follows being thrown into prison?" he said,
+deliberately.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you hear?" said Dick.
+
+"Yes, master," responded young Jack.
+
+"Speak, then."
+
+By this time Harkaway the elder and Jefferson began of course to see
+what they were driving at, and they became just as much interested as
+the wizard himself in what young Jack was going to say.
+
+"What follows," said young Jack, "is too dreadful to look at."
+
+"Speak," said Dick, with a furious pass across the lad's face. "Speak,
+I command you. What follows?"
+
+"I see the wizard hanging by the neck--there," and young Jack pointed
+straight before him.
+
+The necromancer looked as unhappy as possible when he heard young
+Jack's words.
+
+"Do you know enough," asked Dick Harvey, "or would you learn more yet?"
+
+The wizard essayed to smile, but it was a sickly attempt, and it died
+away in a ghastly manner.
+
+"I can not believe a word of what you say, but still let him speak on."
+
+Dick frowned.
+
+"If you are a scoffer," he said, sternly, "my clairvoyant will not
+speak."
+
+"I am no scoffer," returned the necromancer; "speak on."
+
+"What would you know?"
+
+"When is my danger to begin? Let him say that."
+
+"Speak," said Dick, making mesmeric passes across Jack's face.
+
+"He need fear nothing at present," said young Jack.
+
+The wizard drew a long breath of relief.
+
+"The police are below," continued young Jack, "but for ten minutes
+there is no danger."
+
+"Ten minutes!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And after?" gasped the wizard, breathlessly.
+
+"Then he is doomed," said young Jack, in sepulchral tones. "The wizard
+will be numbered with the dead."
+
+Thereupon, the necromancer was taken suddenly queer, and he retreated
+with a few confused words of excuse.
+
+"He's gone," said Dick, laughing.
+
+They pushed aside the curtains where the magician had disappeared, and
+found that there was a back staircase.
+
+"There he goes, there he goes!" cried Harry Girdwood, excitedly.
+
+"Yes, and he has left his skin," said young Jack.
+
+Upon the stairs was the long black velvet robe covered with tin-foil
+ornaments, with which the necromancer was wont to frighten the ignorant
+and superstitious peasants who came to consult him out of their wits.
+
+"I'll frighten old Mole with this," said young Jack.
+
+"I don't suppose that they'll try to frighten us again into helping
+Mathias, the brigand chief, out of prison," said Harkaway, laughing.
+
+"He shall hang as high as Haman," said Jefferson, sternly. "Of that I
+am so determined, that if there were no one else, I would willingly fix
+the noose myself. But hang he shall for murdering my poor and noble
+friend Brand."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE CONDEMNED CELL--MATHIAS ESCAPED--WHERE HAS HE GONE?--THE
+BLOOD ON THE HEARTH--A TALE OF TERROR.
+
+
+The schemes set on foot by the friends of Mathias for his release were
+so many and so unceasing that the greatest precautions had to be taken
+to keep him in safety.
+
+Rules were made, and for awhile most rigidly enforced, that not a soul
+was to be permitted to visit the prisoner; but the exception proves the
+rule, and there was an exception made in favour of a lady who came and
+pleaded so earnestly to the governor of the prison that he could not
+find the courage to refuse her.
+
+The lady was shown into the cell which Mathias had lately occupied.
+
+Lately? Yes.
+
+The bird had flown.
+
+But how had he got free?
+
+Where had he gone?
+
+Not a soul in the prison had the vaguest notion.
+
+The gaoler stared and gaped like one in a dream.
+
+"Where is Mathias?" demanded the woman.
+
+"That's more than I can guess," responded the gaoler, rubbing his eyes
+as though he could not believe their evidence.
+
+"Have you mistaken the cell?"
+
+"Not I."
+
+"Has he been removed?"
+
+"No."
+
+She stared him straight in the face for a moment or two, and then she
+burst out into a fit of laughter.
+
+"Ha, ha, ha! Why, he has escaped. He has escaped. He has beaten your
+vigilance--baffled you all in spite of locks, bolts and bars, and all
+your watching."
+
+The gaoler scratched his head.
+
+"Let us look."
+
+"Look! why, you can see everything here at a glance--everything. There
+are four walls. There is the bedstead; you can see under it. There is
+not room for a man to creep under there. There is the fireplace, and
+there is the window."
+
+"Ha!" ejaculated the gaoler, "the window."
+
+"What then?"
+
+"There is no other way; he must have escaped that way, undoubtedly."
+
+"Nonsense," said the woman; "don't you see that is too high up from the
+ground."
+
+"He has found a way to climb up there, then."
+
+"But the iron bars are all in their places still."
+
+"True," said the gaoler, thoroughly puzzled, "true. Where can he have
+got to?"
+
+"It is simple enough."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"He never attempted the window. He has walked out through the door
+being left open."
+
+"Never!"
+
+"Money can do more than that, and I rejoice at his freedom."
+
+She moved to the door.
+
+But the gaoler held her back rather roughly.
+
+"Stop you here," he said, rudely; "I shall have to report this to the
+governor, and you had better remain until the job has been
+investigated."
+
+And before the startled woman could divine his intention, he swung to
+the door and shot the bolt.
+
+Then pushing back the trap in the door, he added a few words through
+the grating.
+
+"You'll be safer there," said he, "unless you can manage to get out as
+Mathias did. But the devil himself must have a compact with Mathias!"
+
+"At least leave me the light," she said, imploringly.
+
+"Against orders," was all the answer vouchsafed.
+
+The trap was shut.
+
+The woman was left a prisoner, in total darkness.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There is always something unpleasant in darkness, and this woman was by
+no means iron-nerved.
+
+No sooner was she alone, than a painful sensation of uneasiness stole
+over her.
+
+"They can not keep me long here," she kept murmuring to herself; "I
+have done nothing; I am accused of no offence. The governor will set me
+at liberty as soon as he knows. Could any thing be more unfortunate?
+Mathias was a prisoner, and I was at liberty. Now Mathias is free, and
+I am a prisoner. Cruel fate to separate us. We are destined to be
+parted."
+
+The gloom grew oppressive now.
+
+She stood still, listening in painful silence for five minutes
+together--five minutes that appeared to be as many hours.
+
+A silence so solemn, so death-like, that she could hear the very
+beating of her heart. This grew unbearable.
+
+She groped her way around the cell to find the bed, and approaching the
+fireplace, she was suddenly startled by a sound.
+
+A very faint noise, as of something dripping on the flagstones by her
+feet.
+
+In the tomb-like silence then reigning, the faintest sound caused her
+to feel uncomfortable.
+
+She listened awhile intently, asking herself what it could mean.
+
+Drip, drip, drip.
+
+It was strange.
+
+When the light was there, she had not noticed it at all.
+
+What could it be then, that was only to be heard in the dark?
+
+Was it fancy?
+
+No.
+
+It was too real.
+
+There was no mistaking it.
+
+If the oppressive gloom of the cell started strange sounds or strange
+fancies in her head, why should it take such a shape as that?
+
+Why, indeed?
+
+"Would to Heaven they were back with the light," she said. "Will they
+never come?"
+
+Just then, as though her earnest wish were heard and answered, a faint
+thin streak of light was shot into the cell through the grated window
+above.
+
+This was reflected from a chamber in the prison whose window was close
+by the window of this cell, and where a lamp had just been lighted.
+
+The welcome ray shot straight across the cell where she stood by the
+fireplace, and she remarked that the dripping did not cease.
+
+Drip, drip, drip!
+
+She looked down.
+
+"I see, I see," she shudderingly exclaimed, "it is raining, and the
+rain is falling down the chimney. How foolish of me to get alarmed
+about nothing."
+
+Now the light, we have said, shot across the hearth, and here it was
+that the drip, drip, drip, fell.
+
+"Same as I thought."
+
+As she muttered this to herself, she stretched forth her hand under the
+chimney, and the next drop fell upon it. It was not water.
+
+No, imperfect as was the light then, it sufficed to show her that upon
+her hand was a curiously dark stain.
+
+Raising it nearer to her eyes, she examined it eagerly.
+
+Then she shuddered, and exclaimed in a voice of terror--"Blood!"
+
+Yes, it was blood.
+
+Pen can not describe the terror of that wretched woman upon making this
+alarming discovery.
+
+"Blood! Whose? Hah! whose blood? Whose but his--whose but the blood of
+my darling--my own Mathias?"
+
+For a moment the thought completely unnerved her, and it was little
+short of a miracle that she kept from fainting.
+
+But she fought bravely with the deathly horror stealing over her.
+
+And kneeling on the hearth, she called up, yet in gentle voice, lest
+she should give the alarm--
+
+"Mathias! Mathias, my own! Do you not know me? Mathias, I say!"
+
+She listened--listened eagerly for a reply.
+
+And presently it came--a dull, hollow moan, a cry of anguish that
+chilled the blood in her heart, that froze the very marrow in her
+bones.
+
+"Mathias, darling Mathias! answer me for the love of mercy; I shall die
+else."
+
+Another moan was heard.
+
+Fainter and fainter even than the first.
+
+Yet full of pent-up suffering.
+
+A sound that told a whole tale of anguish.
+
+"Mathias, come to me," she called again.
+
+"Oh-h-h!"
+
+A fearfully prolonged groan came down to her, louder than before, as if
+the sufferer had put all his remaining strength into the effort.
+
+Then all was silent.
+
+Eagerly she listened, straining forward to catch the faintest breath.
+
+But the voice above was stilled for ever.
+
+And yet the drip, drip, drip continued, and as she stretched forward
+beneath the chimney, she caught the drops upon her face.
+
+Then she could no longer thrust back conviction.
+
+With a wild cry of terror she drew back, and groped her way round the
+room towards the door.
+
+Her hand rested upon the grated trap, and she pushed it back with all
+her force, crying aloud for help as she did so.
+
+"Help, help!" she shouted with the energy of despair; "Mathias is
+dying."
+
+But that wretched man would not trouble the authorities more--His last
+breath had been drawn as she stood there listening to those awesome
+sounds.
+
+What could be the solution of this mystery!
+
+This would be known soon now, for the sounds of footsteps were
+distinctly heard now in the long stone corridors of the prison.
+
+The gaolers had given the alarm at once of the prisoner's escape, and
+the outlets of the prison were guarded in all directions, while a party
+was sent to the cell to investigate the matter thoroughly.
+
+At the head of this party was the governor himself.
+
+The time had appeared ten times as long to the unhappy woman as it was
+in reality.
+
+"Help, help! oh, help!" she cried.
+
+At each effort she grew weaker and weaker. Her voice died away, and
+when they reached the door of the cell, they found her hanging by the
+bars of the grated window or trap more dead than alive.
+
+"Show the light," ejaculated the governor.
+
+And then, as the rays fell upon that face, pallid as the flesh of a
+corpse, save where the dark blood stains had settled, there was an
+involuntary exclamation of horror from all the beholders.
+
+"Father of mercy," cried one of the men; "she has destroyed herself."
+
+Such was the general idea.
+
+She had committed suicide.
+
+In this, however, they were speedily undeceived.
+
+To burst open the door and rush into the cell was but the work of a
+moment.
+
+At this the woman rallied a little and recovered herself.
+
+"What is the matter?" asked the governor.
+
+"The chimney!" gasped the woman faintly.
+
+"The chimney! Speak--explain."
+
+"His blood--Mathias's," she said; "see the chimney. I dare not look."
+
+Two of the men by now had approached the chimney, and lowering the
+light they carried, one of them discovered a dark ominous pool upon the
+hearth.
+
+"Call the doctor; there is something more than meets the eye in this."
+
+This order was promptly obeyed, and a surgeon was speedily in
+attendance. A mere cursory glance convinced the man of skill that the
+blood upon the woman's face was not her own, and just as he arrived at
+the decision, drip, drip, drip it began again upon the hearth.
+
+The men looked at each other half scared, and the governor himself was
+scarcely more self-possessed.
+
+The surgeon alone retained his presence of mind.
+
+Snatching a lamp from one of the men, he thrust it as far as his arm
+could reach up the chimney and looked earnestly up.
+
+"As I thought!" he exclaimed.
+
+"What?" demanded the governor, eagerly.
+
+"He is there."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Who but the prisoner? Mathias is there--hopelessly stuck--wedged in.
+He has been trying to escape and has hurt himself."
+
+The woman looked up at these words.
+
+"Is it no worse?" she asked. "Is he badly hurt?"
+
+"I can not say yet," said the surgeon; "we must get him down first."
+
+This proved a very difficult matter indeed.
+
+The flue was so narrow that it was sheer madness to attempt climbing
+it.
+
+Eagerly Mathias had pushed on, and finally got himself wedged
+inextricably.
+
+He could neither move up nor down.
+
+It was when he made this alarming discovery that his struggles became
+desperate, and in his wild efforts to free himself from his self-set
+trap, he tore and mutilated his flesh most cruelly.
+
+The wounds and the want of air had done their work.
+
+An hour's hard work succeeded in setting the prisoner free--or rather
+his body, for it was found that life had been extinct, according to the
+surgeon's report, before they had entered the cell.
+
+And when they came to examine the clothes, they made a discovery which
+threw a light upon the whole affair.
+
+A small scrap of paper, dirty and crumpled was found in his pocket,
+upon which was some writing that was with great difficulty construed in
+this wise--
+
+"The only hope is from the waterside. If you can but reach the roof,
+and have the courage to make the plunge, freedom will be your reward."
+
+How this note came there was never discovered.
+
+With this dire catastrophe ended the efforts of the brigands to free
+their unhappy leader.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+MR. MOLE VISITS THE WIZARD--THE MAGIC MIRROR AND THE LIFE-LIKE
+VISION--THE INCANTATION--THE CHARMED WIG.
+
+
+"In point of fact, sir," said young Jack to his tutor one morning, "it
+is about the only thing worth seeing here."
+
+"What is, Jack?"
+
+"The wizard."
+
+Mr. Mole looked very straight at his pupil upon this.
+
+"What wizard, sir?" he said, severely. "What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean the conjuror that Mr. Jefferson, and dad, and Uncle Dick went
+to see."
+
+"When?"
+
+"The other day. Didn't they tell you about it?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+When Mr. Mole addressed his pupil as "sir," young Jack knew pretty well
+that he thought he was being humbugged.
+
+There is an old saying--"Jack was as good as his master."
+
+Putting on a look of injured innocence, he called his comrade Harry to
+corroborate what he had said.
+
+"That's quite true, Mr. Mole."
+
+"That Mr. Jefferson went with Mr. Harkaway and Harvey to see a
+necromancer?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Preposterous!" quoth Mr. Mole. "Why, whatever is the world coming to
+next? We shall have them spirit-rapping and table-turning and such-like
+muck, I suppose."
+
+Jack looked serious.
+
+"Then you don't believe in necromancy--that they can tell the past and
+the future by the aid of astrology?"
+
+"Pickles!"
+
+It would have astonished Messieurs Crosse and Blackwell themselves,
+could they have heard what a deal that one word could convey when
+uttered by an Isaac Mole.
+
+"Well, sir," said Harry Girdwood, seriously, "the wizard told us some
+very remarkable things indeed."
+
+"What did he tell you?"
+
+"Many things, many very wonderful things; but one of the most wonderful
+was about you, sir."
+
+Mr. Mole started.
+
+"Don't you try to come the old soldier over me," said Mole.
+
+Harry Girdwood protested that he held Mr. Mole in far too much respect
+to essay any thing like coming the ancient military, or indeed anything
+else which might be construed into want of proper feeling.
+
+Mr. Mole looked hard at him.
+
+"And what did he say about me?"
+
+"He said that all the intelligence of our party was centred in one
+person."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"And that the initials of the person in question were I. M."
+
+"Now, Jack."
+
+"Sir."
+
+"You two boys are conspiring against me."
+
+"You are rather hard upon us, sir," said Harry Girdwood, with an
+injured look.
+
+"Was I? Dear me, I didn't mean that," said poor Mole. "But I'll go and
+see this wizard, as you call him."
+
+"It might startle you, sir."
+
+"Stuff and nonsense, Harry; my nerves are iron--iron, I tell you."
+
+"They had need be of steel, if you really mean to go."
+
+"I'll go, and you shall go with me, Harry," said Mr. Mole; "and I'll
+unmask this wretched impostor before you."
+
+And down came his clenched fist upon the table, with a fierceness and
+energy which made all the things leap up.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The chamber of mystery was arranged with a keen eye to effect.
+
+The present possessors of the place had preserved all the adjuncts
+which had looked so effective during the career of the necromancer, who
+had fled ignominiously.
+
+A huge stuffed alligator swung from the ceiling, and the lighting of
+the room was effected by means of two or three swinging lamps, that
+burnt dimly blue, and made the place look sepulchral enough to satisfy
+the most morbid cravings for the horrible.
+
+At the further end of the room was a "charmed circle," drawn with
+chalk, and set around it was a row of hideous grinning skulls, which
+suggested that a hint had been borrowed from Zamiel, in "Der
+Freyschutz."
+
+Besides these matters, there were several skeletons stuck up in the
+most alarming attitudes.
+
+Beside the chair was a large oval frame.
+
+Upon the other side of the necromancer's chair was a heavy curtain, or
+_portiere_ of cloth, covered with fantastic figures, and this was
+drawn aside a minute or so after Mr. Mole and Harry Girdwood appeared.
+
+Then, through the dark aperture thus disclosed, the wizard hobbled in.
+
+Not the wizard that we have seen before, but a little old man bent half
+double with age, and of whom little was to be seen save a long white
+beard and an appropriate robe.
+
+He leant heavily upon a staff, and sank into his chair with evident
+pain and difficulty.
+
+"What would ye with me?" said the necromancer, in feeble, querulous
+tones. "If ye have come to scoff again, begone ere I summon an evil
+spirit to blight ye."
+
+Mr. Mole said nothing.
+
+But when Harry Girdwood placed his hand nervously upon the old
+gentleman's arm, as if for protection, he felt that he was trembling
+slightly.
+
+"He knows that we are English, you see," whispered Harry.
+
+"Ye-es--ahem!--ye-es."
+
+"Do you hear me?" said the wizard.
+
+"Ye-es, oh, yes, sir," said Mr. Mole, who could not, for the life of
+him, get his voice above a whisper.
+
+"Then answer."
+
+"By all means! decidedly--quite so, I assure you."
+
+"What? Beware! Do you mean to doubt and mock?"
+
+"Oh, dear; yes."
+
+"Hah!"
+
+"That is, no. I really don't know what I am saying."
+
+"Silence, or the fiends will have your ber-lud ber-lud--Do you hear
+me?" shrieked the old wizard.
+
+"Quite so. Dear, dear me, Harry," said Mr. Mole in an undertone, "what
+a very remarkable person, and I don't want to lose my ber-lud."
+
+"What do you say now, sir? Do you feel sure that he is a humbug?"
+
+"Of course not, but--"
+
+At this juncture their conversation was cut short by a low, rumbling
+noise, that sounded like distant thunder.
+
+As it continued, it increased in strength, until it became absolutely
+deafening.
+
+Then suddenly upon a sign from the necromancer, it ceased, and the man
+of mystery arose and pointed menacingly with his wand at Mole.
+
+"Ye have thought well to neglect my warning," he said, in a voice which
+thrilled poor Mole strangely; "the secrets of your inmost heart are
+known to me as to my familiar, and the penalty must be enacted."
+
+Mole bounced up.
+
+"Goodness me!"
+
+Harry Girdwood laid a trembling hand upon the unhappy old gentleman,
+and played the part of Job's comforter once again with considerable
+effect.
+
+"We are lost."
+
+"Don't, Harry, don't! Pray consider Mrs. Mole and the two babes."
+
+"Try and melt him with a very humble apology."
+
+"I will, I do!" exclaimed Mr. Mole in great excitement. "I really did
+not mean it, Mr. Conjuror; 'pon my soul, I did not; and pray do not let
+your vampires take my her-lud."
+
+"Enough," said the wizard, sternly; "for once your ignorance shall
+excuse you. Now say what you would have with me and begone."
+
+"I think I should like to go," Mole whispered to Harry,
+
+"What for?"
+
+"We have been a long while here," said Mr. Mole in the same tone; "Mrs.
+M, will be looking for me."
+
+"Perhaps you don't feel quite comfortable here."
+
+"Comfortable," said Mr. Mole with a sickly smile; "oh, dear me, yes, I
+never was jollier."
+
+"A little nervous perhaps, sir."
+
+"My dear boy," said Mole, positively, "I have nerves of iron, literally
+iron. Ha! what noise is that?"
+
+"Only the magician's evil spirit, or his familiar, as he calls it."
+
+"Strange," said Mole; "but sheer humbug of course."
+
+"Humbug?"
+
+"Hush!" exclaimed Mr. Mole, very anxiously.
+
+Bang went that deafening thunder again, and Mr. Mole hopped towards the
+door.
+
+Harry Girdwood followed him closely up.
+
+"You are uncomfortable, Mr. Mole."
+
+"Not at all; nerves of adamant, Harry."
+
+The latter laughed.
+
+Never was there such an audacious humbug as Isaac Mole.
+
+"You see that frame, sir, beside the wizard's chair?" said Girdwood.
+
+"Yes," replied Mr. Mole; "what of it?"
+
+"He showed us some marvels there last time."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"A magic mirror."
+
+"You must have been thoroughly well cheated; now, what could he have
+shown you there?"
+
+"Wonders," replied Harry impressively; "you, amongst other marvels."
+
+"Me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean, sir, that you appeared before us as plainly as I see you now."
+
+Mr. Mole certainly looked serious at this.
+
+"He can show you anyone you may want to see," said Harry.
+
+"Never!"
+
+"Try him."
+
+"I will," said Mr. Mole, with a show of determination, but shaking all
+over.
+
+"Now, O sceptic, what proof of my lore would ye have? Would ye know
+something of yourself?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Yes," said Harry Girdwood for him promptly.
+
+The wizard inclined his head gravely, and opened a large volume before
+him upon the table.
+
+After poring over this for a time, he said the following doggrel in a
+deep bass voice--
+
+                     "The doom of Mole is understood,
+                      For ever more to walk on wood;
+                      Though upon macadam or stone
+                      Yet he shall walk on wood alone.
+
+                     "Let him march out on asphalte--tile,
+                      In orange groves his thoughts beguile;
+                      Where'er he be, the fate of Mole's
+                      To scud through life upon bare poles"
+
+This peculiar incantation had its effect somewhat increased by soft
+music.
+
+"Ahem!" said Mr. Mole, "it didn't want a wizard to tell me that."
+
+"What, sir?" demanded Harry, innocently.
+
+"About my wooden legs; my infirmity is visible to every body."
+
+"But how could he know?"
+
+"By looking."
+
+"Still sceptical," said the wizard, who had very sharp ears; "shall I
+consult my book again?"
+
+"No, no," said Mr. Mole, uneasily.
+
+But Harry Girdwood said "Yes."
+
+He did not want to end the scene yet.
+
+"What would you?" demanded the magician sternly.
+
+Harry commenced to whisper to Mr. Mole.
+
+"Come, sir, pluck up your courage, and find out something about
+yourself. You know the past--why not ask him about the future?"
+
+"He might be rude enough to say something unpleasant, Harry. However,
+I'll try him."
+
+Then, with a very polite bow, Mr. Mole asked--
+
+"Can you tell me, Mr. Magician, what my ultimate fate is?"
+
+The necromancer took two steps forward and seized Mr. Mole's hand.
+
+"I find that the line of life is tinged with the hue of blood," said
+he, in solemn tones, after a lengthened inspection of the palm.
+
+"Dear me, how unpleasant--I washed my hands not long ago."
+
+"Man! do you think you can wash away the decrees of fate or sponge out
+the solemn words written by the stars? You are an Englishman?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Already six Englishman have sought me, and each of the six died a
+terrible death. What says the book?--
+
+                  "A terrible death on this green earth,
+                   With never the slightest chance of heaven;
+                   Let him curse the day--the hour of his birth,
+                   The English victim numbered seven."
+
+"And you are _Number Seven,_ Mr. Mole. May all the powers of
+heaven and earth preserve me from such a terrible doom as yours."
+
+Mr. Mole almost fainted when the magician uttered such fearful words
+respecting his (Mole's) fate.
+
+Harry Girdwood, however, handed him a rum flask, and a good pull at
+that restored his nerves.
+
+"Pooh!" said he, "I don't believe a word he uttered."
+
+"Still sceptical?" said the magician. "But to convince you of my power,
+I will show you any thing you like in my magic mirror."
+
+"Very well, then, I should like to see Harkaway and Harvey at this
+present moment--just to ascertain what they are doing--that will be a
+test."
+
+He chuckled as he said this.
+
+But as he spoke the magic mirror grew light, and two figures were seen,
+set, as it were, in a frame.
+
+Jack Harkaway the elder, was seated in an arm-chair reading; beside him
+stood his constant companion, Dick Harvey.
+
+The latter's figure was the more remarkable of the two, and the
+attitude was not merely characteristic, but it was startlingly like
+life.
+
+One hand was in his pocket; the other was at his face, the thumb
+pointing at his nose, the fingers outstretched towards the audience.
+
+"What do you think of that?" asked Harry Girdwood, in low tones.
+
+"Marvellous!" cried Mole; "that is Harkaway and Harvey, sure enough.
+Harvey has got something the matter with his nose."
+
+"No," whispered Harry, "he's taking a sight at you."
+
+"So he is. Just like Harvey. Harvey!" he called out.
+
+The mirror darkened, and the figures faded away from the sight upon the
+instant.
+
+"Do you desire still another proof of my skill?" asked the wizard.
+
+"Well you can, if you like, tell me something more about myself; but
+don't put yourself to any trouble."
+
+The wizard leant over his book earnestly for a consider able time.
+
+"I see here," said he, "that you have contrived to keep one important
+matter secret from your friends."
+
+"What?"
+
+"The hairs of your head are numbered," continued the wizard.
+
+Mr. Mole changed colour.
+
+"How--what?"
+
+"By the barber; you wear a wig."
+
+"Oh, no--no!" exclaimed Harry Girdwood, positively, "You are wrong
+there, sir, I assure you. Is he not, Mr. Mole?"
+
+"Of course he is."
+
+"Will you see for yourself, unbelieving boy?"
+
+"Yes," said Harry.
+
+"Where--say, where shall my familiar take it?"
+
+"Up to the ceiling."
+
+Mr. Mole groaned.
+
+At the self-same instant out went the lights; a heavy hand was placed
+upon Mr. Mole's head, and hey, presto! his wig was seen dancing about
+at the ceiling, glittering with a phosphorescent light upon it.
+
+Mr. Mole looked up, gave one awful yell, then made for the door, and
+flew away as fast as his wooden legs would carry him.
+
+And his yells continued, for all along his route young Jack had
+sprinkled a plentiful supply of crackers, which exploded as he ran.
+
+An unearthly chorus, sounding like the discordant laughter of invisible
+fiends greeted his retreat, and he never stopped until he had got home,
+panting and gasping for breath.
+
+As soon as he was out of the room Harry Girdwood locked the door.
+
+"Come forth, my merry devils!" he shouted. "Old Mole's gone."
+
+The curtain was drawn back, and in came Dick Harvey and Jack Harkaway,
+carrying lights.
+
+The wizard threw back his head dress and long horsehair wig, and showed
+the grinning face of young Jack himself.
+
+"Bravo, Jack," said his comrade, Harry; "you did it ever so much better
+than the other conjuror did."
+
+"Was he frightened?" inquired young Jack.
+
+"Poor old Mole! I never saw him so alarmed before."
+
+Harvey and old Jack enjoyed the fun every bit as much as the boys.
+
+"My opinion is," said the elder Harkaway, laughing, "that the triumph
+of the whole job was in the dancing wig."
+
+"It was beautifully done," said Harvey.
+
+"I nearly missed it," said Harry Girdwood laughing, "for you put out
+the lights so suddenly that I couldn't find the string, and then I
+nearly dug the hook into his head as well as his wig; and as for the
+phosphorus, I gave him a dab with it upon the nose."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!"
+
+Every thing had been carefully arranged beforehand, it need hardly be
+said, and a cord, with a fish-hook at the end of it, was run over a
+small wheel fixed in the ceiling.
+
+Harry held the other end of the cord, and as soon as the darkness and
+confusion came, he drove the hook into poor old Mole's wig, while he
+rubbed it dexterously with phosphorus, and then with a jerk he hauled
+it up to the ceiling, where he set it dancing about, to the
+indescribable horror of Mole.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+WHEREIN MR. MOLE IS CRUELLY USED--THE GARDEN FETE--SUNDAY AND
+MONDAY GIVE AN ENTERTAINMENT--ANOTHER LOOK INTO THE MAGIC
+MIRROR--STUDIES OF NATURAL HISTORY--AN INVOLUNTARY PERFORMER.
+
+
+When Isaac Mole had time to reflect coolly upon what had occurred,
+doubts arose in his mind.
+
+In spite of the seemingly inexplicable nature of the phenomena which he
+had witnessed, he felt that Harkaway, father or son, must know
+something of it.
+
+Dick Harvey, he was morally sure, was in it.
+
+If any thing fell, Harkaway would start up, on which Harvey or young
+Jack would immediately inquire anxiously if he were startled, solely
+for the purpose of leading up to Mole's words at the wizard's house.
+
+"Startled--nervous! Never; iron nerves, sir--adamant!"
+
+Upon these occasions, Mr. Mole would glide away from Harkaway's room
+without a word, leaving his tormentors to have their grin out all to
+themselves.
+
+All they could do they could not make him drop a word of allusion to
+the events just narrated.
+
+On that topic he was utterly dumb. Day and night the worthy Isaac Mole
+brooded over one solitary topic.
+
+Revenge.
+
+"I'll teach 'em," he said; "I'll let them know what it is to play
+practical jokes with a man like me."
+
+The last straw breaks the camel's back. The last indignity on his wig
+proved too much for Isaac Mole, for he had until that fatal day at the
+magician's, been fondly hugging himself in the delusion that the secret
+was all his own.
+
+The talk was tortured and twisted about so as to make it bear upon the
+sorest subject for the poor old gentleman.
+
+"Dash my wig, Mr. Mole!" Harvey would say; "let's take a short country
+excursion. You know the advantages of change of _hair."_
+
+If a suggestion were wanting for the dinner of the day, a voice was
+ready to advocate "jugged hare."
+
+"That's very well," said Harkaway, "but where can you get one in these
+parts?"
+
+"That's it," chimed in Harvey; "as Mrs. Glasse says, first catch your
+_hair,_ eh, Mr. Mole?"
+
+Mole winced.
+
+"It's not always easy to catch it, is it, Mr. Mole?" said Harry
+Girdwood, slyly.
+
+"Not if it flies too high," said young Jack.
+
+This chaff goaded poor old Mole to fury, coming as it did from the
+boys.
+
+"Really," he said, with a lofty sneer, "I don't see what you have to
+laugh at in the idle nonsense of these children."
+
+This made them grin more than ever.
+
+"The wit of the rising generation," sneered Mole.
+
+"Mr. Mole would like the young generation never to rise, I think," said
+Harry Girdwood.
+
+"That's it," laughed Harkaway; "Mr. Mole was always so conservative in
+his ideas."
+
+"Let me see, dad," said young Jack, looking puzzled; "Conservative,
+why, that means a Tory."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But, Mr. Mole, I thought that you always were a Whig."
+
+Such a storm of laughter greeted this sally, that Mr. Mole could not
+stand up against it.
+
+Looking daggers at every body, he trudged out of the room, digging his
+walking stick fiercely as he went.
+
+Now at the door, who should he meet but Sunday, grinning from ear to
+ear?
+
+"I'm not going to be fooled by you, you infernal black pudding," cried
+Mole, exasperated beyond measure.
+
+"Yah, yah," grinned the mirthful Caesar Augustus, holding his sides.
+
+"Take that," cried Mole.
+
+Sunday did take it.
+
+It was not a pleasant dose, for "that," in this instance, meant a
+severe crack across the head with old Mole's walking stick.
+
+Sunday rubbed his poll.
+
+Happily the thick wool with which it was garnished saved the skull from
+much danger, and a nigger's head is proverbially tough.
+
+But yet Sunday did not relish the indignity.
+
+"You dam wooden-legged ole tief," he shouted out; "I'll gib it to yar
+for dis hyar."
+
+And so, full of revengeful thoughts, the darkey sought his friend
+Monday.
+
+And they set to work plotting, with what result the next day
+showed--much to the old gentleman's disgust.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They mustered a good round dinner-party upon the following day.
+
+In front of the summer house was an object which excited Mr. Mole's
+curiosity considerably.
+
+One of the ladies asked what it was there for.
+
+"I don't know exactly what it is," replied Harkaway; "something of
+Monday's, I think, Dick."
+
+"I believe so," replied Harvey, carelessly.
+
+"They are going to give us an entertainment of some kind," said young
+Jack.
+
+The cloth having been cleared, Monday came forward, and bowing gravely,
+addressed the company.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen--"
+
+"Hear, hear!" from Mole, who, thinking himself free from attack,
+determined to try a bit of chaff upon his own account.
+
+"Thank you, sar," said Monday, bowing gracefully to Mole.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen--"
+
+"Bravo, bravo!" shouted Mole; "exceedingly bravo."
+
+"Folks generally--sane and insane"--here he bowed in a very marked
+manner at Mr. Mole.
+
+"Hear, hear!" cried Dick.
+
+"My entertainment is just a-gwine to begin, and as it is of a
+scientific natur dat asks for all your attention, I must ax them to go
+at once who don't wish to stay and see it all through, so as not to
+interrupt me."
+
+"No one wishes to go."
+
+The most eager person to remain was Mr. Mole.
+
+Poor old Mole.
+
+Monday went on--
+
+"The first that I'se gwine to show you, ladies and gentlemen, is some
+speciminks of what is known as the occult art, that is, the black art,
+or magic."
+
+Mole winced.
+
+"Go on."
+
+"Hear, hear!" said Dick.
+
+"Bravo, Monday," from Jack Harkaway.
+
+Mole was silent.
+
+He had not another "bravo" in him, so to speak.
+
+Monday bowed in acknowledgment of the plaudits.
+
+"In the first place, den, ladies and gentlemen," he went on to say, "I
+mean to show you my magic mirror."
+
+Mole glanced nervously at Dick, and from him to Jack Harkaway.
+
+But both looked as stolid as Dutchmen.
+
+Monday drew back the curtain from the easel, disclosing a frame, on
+which was fitted a plain black board.
+
+"In this frame," said the professor of the black art, "I can show you
+any persons you may ask for, dat is, persons who are known to you."
+
+Mr. Mole had heard enough to convince him that he was in danger of
+being once more sacrificed to the insatiable passion of his two old
+pupils for chaffing and practical joking.
+
+"Well, sar," said Monday, "just you try um."
+
+"We will," said Dick.
+
+"Well, then, sar, who shall be the first person I must bring before
+you?"
+
+No reply.
+
+"Well, Mr. Mole, name somebody," said Monday, in his most insinuating
+manner.
+
+Mole's only reply was a dissenting growl.
+
+"No."
+
+"Will you, Mr. Harkaway, sar?" he said.
+
+"Well, I will if you like--suppose that we call upon your friend,
+Sunday?"
+
+"Very good, sar."
+
+And then he set to work.
+
+A walking stick served him as a wand, and this he waved three times
+slowly and majestically, while he repeated in solemn tones this
+singular legend--
+
+               "Hokus-pokus, popalorum,
+                Stickstun, stickstun, cockalorum jig."
+
+Thereupon the curtain went back, and lo! Sunday appeared sitting upon a
+throne of state, robed in a long crimson mantle, which made him look
+like an emperor.
+
+It was a most dignified tableau, or it would have been, but for the
+long clay pipe the darkey held in his mouth and the pewter pot he
+carried in his hand.
+
+"Ladies and gemmen," said Monday, "dat is our ole friend, dressed as de
+Empyroar Charleymane."
+
+"Bravo, bravo!"
+
+Even Mr. Mole laughed.
+
+The curtain closed over this dignified and historical representation.
+
+"Now," said Dick Harvey, "let us see some of our live Stock."
+
+"Yes, yes," said young Jack; "show us Nero."
+
+"And Mike."
+
+Monday bowed.
+
+Then back went the curtain, and there sat Nero, the monkey, on the
+throne just vacated by the emperor "Charleymane," and at his feet stood
+the bold poodle Mike wagging his tail.
+
+Nero appeared to understand what was required of him, and he sat
+motionless as a statue for a while, but before long the peculiar
+nervous irritation to which monkeys appear to be subject attacked him,
+and he began a series of spasmodic researches in natural history all
+over his ribs.
+
+"Nero's making up for lost time," said young Jack; "look how he is
+getting to work."
+
+Nero was indeed scratching away furiously.
+
+"There's diligence," laughed young Jack; "now he's busy."
+
+And then he broke off into the following appropriate snatch--
+
+             "He'll catch the flee--he'll catch the flee--
+              He'll catch the fleeting hour."
+
+Down went the curtain.
+
+There was a general laugh at this.
+
+"When we asked you to show us the live stock," said Dick Harvey, "you
+took us too literally, Monday."
+
+"Yah, yah!"
+
+"You must learn to draw the line somewhere."
+
+Monday here rapped the ground with his wand to secure attention.
+
+Silence having been gained, he addressed them thus--
+
+"Before we leave dis part of de entertainment," he said, "I conclude de
+exhibition of one more animal. For reasons dat I need not mention, I
+shall leave you to guess at de name of dis animal. It is a small animal
+dat lives on wums."
+
+"Wums?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What are they?"
+
+"On wums, scriggley wums and insects, and burrows in the earth."
+
+"Why, dear me," said young Jack, innocently, "that must be a mole."
+
+Before a word could be said, back went the curtain, and Nero was
+discovered walking upon a pair of wooden stilts.
+
+He staggered about like a man in liquor, and made everyone yell again
+at the quaint manner in which he had hit off Mr. Mole's movements.
+
+"Whatever has he got on his head?" said someone.
+
+Mole shivered.
+
+He guessed.
+
+Guessed; alas, he was but too sure.
+
+Nero put all his doubts at rest by making a graceful bow and removing
+his wig instead of a hat.
+
+The wig!
+
+Yea; the identical wig which Mr. Mole had left behind him in his
+precipitate flight from the conjuror's.
+
+This was too much.
+
+Losing his dignity completely, Mr. Mole jumped up and burst through the
+group of spectators, dashing out of the place in a perfect fury, young
+Jack's voice ringing in his ears as he shouted--
+
+"A wig! a wig! My kingdom for a wig!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE BRIGANDS' CAMP--A MOUNTAIN BIVOUAC--AN ALARM--THE SOLDIERS--A
+CHALLENGE--THE BRIGANDS' WIDOW--FATAL NEWS.
+
+
+We change the scene.
+
+And now we find ourselves in a mountain pass, where a number of
+rough-looking men are grouped about a camp fire.
+
+A short distance from this group stands a tall man, leaning moodily
+upon the muzzle of his musket, while he watches the zig-zag paths up
+the mountain side.
+
+Upon this man one can see the whole safety of the party depends.
+
+He is on sentry.
+
+A prolonged silence was suddenly broken by the sentinel looking up and
+grasping his musket nervously, while he turned a warning gesture to the
+camp.
+
+"What is it?" exclaimed one of the party, jumping up.
+
+"Hush!"
+
+The sentry turned with his finger on his lips, and motioned him to
+silence.
+
+At a sign from one of the men--evidently a superior--the whole party
+sprang to their feet.
+
+A hurried examination of their musket-locks and arms generally showed
+that they expected danger, and only waited a word from the sentinel to
+be "up and doing."
+
+The leader stepped up to the sentry, drawn sword in hand.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"The patrol."
+
+"Soldiers?"
+
+The sentry nodded.
+
+"The Carbonari?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+The leader grasped his sword nervously, and made a step forward as
+though he would have dashed through the ravine and charge the military
+alone and unaided.
+
+But if such were his intentions, he speedily altered his mind. "Perish
+them!" he muttered; "and curse their spying!"
+
+"We could pick them all off from here," said one of the men--a huge,
+burly fellow, who had climbed up to a projecting rock commanding an
+extensive view. "All down to the last man."
+
+And as he spoke, he brought his gun up to his shoulder with an ominous
+gesture.
+
+"Hold, Toro!" ejaculated an English voice. "Your hasty imprudence will
+spoil us."
+
+"Bah!" said Toro, replying in the same tongue. "You are over prudent,
+Hunston. Why should we not destroy them while they are in our power?"
+
+"What if one escapes?"
+
+"One should not," retorted the Italian savagely; "no, nor half a one."
+
+"And where is the good if we succeeded, as you say?"
+
+"Good!" reiterated Toro, passionately. "Are they not our sworn foes?
+Are they not here in pursuit of us? Good!--why, will it not lessen the
+number of our enemies by their number at least?"
+
+"Yes, perhaps," replied Hunston. "And if successful, it would so
+thoroughly alarm the country, that it would cause a whole army to be
+sent after us, and make the end a mere question of time. Let one escape
+to tell the tale and it would bring them down to this spot, our safest
+place in the mountains, and hitherto undiscovered by our enemies."
+
+Toro grumbled.
+
+Yet there was so much truth in what Hunston said that he could urge
+nothing further in favour of violent measures.
+
+The sentry, who was still on the watch at the fissure in the rocks,
+here turned round and motioned them to silence.
+
+"Not so loud," he exclaimed, in a whisper; "they can hear something;
+they are looking our way."
+
+"Hah!"
+
+In fact, the military were so near, that they could be heard plainly
+enough giving their words of command.
+
+"Halt! Ground arms!"
+
+The rattle of their rifles was heard distinctly.
+
+The officer then could be seen taking observations through a short
+telescope which he carried suspended by a strap to his side.
+
+He glanced all about the place and fixed for some little time upon the
+fissures and rocky passes, resting longer below the very one at which
+the sentry was posted than elsewhere.
+
+But although it would seem to have aroused his suspicions, it was
+evident that he could see nothing, for, after a few minutes, he lowered
+his glass and shut it up.
+
+The reason of this was, that where the sentry stood was completely
+shadowed by the overhanging rocks, so that he was invisible to them,
+although they could be distinctly seen by the sentry.
+
+The scrutiny appeared to satisfy the officer.
+
+"Shoulder arms! Left wheel! March!"
+
+The measured tramp of the soldiers was distinctly heard.
+
+Fainter and fainter it grew until it died away.
+
+The sentry watched them in silence for several minutes before he spoke.
+
+Presently he turned round to his comrades and nodded.
+
+"Safe," he said. "They have turned by the crossroads; the last man is
+out of sight."
+
+"That's prime," said our old friend Tomaso. "Then now to dinner."
+
+The sentry was not lost sight of--indeed, he was not the man to allow
+himself to be forgotten, for before the meal had been long in progress
+he reminded them that he had such a thing as an appetite about him by a
+very rough address.
+
+"Gluttons," he said to the party generally, "do you think only of
+yourselves? Am I to mount guard for ever?"
+
+They only laughed at this.
+
+"Right, Ymeniz," said Toro; "turn and turn about is but fair. Matteo."
+
+"Present," returned one of the men, jumping up and saluting with a
+stiff military action, which told that he had once served in the army.
+
+"Relieve guard, and let Ymeniz take your place here."
+
+Matteo picked up his musket and marched up to the rocky pass, while the
+late sentry joined the feast.
+
+Now while the guard was changed, without any particular demonstration
+of reluctance upon the part of the new sentry himself, Tomaso made a
+very wry face.
+
+"Our comrade Toro gives his commands as naturally as though he were our
+leader."
+
+Toro flushed up at this.
+
+"And why not?" he said, almost fiercely.
+
+"Why not?" echoed Tomaso, with a sneer. "Oh, I could give several
+reasons."
+
+"Give them."
+
+"Nay, one will suffice."
+
+"Well."
+
+"Our only chieftain is the gallant Mathias."
+
+"And he is in prison."
+
+"True; but that doesn't prove you to be our leader while poor Mathias
+is in the hands of the Philistines."
+
+"Bah!" replied Toro, impatiently. "Someone must command while Mathias
+is away."
+
+"Then there are others who should command here in his absence in
+preference to those who are new comers."
+
+"Who are they?"
+
+"You haven't far to look," returned Tomaso, drawing himself up
+haughtily; "myself, for instance."
+
+Toro burst into a loud and derisive laugh.
+
+"You?" he said, contemptuously.
+
+"Yes, I."
+
+"Why, I have led a band of gallant fellows years ago--a band of thrice
+our strength; aye, and what is more, I have led them to victory again
+and again--to victory and fortune."
+
+"Your lucky star has not been in the ascendant since you have deigned
+to honour us with your company," said Tomaso.
+
+The covert sneer conveyed in this speech made the peppery Italian fire
+up.
+
+"What do you mean by that?" he demanded, fiercely.
+
+"I mean that your gallant followers must have missed so distinguished a
+leader; pity you could not return to lead them to fresh triumphs,
+greatly as we should deplore your loss."
+
+Toro boiled over at this.
+
+"Do you want to fix a quarrel on me?" he asked, in a voice of
+suppressed passion.
+
+"No," replied Tomaso, insolently. "When I want to quarrel, I go
+straight to my point; I don't beat about the bush. I only want to
+remind you of your proper place here so fall back, Signor Italiano, and
+learn to be more respectful in your bearing."
+
+Stung to the quick by this, Toro plucked out his sword, and would have
+rushed upon the other, had not several of the men interposed.
+
+"Come, come," they said, "none of that. We have plenty of enemies; we
+can cut their throats, not our own, when we want to spill blood."
+
+"Besides," said an old man, "it is profitless quarrelling about the
+leadership--we have a leader. Poor Mathias!"
+
+"Right," echoed several voices together, "right. Sit down; no
+quarrelling."
+
+"Here," exclaimed an old brigand, "let us drink to Mathias."
+
+"And his speedy return," added another.
+
+"Aye, aye, his speedy release."
+
+Horn goblets were handed round and filled with ruddy wine from a skin,
+which the old brigand himself produced from his own mysterious larder.
+
+"To Mathias!"
+
+"To Mathias!"
+
+A ringing cheer was heard, and the goblets were drained to the very
+dregs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Who goes there?"
+
+"A friend."
+
+"The word."
+
+"Mathias."
+
+"Advance, friend, and give the countersign."
+
+This challenge was replied to, and a woman appeared at the narrow
+entrance to the mountain pass.
+
+Slowly she walked through, her head drooping and her eyes fixed upon
+the ground.
+
+They recognised her now.
+
+It was the wife of their chieftain, the bold Mathias.
+
+"I scarcely knew you," said the sentry, apologetically.
+
+She looked up and smiled in a strangely vacant manner.
+
+The other said nothing.
+ Her manner impressed them with ugly feelings.
+
+Instinctively they felt that some fresh calamity had happened to them.
+
+In fear and trembling they anticipated the evil tidings which she
+brought, although, of course, they could not guess at its exact nature.
+
+"Did you succeed!" demanded the old man.
+
+She nodded gravely.
+
+"You saw Mathias?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Her answer was given in the same vacant manner, and staring fixedly
+into the very midst of them, she appeared to see nothing.
+
+"Did you tell our brave captain how eagerly we look forward to his
+release--how anxiously we long for the moment when he shall be again
+here amongst us--at our head?"
+
+It was the old brigand who spoke.
+
+She gave him a strange look, from which they could gather absolutely
+nothing, and her eyes dropped again to the ground.
+
+The heavy, unpleasant feeling deepened.
+
+Scarcely one of them had the courage to address her again.
+
+An oppressive silence fell upon them all.
+
+They looked at each other in silent, awkward expectation, all, bold
+desperadoes as they were, cowed into silence by her manner.
+
+"You succeeded in seeing him?" said Hunston.
+
+"Yes," she said, quietly.
+
+"And you bade him be of good heart?--you told him that we were making a
+plan in his behalf--a plan which could not fail of success? You said--"
+
+The woman looked up.
+
+"Nothing!"
+
+"What!"
+
+"Nothing," she slowly repeated, "nothing. I saw him, but it was too
+late to speak those words of comfort."
+
+"Too late?" iterated Hunston, eagerly, "too late?"
+
+"Ah, too late for words of comfort, for menaces, or for any thing."
+
+"Surely you do not mean--"
+
+He could not complete the sentence, but she helped him out--
+
+"I do," she said, in a hollow voice, and nodding her head gravely, "I
+do mean that he, Mathias, the brigand chief is dead!"
+
+The brigands, one and all, leaped to their feet, snatching up their
+carbines, while from their throats issued a deep cry of revenge.
+
+Dead! The word thrilled them one and all with horror.
+
+The bold Mathias dead!
+
+Prepared as they had been by her manner for some dire Calamity, it came
+upon them like a thunderclap. The awful calm manner of the chieftain's
+widow impressed them more than if she had thrown up her hands in wild
+despair and given way to the noisiest demonstrations of woe.
+
+After some few minutes, one ventured to break the awesome silence.
+
+"How did he die?"
+
+The brigand's wife turned from her questioner with a shudder.
+
+"Ask me nothing yet. I am not able to speak of that at present; give me
+time to conquer this weakness."
+
+"If I ask, it is that I may seek vengeance upon his destroyer," said
+Tomaso, the speaker.
+
+Her eyes sparkled, and the colour rushed into her pale cheek at the
+word. "Vengeance--aye, vengeance. Well spoken, my bold Tomaso;
+vengeance is something to live for, after all; vengeance we'll have
+too. We'll glut ourselves with it; a feast of vengeance we'll have."
+"We will, we will!" shouted the brigands, as though with one single
+voice.
+
+"These English and these Americans shall die."
+
+"They shall!"
+
+"We'll exterminate them, root and branch."
+
+"Aye, aye."
+
+"Firstly, these Harkaways shall fall, then--"
+
+"They die."
+
+"Does Mathias owe his death to Harkaway's band?" demanded Hunston.
+
+"Was not this Harkaway the prime mover in all our disasters?"
+
+"Curse him!"
+
+"Aye, curse him!"
+
+Toro here stepped forward in the centre of the circle which the
+brigands had formed.
+
+"If Harkaway is to be dealt with," he said, "I will undertake to lead
+you to triumph within three days."
+
+Cheers greeted this speech until Tomaso stepped forward.
+
+"If we want a leader," said he, "we can elect one; we are not in need
+of any man to elect himself."
+
+"Stand back," said Toro angrily.
+
+"Fall back yourself," retorted Tomaso, "and obey your superior."
+
+"My superior? Ha, ha! He does not live here," ejaculated Toro fiercely.
+
+The old brigand here once more stepped between the disputants and
+interfered.
+
+"Why quarrel over a dead man's shoes while his widow is still in
+sight?"
+
+Tomaso fell back at the rebuke, but Toro, less thin-skinned, stuck
+boldly to his text.
+
+"If I offer to lead you against the enemy," he said, "it is solely for
+our interest generally, not for mine alone."
+
+"Oho!"
+
+"Aye, and I can prove it."
+
+"Do so."
+
+"I will."
+
+"Hear him," said Tomaso derisively: "hear our general benefactor speak
+up for us all."
+
+Toro turned upon the speaker savagely. "I can speak to you presently,"
+he said significantly, tapping his sword hilt.
+
+"You'll find me ready to answer you in any way," retorted Tomaso
+boldly, also tapping his sword.
+
+"I doubt not; meanwhile, I offer myself as the leader, for several
+reasons: firstly, I know these Harkaways well, and am more fit to cope
+with them than those who have never met them."
+
+Tomaso laughed.
+
+"I doubt that," he said; "why, by your own showing, you have never
+gained any signal successes with them."
+
+"No, but I start where you would have to begin; I am armed by
+experience, which you lack."
+
+"True, true," exclaimed several of the brigands.
+
+"That sounds fairly enough," replied Tomaso, "but you have ever met
+with such signal discomfiture that I, for one, should have small
+confidence in your leadership. I don't speak to uphold myself; let any
+other leader be chosen--let one of ourselves to wit, not an Italian, or
+any other foreigner. Why should not a Greek lead Greeks?"
+
+"Hurrah!"
+
+A general cheer greeted this speech. "Tomaso! Tomaso!" they cried;
+"Tomaso for leader!"
+
+Toro's face flushed blood red.
+
+"Hearken to me," he exclaimed, in a voice now hoarse with passion;
+"Mathias was a great leader, and I felt it no shame to serve under him,
+but I have been in command of as bold and brave a band as this, one far
+stronger in point of numbers, and if I am not elected for the command I
+shall withdraw altogether. Have me or not, you have the choice; only
+this is my determination; I will accept orders from no man here."
+
+"Go, then," said Tomaso; "leave us. You came unbidden, and you may
+depart when you please."
+
+A general silence succeeded this speech.
+
+Toro's aid was not to be despised.
+
+His huge body and his muscular arm had gained him the consideration of
+most of those lawless men, who literally revered brute strength.
+
+"Wait, wait," said a brigand, stepping forward. "Let us not be too
+hasty. Some are for Toro, and some are for Tomaso."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Say on."
+
+"Let us put it to the vote, and let each of the disputants pledge
+himself to abide by the decision."
+
+"Good."
+
+"What says Toro?"
+
+"Agreed."
+
+"And so am I," returned Tomaso, promptly.
+
+"Hands up, then, for Toro."
+
+Half the hands were uplifted and counted over.
+
+"Now for Tomaso."
+
+Up went the hands of the other side, and when they came to tell them
+off, it was discovered that the brigands were equally divided in their
+choice.
+
+"We cannot have two leaders," said the brigand Ymeniz.
+
+"No, no."
+
+"Then we must have neither, as the matter stands."
+
+"Unless one gives way."
+
+"No," ejaculated the Italian, fiercely, "unless Tomaso likes to decide
+by the sword which of us shall have the lead."
+
+"I'm agreed to that," retorted Tomaso, promptly. "Let us fight for it,
+and may the best man win."
+
+"Agreed."
+
+"Hurrah, hurrah!"
+
+A ring was formed, and preparations made for the deadly encounter.
+
+As they were not agreed about the choice of weapons, a coin was thrown
+up, and Toro won.
+
+Tomaso would have chosen pistols, for he was an excellent shot, and it
+gave him the superiority; whereas, although not altogether unskilled in
+fence, Toro's superior weight and size gave him a great advantage with
+the sword.
+
+However, there was nothing for it now but to fight.
+
+The combatants stripped to the waist, and each received his weapon from
+his second.
+
+They were long, heavy swords, cut and thrust, like the heavy cavalry
+carry, and with these there could be but one result.
+
+Death!
+
+There were no half measures with these weapons.
+
+"Now, then," exclaimed the Italian, impatiently, "why this dallying? On
+guard."
+
+"I am ready," cried Tomaso, gripping his sword firmly.
+
+The swords met with a clash which sent forth a shower of sparks, and
+both men recoiled with the force of the shock.
+
+Recovering themselves quickly, however, they went to work in real
+savage style, and chopped away at each other with vicious earnestness.
+
+Now Tomaso, it was clear, could not hold his own in a battle wherein
+mere brute force was to have the best of it, and feeling himself at a
+disadvantage in this respect, he dodged about his adversary as nimbly
+as Harlequin himself.
+
+Being very quick-sighted, he saw what sort of a blow was coming ere it
+was fairly dealt, and so he shaped his defence.
+
+If it was a desperate stroke, he jumped out of its reach.
+
+If a light one, he turned it off upon the edge of his own weapon.
+
+In this way he worked upon Toro to such an extent that the Italian's
+temper got the mastery of him.
+
+Tomaso was attacking him so closely that the Italian looked like losing
+the battle.
+
+Toro was bleeding from a dozen small flesh wounds.
+
+Tomaso was, up to this moment, almost unscathed.
+
+Presently he grew over bold, and incautiously trusting himself within
+reach, Toro lunged so sharply out that it was only by the merest shave
+he escaped being spitted on the Italian's long sword like a lark on a
+skewer.
+
+As it was the sword pierced the waistband of his nether garments.
+
+Tomaso stumbled, and so nearly lost his balance that it took him all
+his time to parry the next stroke, which was put in with equal
+smartness and vigour. One blow, that might have brought down an
+elephant, sent Tomaso on to his knees.
+
+The same stroke made a notch in the Greek's weapon half an inch deep.
+
+Had he caught the blow upon the flat of his sword, it would have been
+shivered to atoms beyond all doubt.
+
+Toro saw his chance.
+
+Nor was he at all slow to avail himself of it.
+
+Quick as thought, another blow fell, and out of his grasp flew the
+Greek's blade.
+
+He lay prostrate at the mercy of his adversary.
+
+"Beg your life," cried Toro, planting his heavy foot firmly upon his
+adversary's chest.
+
+"Never,"
+
+"Then die!"
+
+He raised his sword.
+
+But he paused.
+
+Was it the action of a brave man to take the life of a defenceless foe?
+
+Well, it was not the thought of such romantic notions which troubled
+Toro; it was simply because there were spectators.
+
+These spectators, he knew, would judge it harshly.
+
+He thirsted for Tomaso's blood.
+
+Yet he dared not indulge in his brutal passion.
+
+Therefore, making a virtue of the necessity, he lowered his sword, and
+spurning his beaten adversary with his foot, bade him rise.
+
+"Then take your life unasked," he said coarsely, "and in future learn
+to know and to respect your superiors."
+
+Toro's speech was received with cheers by the brigands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE NEW CAPTAIN--HUNSTON'S TROUBLE--THE ARM AND ITS LEGEND--HOW
+EMMERSON'S VENGEANCE WORKS STEALTHILY ON.
+
+
+"What do you say, men, now?" demanded the huge Italian, as he wiped his
+sword.
+
+"Huzza for Toro!"
+
+"Have I fairly earned my right to take the lead here?"
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"I want you to be unanimous," he persisted.
+
+"We are."
+
+Toro fixed his eyes upon one or two of the disappointed supporters of
+Tomaso, who had not uttered a word since the discomfiture of their
+champion, and said to them especially--
+
+"If any of you object to me as a leader, let them come forward now and
+speak up."
+
+There were one or two murmuring voices.
+
+"Look," cried the giant Toro, "men all, if any here still denies my
+power, let them step forward, and this sword shall prove my right."
+
+This was final.
+
+After the manner in which Toro had just dealt with their friend Tomaso,
+they were not encouraged to provoke a quarrel. And so, by his daring
+audacity and brute strength, Toro the Italian raised himself to the
+leadership of the Greek brigands.
+
+None dared to dispute his sway from that moment.
+
+Some had a difficulty to swallow the bitter pill, but the alternative
+was so very unpleasant that they got over it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And Harkaway's enemy Hunston?
+
+Why has he fallen so into the background of late?
+
+His sole thoughts have been engrossed by the fearful sufferings to
+which he is subject.
+
+That dreadful arm--the legacy of vengeance of the murdered Emmerson.
+Where the evil was it baffled all his skill to discover.
+
+Slowly yet surely this horrible piece of mechanism was eating away its
+wearer's life.
+
+"It seems almost as though some subtle poison were slowly injected into
+my body through this arm," thought Hunston, "and yet I can not work
+without it."
+
+Never was vengeance more terrible than that of the dead Robert
+Emmerson.
+
+The wonder was that Hunston lived through it.
+
+His constitution must have been of iron.
+
+The arm was removed, but only with infinite trouble and suffering; and
+then, after some considerable time, Hunston began to experience a faint
+sense of relief.
+
+The sufferings slowly diminished.
+
+This convinced Hunston that he had been correct in supposing that the
+poison was concealed in the mechanical arm.
+
+He laid bare as much of it as he could without permanently damaging it,
+and pored over it for hours at a stretch.
+
+To what good?
+
+None.
+
+Now this limb was the work of no common artificer.
+
+It was the work of a hand of rare cunning.
+
+A master spirit had invented it, and its mystery was far too deep to be
+penetrated by a common bungler.
+
+Hunston was at last so tortured that, disguising himself, he one day
+left the mountains, and sought the advice of a surgeon.
+
+"The man who planned this arm," said the surgeon to whom Hunston
+submitted it for examination, "must have devoted a lifetime to the
+manufacture and perfecting of this mechanical limb."
+
+Hunston smiled.
+
+He knew too well how little time the wretched man Emmerson gave to any
+thing like industrial pursuits.
+
+"What is this?" asked this same surgeon, pointing to the flat of the
+arm, where the engraved legend was almost obscured with a dark stain.
+
+Hunston changed colour and fidgeted about.
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"There is something written."
+
+"Yes, yes, so I believe, but it is obscured by that stain--a stain--"
+
+He peered closer into the arm yet, and looked serious, as turning to
+Hunston, he said--
+
+"Why, it is a blood-stain."
+
+"No, no!" replied Hunston, hurriedly; "impossible. It can not be."
+
+"Impossible or not," said the surgeon, "blood it is, and nothing but
+blood. Yet I see that, in spite of this stain, the reading is clear
+enough."
+
+"Scarcely," said Hunston.
+
+"It is, though, and it is in English, I should say, too."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Can't you read it?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Strange. Yet you are English."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, I have some English friends here to whom I will show it, and--"
+
+Hunston broke in impatiently at this.
+
+"English here!" he exclaimed. "Where do they live?"
+
+"At the villa--"
+
+"What, the Harkaway family, do you mean?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you would take it there?"
+
+"Why not? Mr. Harkaway is a clever man. He is surrounded also by clever
+people; there is a curious old gentleman there, too, an old gentleman
+of great learning, and he might be enabled to throw some light upon the
+secret, which even the closest scrutiny can not penetrate."
+
+Hunston listened to the end, but not without having to exercise a
+certain amount of self-control.
+
+"How is this old gentleman called--this clever, learned old gentleman?"
+
+"You seem to say that with a sneer, sir," said the surgeon; "but you
+may rely upon it he is a very great _savant_--a man of great
+accomplishments--and a warrior who has--"
+
+"Who has lost two legs!"
+
+"Yes. You know him?"
+
+"Slightly; his name is Mole."
+
+"It is."
+
+"And you would take my arm to these people for them to stare and gape
+at. No, sir; I am foolish enough to seek to conceal my affliction from
+the world, and by the aid of this wonderful arm I have been hitherto
+successful."
+
+The doctor bowed.
+
+"So I beg you will keep my secret."
+
+"Rely upon it."
+
+Hunston showed all his old cunning in this speech. Yet all his
+inquiries, all his researches, availed him nothing.
+
+The work of the dead Robert Emmerson remained as before, an inscrutable
+mystery. It remained the silent executor of its creator's vengeance.
+
+Slowly, yet surely fulfilling the blood-stained legend on the steel
+arm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+HUNSTON AGAIN AT WORK-THE DANCING GARDEN--MARIETTA AND HER
+GOSSIP-GREAT NEWS--THE ARREST--WHAT CHARGE?--MURDER.
+
+
+Hunston's infirmity had told in many ways.
+
+He had sunk to be a mere nonentity in the band.
+
+Now he was but too pleased to be left at peace when in his great
+suffering; yet no sooner did he recover health and spirits a little
+than his old interest revived, and with his interest all the old
+jealousies.
+
+He bitterly resented Toro's assumption of the command.
+
+"Let the blustering bully fool impose upon them if he will," he said to
+himself again and again; "he never could take me in. It shall be my
+task to show them who can render the most real service to the band."
+
+Their programme suited Hunston well.
+
+What could better have accorded with his humour than the devotion of
+all their time, thought, and energies to the persecution--perhaps to
+the entire destruction, of the Harkaway family?
+
+It was all gone on with avowedly to avenge the death of Mathias.
+
+Little cared Hunston about the dead brigand chief.
+
+Indeed, but for the presence of his widow in their midst, and the
+occasional mention of his name, Hunston would, in all probability, have
+forgotten that he had ever existed.
+
+As it was, he made it his especial task to hang about the parts of the
+town where the Harkaways were most likely to be met. And never did he
+appear twice in the same dress.
+
+One evening, strolling into a dancing garden, he chanced to come upon a
+smart young lady, whose appearance attracted his attention at once.
+
+"I know her well," he said to himself, "though where I have seen her is
+a puzzle to me for a moment."
+
+The merry antics of one of the dancers caused her to laugh, and then he
+recognised the sound of her voice immediately.
+
+"Marietta!"
+
+Surely he should not so soon have forgotten her.
+
+Was it not upon the occasion of her memorable exploits at the gardens
+of the Contessa Maraviglia that he had last seen her--that night when
+poor Magog Brand met his fate?
+
+As soon as he recognised her, he made up his mind to escort her.
+
+So first (to assure himself of the excellence of his disguise) catching
+a cursory glance of his shadow in a mirror, he crossed the garden, and
+stepping up to her side, he addressed her.
+
+"Do you not join the dance, signorina?" he said.
+
+The waiting maid in reply only cocked her chin haughtily and moved
+away.
+
+"You are proud, Marietta, to-night," said Hunston.
+
+She turned upon hearing her name mentioned.
+
+"I do not know you, sir."
+
+"But you see I know you, Marietta, and what is more, if you were to ask
+your master Mr. Harkaway or Mrs. Harkaway about their friend Saville, I
+dare say they would not say any thing very bad about him."
+
+Marietta curtseyed in some confusion.
+
+"I don't remember seeing you at the villa, signor," she said, "so pray
+excuse me."
+
+"No excuses, pretty Marietta; I am not a very constant visitor, yet I
+have seen you, and yours is a face once seen not easily forgotten."
+
+Marietta, like a true daughter of Eve, did not object to this sort of
+thing.
+
+And so she fell into the trap which he set for her with so little
+pains.
+
+That is, she grew gossipy and communicative.
+
+"And does Master Jack come here sometimes?" asked the sham Mr. Saville.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Never."
+
+"Mamma would object, of course," he said lightly; "this is such a
+wicked place for her good, mild, innocent boy to come to."
+
+Marietta laughed a good deal at hearing young Jack spoken of thus.
+
+"Neither of the young gentlemen are too innocent," she said; "but yet
+they don't come here."
+
+"Possibly they have no taste for this sort of thing," suggested
+Hunston.
+
+Marietta shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"They are forbidden to go about alone."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I don't know--some fancy of the ladies. They think that the brigands
+are always lurking about, ready to drop upon their boys."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Hunston; "a very good joke."
+
+"Is it not? Although I must tell you that there is some reason for
+fear, for I have twice come across the--"
+
+"Across who?"
+
+"The brigands."
+
+"Impossible."
+
+"It is true."
+
+"The miscreants. Did they steal any thing?"
+
+"Well, only a few--a few kisses."
+
+"Hum!" said Hunston, "that was excusable. It is a sort of pilfering
+which I would willingly indulge in myself."
+
+"I dare say," answered Marietta saucily, "but I have discovered how to
+use my weapons in self-defence."
+
+"What weapons?"
+
+"These."
+
+She held up her ten pretty little claws. A tiny hand they were mounted
+on, too.
+
+Hunston surveyed it with the eye of a connoisseur, and looked the
+admiration he wished to convey quite extravagantly enough for a vain
+woman to understand his meaning.
+
+"Exquisite," he said. "It would be flattery even to be scratched by
+such models."
+
+She laughed.
+
+He resumed.
+
+"And so they never go forth for fear of the brigands?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Their lives must be wretched, so confined to the house."
+
+"Aye, but they go out to sea."
+
+"To sea?"
+
+"Yes, in their sailing boat; the two boys are always out fishing,
+sailing, and what not."
+
+Hunston pricked up his ears at these tidings.
+
+"Yes, on the water they are allowed full liberty, for brigands and
+cats, according to Signor Harvey, are the two animals that fear the
+water most."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Hunston, "very good indeed, but I never knew that
+brigands so feared the water."
+
+"So Signor Harvey says," replied Marietta. "Indeed he says that a bar
+of soap and a bowl of water would frighten a brigand more than a whole
+armoury of firearms."
+
+This was true.
+
+Brigands may look picturesque when seen from a distance.
+
+At close quarters they are, to put it mildly, objectionable.
+
+If they do not hold soap and water in absolute fear, as Dick Harvey
+said, they at least look upon them as vanities and effeminacies
+unworthy of desperadoes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"So, so," muttered Hunston, as he walked away, "I shall secure them
+yet. For through the boys I can get at the father and at Harvey. Hah!"
+
+At this precise moment a heavy hand was placed upon his shoulder.
+
+There was a professional touch in it, which once felt could never be
+forgotten.
+
+Hunston had felt such a clutch once in England, and the recollection
+was likely to last him as long as he lived.
+
+He forgot where he was, every thing, and instinctively he faltered this
+inquiry--
+
+"On what charge?"
+
+"Murder!"
+
+He knew the voice.
+
+He had no need to look round; the voice was not one easily forgotten.
+
+It was our old friend Pike, the English detective.
+
+"Yes, Hunston," replied the officer coolly. "You have been giving me a
+lot of trouble, but it was only a question of time and patience, I
+knew. Come along; you are my prisoner."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+A GREAT DANGER--OFF AND AWAY!--POOR PIKE.
+
+
+Hunston quailed. He was lost.
+
+So suddenly--so unexpectedly had this come, that he was utterly
+powerless to help himself.
+
+Had he been wearing the mechanical arm, he might have able to tackle
+the wiry officer Pike.
+
+Bitterly did he curse his unlucky fate.
+
+Recovering himself, however, in some slight degree, he endeavoured to
+shake off the detective's hold.
+
+"Quiet, now, quiet, Master Hunston," said Pike, "or I shall have to try
+means for tranquilising you which you won't find agree with you."
+
+"Show me your warrant for this outrage," said Hunston.
+
+"Outrage! Hoity, toity! that's a good word."
+
+"I shall call the police to my assistance if you attempt to molest me,"
+said Hunston, putting on a lofty air.
+
+This tickled Pike mightily.
+
+"Call the police, will you?" he said. "Well, I shan't, for I flatter
+myself that I don't want much assistance to walk off with such a man as
+you--even if you were not lopsided."
+
+Hunston turned savagely upon the detective at this allusion to his
+crippled state and made an attempt at using his one arm upon him.
+
+But Pike was--to put it vulgarly--all there.
+
+He dexterously dodged the blow, and whirling round secured a hold upon
+Hunston's collar--that peculiar grip which is the specialty of men who
+have been in the force.
+
+Hunston struggled desperately to get free. In vain.
+
+Do what he would, he found himself being trotted along to save himself
+from strangulation.
+
+Not only was it physically painful.
+
+Hunston had an overweening sense of his own importance and dignity, and
+this being run in just like some paltry pickpocket in a crowd, was
+galling to his vanity beyond all description.
+
+What could he do?
+
+He was powerless.
+
+The wondering people stared at this singular exhibition, but they
+parted their ranks as Pike and his prisoner came along, and never
+offered to interfere.
+
+Now, during this brief but painful business, Hunston's thoughts ran
+right ahead of the present dilemma.
+
+He endeavoured to realise some of the possible consequences of it.
+
+The arrest was, he felt assured, illegal.
+
+What then?
+
+What could result from such a proceeding?
+
+Would they detain him?
+
+Could they?--that was the question.
+
+The British ambassador might be influenced by people of the rank and
+position of the Harkaways.
+
+This granted, it was easy enough for his excellency to waive legal
+forms and ceremonies there, and get Hunston transferred to the safe
+keeping of the English authorities.
+
+At this point Hunston could not repress a shudder.
+
+And why? He thought of what must necessarily follow.
+
+His fevered fancy flew ahead, and he saw himself in the dock, faced by
+the stony-faced judge, and put through the torture of cross-examination
+which laid bare the innermost recesses of his black heart in spite of
+himself.
+
+He saw further on yet.
+
+He shut his eyes as he went on and heard the tramp of the twelve jurors
+re-entering the court in the midst of a profound and awesome silence.
+
+He heard the solemn formula; he heard the hollow voice of the foreman
+give the verdict--
+
+"Guilty!"
+
+All that he heard and saw in his mind's eye, in that brief but
+unpleasant hustling he had to go through at the hands of the ungenerous
+and indefatigable officer Daniel Pike.
+
+And Hunston now, being half cowed by his captor, was being driven
+through the streets like a lamb to the slaughter, when a sudden and
+startling incident changed the whole spirit of the scene, even in the
+twinkling of an eye.
+
+A musket, grasped in a strong hand by the barrel, was swung over their
+heads, and down it came with an awful crack upon poor Pike's head.
+
+Down he dropped like a bullock under the butcher's pole-axe.
+
+And Hunston was free.
+
+For a few seconds he could not realise his release, so sudden and
+unexpected it had been.
+
+"Come along," said a voice in his ear; "away with you, or we shall get
+into trouble here."
+
+This aroused him.
+
+He recognised the voice of Tomaso the brigand, and it brought him to
+his presence of mind.
+
+Off he started at a good brisk run in the direction that his preserver
+had taken.
+
+And soon was out of danger.
+
+But Tomaso was not so fortunate.
+
+Following Hunston at a more leisurely pace, he had not gone many yards,
+when a firm grip was placed upon his shoulder.
+
+"Halt!" said a voice.
+
+The brigand turned hastily, and found himself in the firm clutch of the
+detective.
+
+"I have caught you at last, villain!" exclaimed Pike the detective, as
+he twisted his hand into the collar of the garment Tomaso wore instead
+of a shirt.
+
+Then, before the astonished brigand had time either to remonstrate or
+resist, the Englishman exhibited to him that particular form of
+wrestling known as the "cross buttock," and stretched him at full
+length on the ground.
+
+Another moment and a pair of real Bow Street handcuffs snapped on
+Tomaso's wrists.
+
+"Neatly done; don't you think so?" said Pike.
+
+Tomaso's answer was a tremendous Greek oath.
+
+"You're swearing, I believe. Now that is a bad habit at all times, and
+very foolish just now, because you see it don't hurt me, inasmuch as I
+don't understand it," said Pike, who, after a brief, stern survey of
+his captive, added--
+
+"If you cursed me in English, though, I don't know but what I might be
+tempted to punch your ugly head."
+
+Tomaso remained silent, and Pike, after pausing some seconds, helped
+him to his feet.
+
+"Now you are all right, and will come back quietly with me. But how do
+the bracelets fit? I've got another pair in my pocket."
+
+"You had better release me," observed Tomaso.
+
+"Now that is very ridiculous, my friend. Why should I take the trouble
+of capturing you, if I let you run again directly?"
+
+"It will be much to your disadvantage to imprison me, Signor
+Englishman. An injured Greek is always avenged in some way."
+
+"Just so; however, I'll risk that"
+
+Pike's coolness added to the rage of the brigand, whose passion fairly
+boiled over.
+
+"May all the infernal gods my forefathers worshipped--may the fiend I--"
+
+"Serve," suggested Pike.
+
+"The fiend I would willingly serve, or sell my soul to, for vengeance,
+visit you with his direst displeasure, and may all the plagues of Egypt
+blight you!"
+
+"Thank ye, that's a very pleasant speech; something like what I used to
+hear at the theatre. But, old friend, you made one little blunder."
+
+"You will see if I have blundered."
+
+"One little blunder, when you spoke of selling your soul. Lor' bless
+you, Old Scratch isn't such a fool as to buy nowadays, whatever he may
+have done years ago."
+
+Another angry exclamation from Tomaso.
+
+"You see, the old gentleman has gained some experience as a trader, and
+he knows well enough that if he waits a little time, he'll get you all
+free-gratis for nothing at all."
+
+"You are a devil, Englishman."
+
+"And you are not exactly an angel. However, if I am a devil, you may
+consider you are regularly sold to me. So now come along; keep your
+hands under your cloak, and no one will notice the little decorations
+on your wrists."
+
+"You are a devil, Signor Englishman; but you will die for this."
+
+"Pshaw! I've collared scores of desperate villains, and they all said
+something of the same kind, yet here I am."
+
+"You will die," repeated Tomaso.
+
+"Some clay, of course; but we have a proverb in England; would you like
+to hear it?"
+
+Tomaso tossed his head with lofty indifference.
+
+"The proverb," continued Pike, "is that 'Threatened men live long.'"
+
+He then took Tomaso by the arm, and led him on.
+
+"But stop," said he, "those pistols in your girdle are very heavy. I'll
+carry them for you, and the knife as well."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE DECOY--A THROW OF THE DICE--THE EXECUTION.
+
+
+Before Pike and his captive had gone far on their return journey,
+Harkaway and Harvey, with two or three of the gendarmes, and a minute
+after Jefferson, came up.
+
+"You have caught him then. Hurrah!" said Dick Harvey.
+
+"But this is not Hunston," said Harkaway.
+
+"No, sir; he managed to get clean away. But we'll have him yet."
+
+An old goatherd, who had scrambled down near to the place where the
+captor and prisoner stood, might have been seen to indulge in a
+contemptuous smile.
+
+We say might, because the fact is that all were so much elated at the
+capture of Tomaso that the very presence of the old stranger had
+hitherto remained unnoticed.
+
+Nor did he seem to court attention, but remained behind a bush, in a
+spot, however, where he could hear all that passed.
+
+"Well, we must take this fellow back to the town, and hand him over to
+the authorities," said Harvey.
+
+"And then hunt down Master Hunston," remarked old Jack. "I wish we knew
+where to look for him."
+
+"He took this direction," remarked Pike.
+
+"True."
+
+"And, therefore, it is in this direction that we must look for him."
+
+"Right again," remarked Dick Harvey.
+
+"But as he is associated with some desperate fellows, it would be as
+well to place this gentleman in the hands of the authorities before we
+seek him. It is not good to go into action with prisoners on our
+hands."
+
+As all agreed on this point, they walked back with the prisoner, and
+had the pleasure of seeing him put into a cell from which, apparently,
+there was no way of escape, even the fire-place having been bricked up
+since the attempt of Mathias to gain freedom that way. By the time that
+was done it was too late to think of starting that day, so our friends
+retired to hold a council of war.
+
+Pike, however, took no part in the consultation.
+
+That astute detective had formed in his own mind a resolution that, if
+it were possible, he would capture Hunston single-handed, thus covering
+himself with glory, and at the same time keeping the Harkaways and
+Harvey out of danger.
+
+Pike knew that it was a difficult thing to keep them out of danger, and
+that if they heard any thing about the brigands, they would be the very
+ones to lead an attack.
+
+Pike walked up and down, smoking and reflecting on the difficulties
+which surrounded his task.
+
+He had not thoroughly matured his plans when the sun went down and the
+moon rose.
+
+Few people were abroad.
+
+The audacity the brigands had recently displayed had convinced most
+people that they were safer indoors than out.
+
+As Pike walked up and down the quiet street, he noticed an old man
+crouched up in a corner, wrapped in a tattered cloak, and apparently
+intending to pass the night there.
+
+"Hilloa, my friend, what are you? Are you one of the brigands?"
+
+Pike uttered the words in a jocular manner, but the old man felt deeply
+offended.
+
+"Sir Englishman, you insult me."
+
+"I apologise. I had no intention of doing so."
+
+"A brigand! Signor, I am here--houseless and penniless in my old age
+through those accursed villains! May Sathanas fly away with their
+souls."
+
+"Well, old man, perchance you will be avenged before long."
+
+"It is what I pray for. They burnt my hut, cut down my two fine olive
+trees, and drove off my little flock of goats."
+
+The old man covered his face, and appeared to sob violently.
+
+"When was this?" asked Pike.
+
+"Scarce three hours since."
+
+"Was there with them a foreigner--one of my country?"
+
+"I know not what country they were of, but besides the Greeks, there
+were two men who seemed leaders; one was called Signor Toro, the other
+was named Hunston."
+
+"How many were there in all?"
+
+"Three Greeks besides the two foreigners."
+
+"Do you know any thing of the haunts of these brigands, friend
+goatherd?"
+
+"Aye, well. But till now I have never dreamt of betraying them, for
+they never before molested me."
+
+"Lead me to their den."
+
+"You, signer? Why, they are at least five in number, and you are but--"
+
+"But an Englishman! that makes all the difference, friend goatherd, so
+pray lead on. Here, take a drink from my flask first."
+
+The old man accepted the proffered drink, and then said--
+
+"Well, signor, it is a desperate and dangerous undertaking; but I know
+you English can do almost any thing, so I will show you the way. And if
+it comes to a fight, I shall be at your elbow, signor."
+
+"True."
+
+Without mentioning his intentions, or saying a word to any of his
+friends, the detective passed his arm through that of the goatherd and
+walked away.
+
+Little conversation passed.
+
+The detective was full of hopeful anxiety about the capture of Hunston;
+and as for the goatherd, it may be presumed that the loss of his goats
+afforded him plenty of food for silent reflection.
+
+They passed the place where Tomaso was captured, and then turned aside
+out of the road into a dense wood which covered the side of a rocky
+hill.
+
+It appeared as though the old goatherd was "out of condition," as the
+athletes say; at all events, the scramble up the rough path brought on
+a loud and distressing cough.
+
+"Be quiet," said Pike; "you will alarm them."
+
+"No fear of that, signor; we are more than a mile from the den of the
+villains."
+
+So they scrambled and climbed away, till at length they reached a place
+where Pike found it necessary to use hands as well as feet to make
+progress.
+
+He had just put up both hands to grasp a boulder over which it was
+necessary to climb, when, to his intense astonishment, each wrist was
+grasped by a couple of strong hands, and in another moment he was
+forcibly dragged up.
+
+"The tables are turned now, Mr. Pike," said a voices "You will remain
+our prisoner till Tomaso is released."
+
+It was so dark that Pike could not see the speaker, but he had no doubt
+that it was Hunston.
+
+The impression was confirmed in an instant by the goatherd, who said in
+a jeering manner--
+
+"Ha, ha, ha! Why don't you capture him? You were so very brave to talk,
+yet you do nothing."
+
+Pike, by a sudden jerk, wrenched himself from his captors, and dealt
+the mocking brigand--for he was nothing more--a blow that doubled him
+up among the rocks.
+
+But before the detective could escape, he was thrown down himself, and
+bound hand and foot.
+
+Half-a-dozen Greek brigands then raised him and bore him away.
+
+How far he could not tell, but it seemed, as far as he could guess,
+five or six miles.
+
+At length they reached a little open glade in the forest where at least
+a score of brigands were assembled.
+
+"You have him, then?" said a huge fellow, who spoke with an Italian
+accent.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Tie him to that tree."
+
+It was done.
+
+"Now listen," said Toro--for he it was who had given the command. "If
+Tomaso is not at liberty and here among us at noon, you shall die."
+
+"I can not set him at liberty."
+
+"You can do a great deal towards it. Unfasten one of his arms--his
+right arm."
+
+Pike's right arm was then released, and, in obedience to Toro's
+command, a small table was placed close to him.
+
+On this table were pens, ink and paper.
+
+"Now write to your friend Harkaway, and tell him that unless Tomaso is
+released by noon, as I have told you, death is your doom."
+
+So Pike wrote--
+
+"I am in the hands of the brigands, and unless Tomaso is released by
+noon, I shall be killed. But I am not afraid to die; hold your captive
+fast."
+
+Having signed it, he held it out to Toro, who read it, and then called
+a messenger, to whom he entrusted it for delivery.
+
+Then the brigands sat down to breakfast, and Pike was left to his
+contemplations. These, as may be imagined, were not of the most
+pleasant kind.
+
+Hour after hour passed.
+
+The brigands were some sleeping, some playing cards, and all enjoying
+themselves in some way, but no one took any notice of the prisoner.
+
+The sun rode high in the heavens, and it was evidently approaching
+noon, when the messenger returned from the town with a letter.
+
+It was addressed to Pike, but Toro opened it.
+
+It was not from Harkaway, but from the chief of the police, informing
+the unfortunate detective that the Greek government declined to make
+any terms or drive any bargain with brigands, but that any ill usage
+Mr. Pike might suffer would be most effectually avenged.
+
+"You hear this?" said Toro.
+
+"I do."
+
+"Then say what prayers you remember, and make your peace with Heaven,
+for at noon you die."
+
+"Let me be the executioner," said a brigand who stood by.
+
+"Not so," exclaimed another; "the task is mine by right."
+
+"Peace!" said Toro. "The dice shall decide his fate. The highest
+thrower shall have the pleasure of shooting him."
+
+The brigands, in obedience to a signal from the chief, gathered round
+him, a short distance from the prisoner.
+
+Dice were produced and the game began.
+
+"Double four," cried the first thrower.
+
+"That man stands a good chance of being my executioner," thought Pike.
+"To fancy that I, who have been the terror of evil-doers in England,
+should be the sport of these dirty brigands. Why, I could well thrash
+half-a-dozen of them in a fair stand-up fight."
+
+At this moment a loud peal of laughter greeted the second dicer.
+
+"Ace--two."
+
+"My chance is worthless," said the man.
+
+"Worthless!" muttered Pike to himself. "Aye, you are indeed worthless,
+compared with some of the English villains I have hunted down and
+fought for life or death. I could die like a man if I only had to die
+in a fair hand-to-hand fight with such a man as Birmingham Bill, the
+very first murderer I ever coped with; but I'll show them how an
+Englishman can die."
+
+"Double six!" shouted one of the brigands, as he threw the dice.
+
+The man was the smallest and ugliest of the lot, but it seemed very
+probable that he would be Pike's executioner. At all events, he
+carefully loaded his carbine.
+
+"To be shot by such a villain as that!" thought Pike. "It would have
+been better if one of the shots fired by that burglar fellow they call
+the 'Whitechapel, Devil' had taken effect; six times he fired, and then
+we had a good ten minutes' tussle before I could secure him."
+
+At length all the brigands had thrown with the exception of Toro.
+
+"Double six again!"
+
+As it was a tie between the two, each had another throw. The little
+ugly brigand threw.
+
+"Two--three."
+
+Toro then took up the dice, shook them well in the box and made his
+cast.
+
+"Five--four!"
+
+And Toro was hailed the winner.
+
+"Prisoner, I give you two minutes to prepare."
+
+"Brigand, I am prepared. Such sins as I have committed, I have repented
+of, so do your worst; but rest assured that vengeance will some day
+overtake you. To Heaven I commend my soul!"
+
+With as much composure as if he had been practising at an inanimate
+target, Toro raised his gun, and counted--
+
+"One!"
+
+"Two!"
+
+"Three!"
+
+At the word three, he pulled the trigger. The report echoed from rock
+to rock, and the head and body of poor Pike fell forward, as far as the
+ropes that secured him to the tree would permit.
+
+He was dead, the bullet having penetrated the brain.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That evening, as Harkaway, Harvey, and Jefferson returned from an
+unsuccessful attempt to rouse the authorities, they found that two men
+had left a heavy package at the house.
+
+On opening it, they were horrified to find it a section of a hollow
+tree, nearly every portion of the wood having crumbled away, leaving
+the bark intact.
+
+And in the hollow was the body of the poor detective and a brief note.
+
+"The fate of all brigand hunters. Beware!--TORO."
+
+"Vengeance for this, at all events," exclaimed Harkaway.
+
+"Poor Pike! We should be unworthy of the name of Englishmen did we not
+punish thy murderers."
+
+He wrote a note to the mayor.
+
+"SIR,--In the huge package that accompanies this note, you will find
+the body of an Englishman, who has this day been murdered by brigands;
+I call upon you, in the name of Heaven, to rout these murderers out of
+their dens, and bring them to justice. Should you show any backwardness
+in so doing, I shall deem it necessary to appeal to the English
+ambassador.
+
+                             "Your obedient servant,
+                                  "J. HARKAWAY."
+
+Having despatched a couple of messengers with the body and letter, they
+sat down with sorrowful hearts and small appetites to their evening
+meal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+HUNSTON IN THE CAMP AGAIN--RETROSPECTION--A DEVILISH PLOT--DARK
+CLOUDS GATHER OVER THE HARKAWAYS.
+
+
+"Who goes there?"
+
+"A friend."
+
+"The word?"
+
+"Mathias."
+
+"Stand; advance a step, and I fire. Ha! I see you now. I did not
+recognise your voice, Hunston."
+
+"I thought not; but why all this precaution?"
+
+"Fear has induced us to change the countersign. We believe there is
+mischief abroad, and so extra precautions are needed."
+
+"Right, Ymeniz," said Hunston, who had been out scouting for a few
+hours after the execution of Pike, "although it is to be feared that
+the blindness which prevents your recognition of a friend and comrade
+may mislead you as to the real character of an enemy, should one dare
+to penetrate thus far."
+
+The sentry laughed.
+
+"Fear nothing on that score, Hunston," he said.
+
+"Indeed I do."
+
+"My carefulness may turn even friends into enemies, but fear, or over
+carefulness--"
+
+"It is much the same thing," suggested Hunston.
+
+"Right; but it is not likely to make me take foes for friends."
+
+"I doubt it."
+
+"You have a cunning tongue, friend Hunston," said the sentry, who was
+just a little bit nettled, "but I don't believe that you could prove
+that to my satisfaction."
+
+"I might do it to the one or the other," returned Hunston, caustically;
+"but certainly not to both, the two are so opposed."
+
+This was just a dash too subtle for the sentry, and so Hunston passed
+on without further remark.
+
+A few steps further on he came to a group formed of the brigands,
+gathered around Pedro, a brigand who had been of some little assistance
+in the rescue of Hunston, but who unlike Tomaso, had managed to escape.
+
+He was recounting the late adventures--from his own episode in the
+tale--of Hunston.
+
+Hunston walked up to the centre of the group.
+
+"Pedro," he said, "you rescued me, and perhaps saved my life; accept my
+hand, and with it my eternal gratitude." Pedro stepped back. He winced
+instead of taking the proffered hand, and his countenance fell.
+
+"Pardon me Hunston," he said; "I'm very glad to have been of service to
+you, to have been able to save a comrade, but--"
+
+He paused.
+
+Hunston frowned.
+
+"But what?"
+
+"Don't be too grateful."
+
+The tone, no less than the nature of the request, sounded just a little
+bit comical, and it made the bystanders, Hunston included, smile.
+
+"What do you mean by that, my preserver? Why should I not be grateful?"
+
+"Because I have heard it said that your gratitude brought bad luck to
+anyone who had really befriended you."
+
+Hunston started.
+
+He thought of Robert Emmerson.
+
+That arm did its inventor's work well, indeed.
+
+Not a day passed but Hunston realised the truth of the legend inscribed
+on the mechanical arm.
+
+Not a day passed, but that he saw how fearfully was the legacy of
+vengeance bequeathed by the murdered Protean Bob being carried out.
+
+Dropping his glance in some confusion for a moment, he turned sharply
+upon the brigand after a little reflection.
+
+Pedro could know nothing of the death of Emmerson.
+
+Nay, it was more than probable that the very name was utterly unknown
+to these men.
+
+"You wish to insult me, Pedro," he said, "and so cancel the obligation
+I am under to you. But beware of going too far, for you may leave a
+balance upon the wrong side, and I am as quick to avenge an insult as
+to--"
+
+Pedro interrupted him with a laugh.
+
+"What did I say? I have only just rendered you a great service--at
+least, so you say--"
+
+"And mean."
+
+"And mean, perhaps; and yet you are already threatening me. When I said
+that your gratitude is said to bring bad luck to anyone, I was only
+repeating an idle saying--as I thought--but it seems like the truth,
+after all."
+
+Hunston was moving thoughtfully away, when the brigand's words stopped
+him.
+
+"Forgive me, Pedro," he said, turning round; "I am a bad, ungrateful
+man, but I'm not utterly wanting in decent feeling. You touch me on a
+very sore spot."
+
+So saying he walked on, leaving Pedro staring after him.
+
+"That's a queer lot," muttered the brigand to himself, "a very queer
+lot. I think I would sooner have the murder of a priest on my
+conscience than be weighted with the deeds that he'll have to answer
+for."
+
+Pedro was no fool.
+
+His observations were pretty well to the point.
+
+Hunston felt the pangs of remorse.
+
+Daily, hourly, in fact, he looked back and thought of what he was, and
+what he might have been had not his vicious propensities got the upper
+hand of him at the critical turn in his career.
+
+And so the demon remorse played havoc with him already.
+
+The mechanical arm was responsible for all. Its mysterious
+disorganisation had been the direct cause of his forced inactivity.
+
+What gives ugly thoughts such power over one as bodily inactivity?
+
+Nothing.
+
+Robert Emmerson, your vengeance is as terrible as it is unceasing in
+its action.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Hunston sought the widow of Mathias.
+
+"I have made good progress, Diana," he said, "for I have learnt enough
+about the enemy to make sure of getting some of them at least into our
+power."
+
+The listener's eyes glistened at the words.
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What do you propose to do, then? Tell me."
+
+"Harkaway has a son--a mere youth."
+
+"I know it."
+
+"Well, this boy is a dare-devil, bold and fearless lad; nothing can
+daunt him. He is, in fact, what his hated father was when first I knew
+him, years and years ago."
+
+A faint and half-suppressed sigh escaped him as he uttered this.
+
+"What of this boy?"
+
+"This boy has a companion called Harry Girdwood."
+
+"Well."
+
+"Well, these two boys are to be trapped, if it be gone about
+carefully--very carefully, mark you."
+
+"That can be done, of course."
+
+"It can--by you."
+
+Diana stared again at this.
+
+"By me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Listen. They pay a certain respect to us--hold us in some fear, in
+fact--and the boys, who are regular rovers, like their parents and
+friends, have only permission to cruise about in their little yacht."
+
+"How did you learn this?"
+
+"From Marietta, the servant of the Harkaways."
+
+"Hah!"
+
+"Now, with care, the boys might be lured, perhaps, away from the part
+of the coast which they know, and let them once touch the shore out of
+sight and hearing of their friends--"
+
+"I see, I see," ejaculated the widow of Mathias. "I can entrap them, I
+believe. But tell me first, what is the object of securing these two
+boys?"
+
+"The object!" ejaculated Hunston. "Why, surely that is clear enough.
+Let us once get hold of them, and we can make any terms we like with
+the father and friends. We shall have to dictate the conditions, and
+Harkaway will have no choice but to accept them."
+
+"I see, I see," cried Diana, excitedly. "Leave the rest to me; I'll
+undertake to get them into our power."
+
+"How?"
+
+"No matter how; you have done your share of the business. Be mine the
+task to secure the rest."
+
+"When?"
+
+"To-morrow."
+
+"Good!" said Hunston, gleefully, "good! I feel a presentiment of luck.
+I'm not superstitious, but I feel as certain now that we shall
+succeed--as certain as if the boys were already in our power."
+
+"They shall be," returned the woman, solemnly, "they shall be. I swear
+it!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+JACK AND HARRY GIRDWOOD AFLOAT--THE SQUALL--THE SHIPWRECKED
+BOY--DEEDS OF HEROISM--THEIR REWARD--A DEADLY PERIL.
+
+
+"Down with sail, Jack; we shall be over if we are not sprightly," said
+Harry.
+
+Young Jack laughed.
+
+The thought of danger actually made him merry, and so proved that he
+was every inch a Harkaway--a thorough chip of the old block.
+
+"There's no fear, old fellow," he said.
+
+A sudden gust of wind caught the sail, and caused the boat to give such
+a lurch at this very moment that both the boys were sent flying.
+
+They got some hard knocks.
+
+But neither was afraid of a little rough usage, and so they only
+scrambled to their feet, laughing boisterously, as if there was great
+fun in barked shins and bruised arms.
+
+"I told you so, Jack," said Harry Girdwood.
+
+"No harm done," retorted Jack, rubbing a damaged part and grinning.
+
+"No, but don't let us be too foolish; we might get into trouble."
+
+Young Jack roared at this.
+
+"Soho-ho!" he cried. "Shipped another passenger, Harry, have you?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, you've got Captain Funk aboard."
+
+"Not I," returned Harry, "only if we get into any foolish scrape, they
+won't let us come out for a sail again, and as this is the only jaunt
+left us, we may as well keep ourselves quiet."
+
+"There's something in that," said young Jack,
+
+So saying, he set about reefing the sail with all possible despatch.
+
+Now it was barely accomplished when a violent gust of wind drove the
+little craft along at a furious rate.
+
+It was only just in time.
+
+A moment more and the sail would have been shredded, or, what was still
+worse, the boat would have been capsized for a certainty.
+
+Harry Girdwood lowered the oars and pulled sharply along before the
+fury of the gale, while young Jack baled out a little water that had
+been shipped in the first heavy lurch, before the youthful mariners had
+been fully prepared for such violent treatment, and steered at the same
+time.
+
+In this way they contrived to elude the violence of the gale for the
+present, at least.
+
+But the danger was by no means overcome.
+
+They had not got through the worst of their trouble as yet, little as
+they anticipated any serious danger.
+
+The gale had come on with strange suddenness, and the truth was that
+they could hardly realize the extent of their danger.
+
+It was great.
+
+There was, perhaps, a special providence in their ignorance of their
+real peril, for their coolness alone gave them any chance in the
+present emergency.
+
+They were brave boys both--never were there braver--yet it is no
+disparagement of them to say that there was very great probability of
+their losing their _sang froid_ if they had known how very
+critical their position actually was.
+
+As it happened, they did the very best thing to do under the
+circumstances.
+
+They kept their boat before the wind, and by vigorous rowing, they
+contrived to drive along at a rate which was literally tremendous.
+
+And so on they scudded for about ten miles, when the wind dropped a
+little, and the pace began to tell upon them both.
+
+"Keep her off shore, Jack," cried Harry Girdwood.
+
+"Right."
+
+The wind and rain had half blinded young Jack, and although he had said
+"Right," he steered decidedly wrong.
+
+He could not see where they were going.
+
+"Look out!"
+
+Harry Girdwood only just spoke in time for young Jack to take heed of
+the warning, for a minute later and they shot past some sharp, jagged
+rocks, into which they would inevitably have dashed but for a lucky tug
+at the rudder at the very last moment.
+
+Now the roar of the wind and waters had just begun to lull a little,
+when a loud cry for help was heard.
+
+And then, for the first time, they perceived that a boat had just been
+launched by a boy at not more than thirty yards along the beach, and
+being carried out to sea by a huge receding wave, had become
+unmanageable.
+
+They could see with half an eye that the boy had no skill in handling a
+boat.
+
+"Help, help!" cried the strange lad, waving his hand in distress
+towards their boat.
+
+"All right," shouted young Jack. "We're there."
+
+Harry Girdwood pulled vigorously towards the venturesome youth.
+
+A few strokes brought them within twenty feet of the imperilled youth,
+and he would have been got away in safety but for his own folly and
+imprudence.
+
+"Sit still," shouted young Jack. "Sit still."
+
+"He'll be overboard," ejaculated Harry, glancing over his shoulder.
+
+The words of the latter proved but too prophetic
+
+A cry from young Jack--a piercing shriek from the other boat.
+
+When Harry Girdwood glanced over his shoulder again, he saw the other
+boat, keel upwards, floating away.
+
+The unfortunate youth, its late occupant, was nowhere to be seen.
+
+"He's gone!"
+
+"He has," cried young Jack, starting up, "and by all that's unlucky, he
+can't swim. Pull on, pull hard. Pull for mercy's sake."
+
+And young Jack stood up in the boat, tearing off his jacket and
+waistcoat.
+
+"What are you after?"
+
+"I'm in after him."
+
+"Jack, Jack, you'll never live in this heavy sea."
+
+"Never fear, old boy, I'll try."
+
+"You shall not, I say. You--"
+
+"Here goes," cried young Jack.
+
+And before Harry Girdwood could interfere, over he went, head first,
+into the boiling waves.
+
+Harry Girdwood held his breath in sheer fright.
+
+He shipped his oars and peered over the boat's side.
+
+Where was he?
+
+Would he never come up?
+
+Oh, Heaven! what a fearful time it seemed that the intrepid boy was
+under water.
+
+It seemed an age.
+
+In reality it was but a minute, no more, before young Jack struck up to
+the surface.
+
+He struck out with one hand--the other grasped something.
+
+"Harry."
+
+"Yes, Jack."
+
+"I've got him."
+
+"Hold tight."
+
+"I mean to," responded young Jack, with great coolness, all things
+considered.
+
+And now Harry could see that Jack's left hand was twined in the black
+flowing hair of the half senseless boy.
+
+The latter had no sooner reached the air and gulped down a breath or
+two greedily, than consciousness came partly back, and he threw his
+arms about his preserver and struggled desperately.
+
+"Leave go," cried young Jack. "Let go, or we shall both go down
+together."
+
+But it is not easy to reason with a drowning man.
+
+Young Jack found himself now in a desperate strait indeed.
+
+The frantic efforts of the rescued boy impeded his movements, entirely
+baffling the heroic Jack's best efforts.
+
+Harry Girdwood saw it all, and his terror increased every moment.
+
+Well it might.
+
+The mad struggles of the stranger imperilled both.
+
+"Dive, Jack, dive," cried Harry Girdwood, frantically; "dive with him,
+or it is all up with both of you."
+
+Jack heard him.
+
+Twisting like an eel in the embrace of the boy he would save, he dived
+down, dragging the stranger with him.
+
+In the space of a few seconds he reappeared again upon the surface,
+observing his former tactics.
+
+Striking out with his right arm, while with his left hand he grasped
+the stranger's long black hair.
+
+"Catch hold of him," gasped young Jack; "never mind me."
+
+Harry Girdwood leant over the boat's side and caught at the stranger by
+the collar.
+
+"There; hold on like that," said young Jack.
+
+The weight coming all upon one side of the boat, however, threatened to
+capsize it, and so they had to act with the greatest precaution.
+
+Young Jack, however, struck out and swam round the boat, so that his
+weight, clinging upon the further side of the boat, served to steady it
+while Harry Girdwood completed the rescue of the stranger.
+
+"Bravo!" cried young Jack.
+
+"It was a tough job," said Harry.
+
+"And a narrow squeak for all of us."
+
+"Right; but let's look after this poor fellow. He's alive."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I'm glad of that; it would have been precious hard after all the work,
+not to mention the risk run, to have let him slip his cable in spite of
+us."
+
+"Well, it is not his fault that he's alive now."
+
+"Alive." quoth young Jack, "by George! He looks more dead than alive as
+it is."
+
+"Don't fear for him, Jack; he's as good as twenty dead men so far, but
+how are you getting on?"
+
+"Hearty. Rather damp outside, nothing more."
+
+"And inside?"
+
+"Damp too. Why, I shipped a bellyful of salt water last drop down;
+enough to salt a barrel of junk."
+
+Harry turned his attention to the stranger.
+
+"He keeps insensible a very long time," he said to young Jack; "it
+begins to look serious."
+
+"Move the scat," said young Jack, "and let us lay him flat down upon
+his back at the bottom of the boat. I have always heard that that is
+the proper thing to do."
+
+No sooner said than done.
+
+Presently they were rewarded for their pains by detecting a faint
+breathing.
+
+"How white his neck is," said Harry Girdwood.
+
+"And how small and delicate his hands," said young Jack.
+
+"One would almost take him for a woman."
+
+"He'd pass very well for one if he wore petticoats."
+
+"I'm almost inclined as it is to think that--"
+
+"Ha! He's coming round."
+
+The youth opened his eyes and stared about him.
+
+He looked half scared at first one and then the other.
+
+"You are better now," said young Jack, taking his hand.
+
+He stared.
+
+Jack had spoken in English in his anxiety.
+
+He put the same sentiment into the best Greek he could muster.
+
+"Yes, yes," replied the stranger, "better, better," and then he
+appeared to grow more and more confused; "but what is this? Have I been
+ill?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"Not very; it is all well now. Don't you remember--"
+
+The rocking of the boat furnished the missing link in the chain of
+memory, and the rescued boy showed, by a ray of intelligence in his
+bright face, that it had all come back to him.
+
+A smile of grateful acknowledgment of their services shot over his
+countenance.
+
+Then suddenly his expression changed.
+
+"Where are we going?" he demanded, with the most extraordinary
+eagerness.
+
+"Ashore."
+
+"Oh, no, no, no!" he exclaimed; "not ashore here."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"You must not go ashore here," said the youth, eagerly, "not for
+worlds."
+
+"Why?"
+
+Jack was questioning the stranger while Harry Girdwood shot the boat
+into a favourable creek.
+
+Harry jumped out.
+
+"Come along," he said cheerfully.
+
+"Safe on shore."
+
+"And precious glad of it," added young Jack.
+
+The stranger looked upon him in anxious expectation, and finding they
+were alone, he turned eagerly to his young preservers.
+
+"Put off again," he said; "put out to sea, I tell you."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"You have disarmed me; you have saved my life and shown me tenderness
+and care--aye, brotherly love. Oh," he added earnestly, "pray go now;
+at once, while you are free."
+
+"Well," quoth young Jack, with a long whistle, "this is a rum go."
+
+Before another word could be spoken, there was heard a whistle, which
+sounded like the echo of young Jack's note; an answer came from another
+direction, and half-a-dozen men sprang forward from no one could see
+where, and pounced upon our two bold boys, Jack and Harry Girdwood.
+
+"Bravo, Theodora!" cried a familiar voice in English, "you play the
+part of decoy to perfection. We have got them at last."
+
+Young Jack started.
+
+He turned pale and haggard, looking in a moment to Harry.
+
+"Do you know that voice?"
+
+"I do," replied Harry Girdwood.
+
+"We are sold, undone. It is the villain Hunston."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was but a little while after young Jack and Harry Girdwood had been
+entrapped, when a strange scene took place.
+
+Evening was coming on.
+
+Brigand sentinels had been posted at each path by which their haunt
+could be approached, and one was perched high above on a flat rock,
+which overlooked everything, without having seen himself except by the
+very sharpest of eyes.
+
+Hunston, after visiting the outposts and seeing that everything was
+safe for the night, climbed up to this spot, and seated himself on a
+large stone.
+
+He felt feverish, and at that elevation he might feel something of the
+breeze, a thing unknown down below at the bivouac, which was closely
+surrounded by thick bushes.
+
+Strange dreads and doubts filled Hunston's mind, dread of the future,
+dread of a lingering illness through his arm, which daily grew worse,
+dread of death, which he felt convinced must be the end, and doubts
+whether eventually his enemy Harkaway would not triumph.
+
+For Hunston's hatred of Harkaway knew no abatement; living or dying,
+the same fierce, unquenchable thirst after vengeance would fill his
+soul.
+
+But what troubled him most now was his health.
+
+The shoulder to which the mechanical arm was attached was so painful,
+it could scarcely bear the pressure of the clothing he wore; the blood
+in his veins, after flowing through that part of the system, seemed to
+return to his heart heated almost to boiling point, but that heat did
+not stimulate him to exertion.
+
+On the contrary, he felt languid and scarcely able to do the duties
+that devolved upon him as Toro's lieutenant.
+
+Nor was his brain so clear as in former days.
+
+Ideas he had in plenty, but they seemed to jostle and confuse each
+other in their endeavours to settle down into a connected train of
+thought.
+
+Emmerson's vengeance was working.
+
+As he sat there, the sentinel remained motionless, leaning on his
+carbine and peering over the edge of the precipice.
+
+Presently Diana, the widow of Mathias, came up the rock, and Hunston
+rose to greet her.
+
+"Your husband is to a certain extent avenged," said he.
+
+"How?"
+
+"Harkaway's boy is in our power,"
+
+"That is something, at all events. That girl Theodora, the niece of
+Tomaso, has done her work well. Vengeance has commenced."
+
+"Yes, but--"
+
+"But what?"
+
+"There is a hitch in the proceedings. The girl is softhearted, and
+begged hard for their lives."
+
+"She is a fool! By Heaven, I am half inclined to do the deed myself
+with this dagger."
+
+"In which case Toro would probably do for you."
+
+"What, is he turned craven?"
+
+"No; but he is sweet on Theodora, and for her sake is inclined to spare
+them."
+
+Hunston knew well enough that all this was false, as, unless certain
+conditions were promptly complied with, Toro would certainly kill both
+of them without the slightest hesitation or compunction.
+
+But he did not tell Diana.
+
+"But," he continued, "what is your idea of vengeance?"
+
+"I would wring other hearts as mine has been wrung. I would cause
+blinding tears to dim the brightness of other eyes besides mine. I
+would cause the stern judge Death to pass a decree of divorce upon
+others besides myself and Mathias. When Harkaway is a widower, or his
+wife a widow, then I shall consider my vengeance partly accomplished."
+
+"Humph! for a woman you are tolerably moderate. I shall not be
+satisfied till the Harkaways and the Harveys are destroyed root and
+branch-till the other accursed detective, Nabley, his American friend
+Jefferson, the negroes, the wooden-legged ass Mole, till every one of
+the party is swept away out of my path. Harkaway taught me to hate, and
+I swear by all the eternal powers of earth, heaven, and hell, he shall
+see how I have profited by the lesson."
+
+Diana was silent for a few moments; then, with something like a sneer,
+said--
+
+"You are a brave man--in words, Signor Hunston."
+
+"My acts speak for themselves."
+
+"And little have they said for some time past. But listen; I have sworn
+a deep and deadly revenge."
+
+"Well."
+
+"This evening I depart."
+
+"Good."
+
+"When I return again, you may expect to hear that Harkaway is dead or
+his wife."
+
+The excited woman glided away, and Hunston, after smoking a cigarette,
+followed her.
+
+"Good?" chuckled Hunston to himself, "I could not have a better ally
+than that woman; for she can go where I dare not show myself, and will
+find opportunities for carrying out her plans unsuspected. Beware,
+Harkaway! for though I have waited years for revenge, it is now within
+my grasp."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE HARKAWAYS LEARN ALL--MR. MOLE EXPLAINS AND GETS INTO
+TROUBLE IN CONSEQUENCE.
+
+
+Words cannot describe the trouble of the Harkaway family at the loss of
+young Jack and his stout-hearted comrade, Harry Girdwood.
+
+At first their indignation had been so great, that their first impulse
+was to use violent means to effect the recovery of the boys.
+
+But the first person to oppose this was Jack Harkaway himself.
+
+"If we were to attack them in force," he said, "it would be imprudent
+upon every hand. In the first place they would have the advantage of
+us, of course, in a mountain skirmish."
+
+"I don't know that they would get the best of it," said Harvey.
+
+"Nor I," said Jefferson.
+
+"We can do nothing at present as far as I can see," said Harkaway.
+"Only wait."
+
+"To what end?"
+
+"Their object must be plunder--money--ransom."
+
+"Supposing that they demand a sum?"
+
+"I shall pay it as soon as ever I can rake it up. If it is more than I
+possess in the world," said Jack Harkaway, seriously, "then I shall
+borrow of my friends to make it up."
+
+The poor fellow turned away to hide his emotion.
+
+"What guarantee have you that they would give up the boys for the
+ransom?"
+
+"None. But I should not send the money first. They would have to send
+the boys here first."
+
+"They might doubt you."
+
+"Why, yes. But Hunston and Toro are with them, and they know that Jack
+Harkaway's word is his bond, no matter with whom he is dealing, let
+them be the veriest scum on the face of the earth."
+
+"Which they are."
+
+"Which they are, as you say."
+
+"Very good," said Jefferson. "Now I don't want to play the part of the
+wet blanket, and to dash your hopes to the ground before they are half
+formed, but I wish to guard against running away upon a false track."
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"All your hopes of ransoming the boys rest now upon the fact of Hunston
+and Toro being with the brigands."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well," added Jefferson, "how do you know that Hunston and Toro are
+really in the band? You only suppose that."
+
+"I can answer positively for that," said a voice at the door.
+
+They turned.
+
+There stood Nabley, the detective.
+
+"Nabley!"
+
+"Nabley here!"
+
+"Himself," said the indefatigable officer, coming forward. "Hunston is
+with the brigands, very much with them, in fact."
+
+"That we know," said Harkaway, who then related the death of Pike, and
+the supposed abduction of young Jack.
+
+"I have been very ill," said Nabley. "I fainted in the street, and, in
+falling, severely injured my head. But do you know how that Hunston
+finds out all about you and your doings?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, it is through one of your own household."
+
+"Explain," said Harkaway.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Harvey.
+
+"I can't talk much; Mr. Mole will tell you perhaps better. Here, Mr.
+Mole."
+
+Mr. Mole stepped forward, looking just a little sheepish.
+
+"Mr. Mole!"
+
+"Mr. Mole!" exclaimed a dozen voices in chorus.
+
+"Yes, my friends," said the old gentleman, stepping forward with his
+well-known modesty, "it is even so; your much-wronged Mole."
+
+"Tell us how it occurred," said Harkaway.
+
+"I was down in the dancing garden, seated in a species of small summer
+house, taking a glass of--I mean a cup of tea--ahem!--when I fell
+asleep--I dozed, in fact."
+
+"You would," said Harvey. "I've often noticed that you doze after a
+glass of--I mean a cup of tea."
+
+Mole glared at the speaker.
+
+"The heat of the day quite overcame me."
+
+"It would," said Dick, in the same compassionate manner.
+
+"When I woke up, I heard two persons conversing close by the green
+arbour where I sat."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Two familiar voices."
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed Harkaway, eagerly.
+
+"Now guess," said Mole, "who the two familiar voices belonged to?"
+
+"Can't."
+
+"Out with it."
+
+"One of the voices," said Mr. Mole, "was Hunston's, the other was--"
+
+"Toro's?"
+
+"No."
+
+"No! Whose then?"
+
+"Marietta's."
+
+"Marietta--what, the maid here?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Impossible."
+
+"Was it, egad? I thought so, but I am not easily mistaken."
+
+"Unless you dreamt."
+
+"Bah!" exclaimed Mr. Mole, with ineffable contempt; "fiddlesticks!"
+
+"But did you suppose she was in league with Hunston?" demanded Emily
+with great eagerness.
+
+"No."
+
+"What then?"
+
+"He was bamboozling her, twisting her round his finger, as one might
+say. He had got up a casual chat, persuading her that he was a private
+friend of yours, so he pumped and pumped her about the boys, where they
+went, and so forth."
+
+"And did she say any thing that could serve him in his vile purpose?"
+asked Mrs. Harkaway.
+
+"Plenty to help them, the miscreants, I suppose."
+
+"The girl must be a downright idiot to get into conversation with a
+strange man after all that has taken place, and after all the danger
+which she knows they ran."
+
+"Not far short of it," said Jefferson.
+
+"He spoke particularly about the boys not venturing out to the
+mountains, that they were permitted only to sail about in their boat,
+and--"
+
+Harkaway broke in here with an exclamation that startled them all.
+
+"That explains all," he said. "All, all, I see it now."
+
+"Do you? Explain."
+
+"They have put out to sea and taken the boys, perhaps by stealth,
+perhaps by violence."
+
+"Likely enough."
+
+"Poor boys, poor boys!"
+
+"And where did all this take place?" demanded Jefferson; "in one of the
+public promenades, did you say?"
+
+"Mr. Jefferson," replied old Mole saucily, "you want your nose filed. I
+said in the dancing garden."
+
+"Oh, de dancing garden, was it, Massa Ikey?" said a voice in his ear,
+which caused him to palpitate nervously.
+
+It was Mrs. Mole.
+
+When he had spoken of the dancing garden, he had not noticed his better
+half's presence.
+
+"Yes, my dear," he said timidly, trying to look dignified the while
+before the company.
+
+"And what was you--doing in such a place as a dancing garding, Mister
+Mole, sar?" demanded his dusky rib, in a voice which sounded dangerous.
+
+"I went, my dear, to study character," said Mr. Mole timidly....
+
+"What?" thundered Mrs. Mole.
+
+He trembled, and faltered something almost inaudibly.
+
+"Studyin' character," said the lady with great contempt; "losing your
+character, you silly old pump--"
+
+"My dear," remonstrated the old gentleman.
+
+"Don't 'my dear' me," said Mrs. Mole; "you're gwine off your silly old
+cokernut, you bald-headed old coon."
+
+"Mrs. Mole!"
+
+"You go to dat dancin' garding for to see dem gals jump about and dance
+and make fools ob demselves, ignorant critters."
+
+"No such thing, I tell you," said Mole, indignantly.
+
+"Oh, yes, it is," said his better half, "and you's a bushel more
+indelicate dan dey is, you silly old possum."
+
+This started the company off generally in a noisy fit of laughter,
+before which poor Mole was forced to beat a retreat, followed by his
+irate partner.
+
+"Poor Mole," said Jefferson, laughing heartily, "it is an unlucky
+admission for him. Chloe will give it to him sorely for this, I'm
+afraid."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They went deeply into the question of ransoming the boys, for they were
+convinced that they had really fallen into the hands of the brigands.
+
+But do what they would, say what they would, they could only come back
+to one result.
+
+They must wait.
+
+Patience was difficult under the circumstances, but there was no help
+for it.
+
+"Wait till to-morrow," said Jefferson; "it is a hard job, I know, but I
+feel certain that if the boys are with the brigands, to-morrow morning
+will bring a message from them."
+
+"But can nothing be done meanwhile?" said Emily.
+
+"No."
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"Stay; you may get some papers printed and circulated everywhere,
+offering a heavy reward for the recovery of the boys."
+
+"To what end?"
+
+"It can do no harm, and may do good. At any rate, it will show the
+brigands that we are ready to pay the piper for our boys' sake."
+
+"That's true," said Jefferson.
+
+"Let's do it," said Harkaway, who was pacing up and down impatiently;
+"at any rate, any thing is better than remaining inactive."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+A HOUSE OF MOURNING--THE LETTER FROM THE ENEMY--A STRANGE
+CORRESPONDENCE--THE INCIDENT AT THE OPEN WINDOW--HUNSTON'S
+REVENGE--DESPAIR.
+
+
+It was as Jefferson had predicted.
+
+The notices were printed and circulated everywhere by well-chosen and
+energetic agents.
+
+Early next morning, a letter was found fastened to the garden gate.
+
+It was brought to Harkaway, who was already up and busy.
+
+He tore it eagerly open, and found the following written in a disguised
+handwriting and in English--
+
+"TO Mr. JOHN HARKAWAY:
+
+"If you would save the lives of your son and your _protege_, his
+companion, the only way to do it is to bring the sum of five hundred
+pounds sterling to the stone cross by the old well at two o'clock this
+afternoon. Those who have the two boys in their keeping will be on the
+watch. Come along, as you value your happiness and their safety."
+
+"Not very likely," said Jack Harkaway.
+
+Instead of complying with this very shallow request, he wrote an answer
+in these terms:
+
+"TO HUNSTON AND HIS FELLOW-VILLAINS:
+
+"Send the lads back here. Within half-an-hour of their return, the
+money shall be sent to where you will and when you will. This I
+promise, and swear upon my honour. None knows better than yourself that
+this may be implicitly relied upon.
+
+                                      "HARKAWAY."
+
+This letter he sent by a trusty messenger to the spot appointed for the
+meeting place, and they waited impatiently for the further result.
+
+It was not long coming.
+
+Before two o'clock, Marietta discovered another letter tied to the
+garden gate, but how it came there they were unable to decide.
+
+Be that as it may, it was soon discovered to be of the highest
+importance to them in the present state of affairs.
+
+It was brief and startling, and ran as follows--
+
+"We do not bandy words with you. We offer our conditions. You refuse.
+Well and good. The consequences be upon your own head. If the money be
+not paid by four to-day, at six the boys will lose an ear each."
+
+"The villains!" cried poor Harkaway. "Oh, villains!"
+
+But he was powerless to help them.
+
+He knew well enough that, do what he would, he could not hope to get
+the boys back without paying, and paying through the nose too.
+
+Nor indeed did he desire to try to achieve this.
+
+The only question was, would they deliver up their prisoners, once they
+had received the five hundred pounds?
+
+Perhaps.
+
+Perhaps not.
+
+If not, they would be in as much peril as they were already.
+
+Nay, more.
+
+He guessed shrewdly enough that once they had received such a handsome
+sum as five hundred pounds, they would think that they had drained him
+dry, or as nearly so as it was possible to arrive at, and so might make
+short work of young Jack and Harry Girdwood.
+
+What was to be done?
+
+He could not say.
+
+He would gladly have risked all that he possessed in the world for the
+chance of having his boys back.
+
+Aye, his boys, for Harry Girdwood was second only in Harkaway's
+affection to young Jack.
+
+But he did not wish to reward the miscreants for ill-treating the
+unfortunate lads.
+
+At length he came to the conclusion that he would persist in his
+resolve to have the boys back before he parted with any money at all.
+
+Accordingly he wrote another note to the brigands.
+
+This he dispatched by the same means as the former note.
+
+"Release the two lads. Restore them to us, and the ransom of a king
+shall be yours. Fix upon any sum, however great, provided that it be
+within my means to pay it, and you shall not ask twice. Moreover, I
+shall do nothing more to molest you or interfere with you in any way.
+Play false, or harm a hair of my boys' heads, and beware. You may know
+that Jack Harkaway is not the man to make an enemy of."
+
+The answer to this was not long in coming.
+
+An ugly scrawl upon a dirty piece of paper, and with it was a small
+parcel.
+
+"We despise your threats, and laugh you to scorn. That you may know how
+little we are to be trifled with, we send you their ears in proof that
+we have kept our word. By this hour to-morrow the two boys die, unless
+you pay down the sum as fixed upon by us, both in manner and in
+amount."
+
+Jack Harkaway turned faint and sick.
+
+He dared nor open the parcel which accompanied the letter.
+
+He sent for Jefferson and Harvey, and unable to trust himself to speak,
+he placed the letter in the latter's hands.
+
+"Read, read," he said, with a horror-stricken look.
+
+Harvey glanced down the letter, and his countenance fell as he passed
+it on to Jefferson.
+
+"What is to be done?"
+
+"I don't know," replied Jefferson; "I am at a loss. This is too
+horrible."
+
+"What do you say, Dick?"
+
+Harvey hung his head.
+
+"Speak, Dick. Tell me, old, friend, what I ought to do," said Harkaway,
+imploringly. "I am bewildered--dazed--at my wits' end. What ought I to
+do?"
+
+"Pay the money."
+
+Accordingly the money, all in gold, was placed in a bag in the spot
+which they had indicated in the first note addressed by the brigands to
+Jack Harkaway.
+
+This done, they awaited the result.
+
+It soon came.
+
+Too soon for the latter's peace of mind.
+
+As the family and their friends were seated in moody silence and in
+sorrow around the dinner-table, so strong was the sense of oppression
+upon everyone that they only conversed in whispers.
+
+"The heat is really overpowering," said Mrs. Harkaway.
+
+"Shall I open the window?"
+
+"If you please."
+
+He hastened to comply with her request, when at that very instant
+something shot past him into the room.
+
+It fell with a clatter upon the table, and cannoned off a dish on to
+Jack Harkaway, striking him a rather sharp blow in the chest.
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"Hullo!"
+
+"A stone."
+
+"Yes, a stone with a paper wrapped round it."
+
+"So it is."
+
+"A letter, I should think," suggested Dick.
+
+"If so," said Harkaway, smiling sadly, "it is evidently meant for me."
+
+"You have a striking proof of that," said Dick.
+
+Harkaway undid the paper and scanned it through.
+
+His countenance fell as he read on.
+
+His pale face grew pallid, and rising from his seat, he ran, or rather
+staggered, to the window.
+
+"Gone!"
+
+"What is the matter?" demanded Dick, jumping up.
+
+"See after the man who threw this letter in," exclaimed Harkaway. "Come
+with me--come, come immediately!"
+
+And with this somewhat wild exhortation, he tottered out of the room,
+followed by Dick.
+
+Everybody arose from the table in confusion.
+
+Dismay, alarm, was depicted in every face.
+
+"What can it be?" ejaculated Mrs. Harkaway. "Oh, Mr. Jefferson, go and
+see, and bring me the news."
+
+"I will. Calm yourself, my dear Mrs. Harkaway; it is very likely to be
+good news which thus agitates poor Jack."
+
+Away he went.
+
+"I fear it is the reverse," said Emily, shaking her head.
+
+Jefferson overtook Harkaway and Dick Harvey in the gardens, where an
+active search was going forward after the man, or individual of either
+sex, who could have thrown the stone with its strange letter.
+
+"Let me see the letter, Jack."
+
+The latter placed it in his hand, and then, to Jefferson's horror and
+dismay, he found it contained the following words--
+
+"TO HATED HARKAWAY.
+
+"I have had years and years of patience, and my turn has come at last.
+As your eyes glance at these lines, your boy is vainly supplicating for
+mercy. Before you reach the signature at foot, your accursed brat will
+be dead--mark that--dead! No power on earth can save him. Had you sent
+the money demanded as his ransom more promptly, you could have saved
+him. May the knowledge of this wring your heart as you have wrung mine
+in bygone years.
+
+                                   "HUNSTON."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+A HOUSE OF MOURNING--HARVEY'S RESOLVE--A TIME OF
+TROUBLE.
+
+
+"Horrible!" cried Jefferson; "horrible!"
+
+Dismay and terror were on every face.
+
+The dreadful news paralysed their movements, and rendered them
+momentarily helpless.
+
+Dick Harvey was the first to break the silence.
+
+He sprang to his feet, and made for the grounds, motioning the others
+to follow him.
+
+"Let us try and catch the postman," he exclaimed; "if we get hold of
+him, we may learn something worth knowing."
+
+"Bravo!" responded Jefferson; "a capital idea."
+
+They were flying all over the grounds immediately.
+
+But the result may be guessed in advance.
+
+Not a sign was there of the bearer of this alarming letter.
+
+They gave up the search only when there was not the faintest vestige of
+a hope left, and crestfallen and disappointed, they returned to the
+house.
+
+"Come," said Dick to the bold American; "we must move; we must be
+stirring."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"For several reasons," replied Dick, "but firstly for the purpose of
+giving Jack something to do. It will never do to let a man in his
+condition brood."
+
+They sought poor Harkaway again, and led him off to hold a
+consultation.
+
+"Jack," said Harvey, brusquely, "you must not give way to despondency.
+I say positively, must not. You will certainly undermine your health."
+
+"Do not fear for me, Dick," returned Harkaway, "I shall be better for a
+little quiet."
+
+"Indeed you'll not. Besides, it is not just to the boys."
+
+Harkaway's lips quivered, and a big lump rose in his throat.
+
+He swallowed it with considerable difficulty, and silently wrung Dick's
+hand.
+
+"Don't, don't, old friend," he faltered, in a broken-hearted voice. "I
+can't bear the mention of their names. Poor boys! poor boys!"
+
+"But you must," insisted Harvey. "I don't mean to leave them in the
+lurch."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"What I say. We must not give up the search."
+
+"Ah, Dick, you would persuade me, if you can't persuade yourself."
+
+"You are wrong," replied Harvey. "I have the deepest conviction on the
+point."
+
+"To what effect?"
+
+"That they live--both live."
+
+Jack Harkaway looked positively frightened at this reply.
+
+"Dick, Dick," he exclaimed, mournfully, "what are you saying, old
+friend?"
+
+"What I mean. They yet live," returned Harvey boldly.
+
+"No, no."
+
+"But I say, yes, yes."
+
+"I should rather say that they were murdered long before we received
+their last message."
+
+"Come, come, Jack," he said; "rouse yourself, man. Whatever can make
+you believe this to be true?"
+
+"The letter."
+
+Dick laughed at this.
+
+"That is the very first thing to raise my doubts," replied Dick. "Why,
+we have known Hunston all his life, and never found him any thing but
+the most notorious liar."
+
+"True; but--"
+
+"He told lies as a boy--lies as a youth--lies as a man. His life has
+been one long lie, and yet you choose to make yourself wretched and all
+of us too upon the strength of such a vagabond's word. Bah!"
+
+Harkaway hung his head and sighed.
+
+"That is not all, Dick," he said; "I have the direst presentiment upon
+me--"
+
+"Presentiment!" ejaculated Dick, interrupting him.
+
+"Well, Jack, I will not quarrel with you about presentiments, since I
+am urged on to what I am about to say and do by presentiments--only my
+presentiments are of the most hopeful description."
+
+"Dick," said Harkaway, looking him straight in the face, "you are
+trying to deceive me."
+
+"I swear I am not," retorted Harvey, with warmth. "And you shall soon
+see whether or not I am in earnest."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that I am going to fetch the boys."
+
+"What wildness are you talking, Dick? What is this?"
+
+"Simply that to-morrow at daybreak I shall start off on the search."
+
+"Whither?"
+
+"To the mountains."
+
+Harkaway looked frightened at this.
+
+"Not to trust yourself in the brigands' clutches?"
+
+"I mean to beard the tigers in their lair," echoed Dick firmly; "not a
+word, Jack," he added, as he saw Harkaway about to interrupt him, "not
+a word; the worthy Richard Harvey will not go, but his spirit in
+another skin will go."
+
+"You are never going to trust yourself in a disguise."
+
+"I am."
+
+"Why, Dick, old friend, were you that unhappy man Protean Bob himself,
+Hunston would penetrate your disguise; the eye of hate--"
+
+"Nonsense. If I were Protean Bob, Hunston would be too glad not to
+recognise me."
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+"Now, Jack, you must listen to me, and not give advice. My
+determination is taken; nothing can shake it. Hilda and the family
+generally must suppose that I have gone to the port to arrange about
+our departure, since they all appear to be so thoroughly bent upon
+leaving here."
+
+"But they will never believe a word about it."
+
+"That I can not help, but at all events I leave here to-morrow, at
+daybreak, and may the shade of one of their victims aid me to throw
+dust in the eyes of Hunston and the Italian villain Toro."
+
+"Amen," said Harkaway, seriously.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Surely enough, at daybreak, someone set forth from the villa, but
+although we who are behind the scenes can give a shrewd guess at who it
+was, the early wanderer looked about as unlike Dick as you could well
+imagine.
+
+Was it indeed Dick?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE SILK DRESS--MURDER!
+
+
+The morning after the interview between Hunston and the widow of
+Mathias, that woman was missing from the camp.
+
+No one doubted that she had gone on her errand of vengeance, for
+Hunston had told Toro and one or two others of her threats against the
+Harkaways; but the question was how and when she did so?
+
+No one knew.
+
+The sentinels who all night long had guarded each known path leading to
+or from the bivouac were questioned, but neither of them had seen her
+depart.
+
+Toro was rather annoyed at this; not that he had any great objection to
+her slaughtering the whole of the Harkaway family, although he
+certainly would prefer to perform that task himself. But he could not
+help thinking that a secret path might admit foes, as well as permit
+the exit of friends.
+
+However, we must leave Toro to his reflections, and follow the
+brigand's widow.
+
+It was between one and two in the morning when she quitted the bivouac
+without being observed, and walked slowly towards the town where the
+Harkaways were located.
+
+There was no occasion for hurry.
+
+At that hour of the morning she could not hope to gain admittance to
+the house where her foes were located.
+
+A day must pass, and evening come again, before any thing could be
+done.
+
+Diana's brain was in a whirl.
+
+Deep-seated, poignant grief for the loss of one whom she had loved with
+all the passion her impetuous nature was capable of, made the thought
+and hope of revenge grow stronger and stronger.
+
+Vengeance! aye, and a terrible one was what her soul craved.
+
+Let once the deadly blow be stricken, and what matter then even if she
+fell into the hands of the authorities? What matter even if her life
+was pronounced a forfeit to the law? for life now had little charm for
+her.
+
+As the sun rose, she sat down a little way out of the road and tried to
+form some connected plan for carrying out her purpose.
+
+But no! her brain was too confused for deep thought, and after a brief
+interval she resolved to act upon no plan whatever, but simply do as
+the course of events might dictate.
+
+At about the hour when she thought the inhabitants of the town would
+begin to stir, Diana walked into the place.
+
+She knew the residence of the Harkaways well, but scarcely glanced at
+it as she passed and proceeded to a little house not far from it,
+where, according to an inscription over the door, one might obtain
+food, drink and lodging.
+
+Entering this place, Diana made a slender meal, and then, telling the
+ancient dame who kept the house that she was fatigued, demanded to be
+shown where she could repose for an hour or two.
+
+The old woman ushered her into a small, meanly-furnished apartment at
+the front of the house.
+
+"Do not disturb me. I will rest till noon if not later," said Diana.
+
+"You shall not be interrupted," was the response, and Diana was left
+alone.
+
+She tried to sleep, so that she might be stronger and cooler for the
+business she had in hand; but the excitement under which she laboured
+effectually chased away drowsiness.
+
+A little after noon the woman of the house looked in, and finding her
+lodger awake, entered into conversation, commencing by suggesting some
+refreshment.
+
+Diana shook her head.
+
+"Ah, my food is very plain and humble," said the old woman. "I can't
+give you such dainties as the people over yonder eat."
+
+She jerked her thumb in the direction of the Harkaway residence.
+
+"What people are they?" asked Diana, with an assumed indifference she
+was far from feeling.
+
+"Some English."
+
+"Do they, then, eat and drink the best?"
+
+"The very best; oh, they are rich."
+
+"What do they want here?"
+
+"They have come to destroy the brigands; is it not droll?"
+
+"Ha! have they succeeded?"
+
+"No; but if they are not careful, the brigands will destroy them. They
+are so careless."
+
+Diana was afraid to exhibit too much interest in the doings of the
+Harkaways, lest she should arouse suspicion.
+
+So she simply nodded, and listened most anxiously to what the garrulous
+old woman would say next.
+
+"So very careless; anyone might get into their house by the side door,"
+said the ancient dame.
+
+"Well, it is their own fault if they are robbed."
+
+"True. But it would be little credit to the robber; they think the
+brigands are afraid to enter the town, so they don't take many
+precautions."
+
+Diana treasured up every word of this.
+
+Presently the old woman, finding her guest was not conversationally
+inclined, went out again, and Diana was left alone.
+
+The sun set, and darkness began to gather rapidly when she went out,
+and after going a little way down the street, returned, and sought the
+side door of Harkaway's house.
+
+She turned the handle softly and entered.
+
+There was no one in the kitchen where she found herself, but the
+subdued noise of knives and forks in another apartment convinced her
+that they were at dinner or some other meal.
+
+Diana, as soon as she had ascertained that fact, glided like a spectre
+up the stairs, and noiselessly examined various bedchambers.
+
+At length she decided on hiding herself in one which seemed better
+furnished than the others.
+
+"This must be it," she thought.
+
+And she was right.
+
+It was the apartment of Mrs. Harkaway.
+
+On the dressing-table was a folded paper.
+
+Diana opened it, and found that it was a milliner's bill against Mrs.
+Harkaway.
+
+"For making a pearl-grey silk dress, etc., etc."
+
+To hide herself was Diana's next move.
+
+Clutching her sharp dagger firmly in her hand, the vengeful woman
+concealed herself behind some tapestry and waited.
+
+Nor had she long to wait.
+
+A light foot was heard without.
+
+The door was opened, and a second afterwards, a graceful female form
+was seated before the mirror, with its back towards Diana.
+
+And a female voice said--
+
+"This pearl-grey silk suits my complexion far better than I thought it
+would. But it fits me badly. These Greek milliners are not to be
+compared with those of London or Paris."
+
+Then the wearer of the pearl-grey silk heaved a deep sigh, and Diana
+softly moved the curtain aside a little to get a view of the person who
+had spoken.
+
+The face was not visible, but from the figure generally, Diana had not
+the slightest doubt it was Mrs. Harkaway.
+
+"I want some new jewellery sadly," continued "pearl-grey silk;" "but
+yet, after all, it would be scarcely safe to wear it here, while the
+brigands are in the neighbourhood. But they will soon be done for."
+
+The widow glided out from her hiding-place as the wearer of the silk
+dress continued--
+
+"We have one villain safe enough, and another, Mathias, was smothered
+in a chimney--ha, ha, ha, ha--oh!"
+
+The laugh ended in a deep groan, and never more came the slightest
+sound from those lips that a moment before had been so merry.
+
+Diana had struck so hard and surely that no second blow was needed, for
+the first pierced a human heart.
+
+"That laugh was an insult to the memory of my dead husband," she said.
+"Let none dare scoff at Mathias."
+
+Like a shadow, she glided away, leaving the wearer of the pearl-grey
+silk sitting motionless before the mirror. Dead!
+
+The silk dress soaked with her heart's blood.
+
+A few minutes later, some one entered Mrs. Harkaway's apartment, and
+then arose the fearful cry--
+
+"Help! murder!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+YOUNG JACK IN TROUBLE--THE COUNCIL--DOOM OF THE BOYS--A
+SOLDIER'S GRAVE AT DAYBREAK.
+
+
+Young Jack and Harry Girdwood, who by their friends are supposed to
+have been grievously ill-treated, found themselves dragged by rough and
+brutal hands to a considerable distance from the shore where they had
+unfortunately landed.
+
+The boy whom young Jack had rescued, and who decoyed them to their
+ruin, disappeared at once.
+
+"Jack," said Harry Girdwood, when recovered from the first shock, "we
+are done for."
+
+"No mistake about that," returned young Jack, gloomily.
+
+"Well, well, it is no fault of ours; that is some consolation."
+
+"A precious poor consolation, since here we are."
+
+"Yes."
+
+Here they were interrupted by their captors.
+
+"Move on!"
+
+The voice was Hunston's, and that sufficed for young Jack to show signs
+of opposition.
+
+Vain obstacle.
+
+The ruffians were only glad of the slightest pretext for further
+brutality.
+
+"We are quite comfortable where we are," said young Jack.
+
+"Insolent brat!" said Hunston contemptuously. "You shall be birched
+well for that."
+
+The colour mounted to the boy's face in spite of himself.
+
+"You can threaten in safety, fellow," said young Harkaway, turning and
+facing their old enemy, "since you have so many backers to protect
+you."
+
+Hunston grew livid.
+
+"You wretched spawn of a hated race," he ejaculated between his teeth,
+"do you dare speak to me?"
+
+"There is not much daring required," retorted Jack, boldly.
+
+The words were barely uttered when Hunston dealt the boy a buffet which
+nearly sent him to the earth; but young Jack was pretty prompt in
+returning it.
+
+This was a kind of debt which the Harkaways were not long in
+acquitting.
+
+Quick as lightning recovering himself, he turned and leapt upon
+Hunston, and taking him unexpectedly, he toppled him over and fell upon
+him, clutching him by the throat.
+
+"Now I'll show you what it is to lay your dirty ringers on a Harkaway,"
+exclaimed the boy, glaring into the other's face.
+
+"Let go, or--"
+
+"My father trounced you before he was my age" cried the boy excitedly,
+"and now I'll finish you that you--"
+
+But he was not allowed to complete his threat.
+
+Rough and muscular hands dragged him off.
+
+Else had Hunston fared badly.
+
+It was all momentary, but no sooner had the brigands perceived their
+comrade to be in danger than they seized hold of the young prisoner and
+dragged him off.
+
+Hunston sprang to his feet, and knife in hand rushed upon the boy, but
+the others interfered and placed themselves between the boy and the
+man.
+
+"Come, Hunston," said one of the men, "let him alone."
+
+"But he has struck me."
+
+"You provoked it."
+
+"What then? Shall I take a blow from such as he?"
+
+"You were wrong to strike a child--a child too that is unarmed."
+
+Hunston hung his head at this way of putting it.
+
+"No matter; he shall die for this."
+
+"Perhaps so; but meanwhile, there is possibility of ransom. The
+interests of the band can not be allowed to suffer for you."
+
+Hunston was silent.
+
+He sheathed his knife, but his silent resolves were not less murderous
+for being unuttered.
+
+"Lead the way, Simon," said the brigand who appeared to be chief
+spokesman.
+
+Simon stepped onward, and behind him young Jack and Harry were forced
+to march.
+
+They were walking into captivity, but they could not help themselves;
+and so they wisely obeyed, so as not to give their captors fresh excuse
+for further barbarity.
+
+The road which Simon led them was a gloomy and narrow defile that wound
+precipitously up among the hills.
+
+Sometimes the rocks overhung the road, so that the sky was barely
+visible, and here and there heaven was altogether obscured, for they
+had to walk through tunnels in the solid rock--too solid apparently to
+have been worked by the hand of man.
+
+On they walked upon the gloomy track, the silence only broken by the
+echo of their own footfalls.
+
+Any thing so desolate our boys had never beheld.
+
+A dull settled feeling of loneliness and despair fell upon the two boy
+prisoners.
+
+After journeying in this way for about two miles they came unexpectedly
+(to them--for of course Simon the guide knew where he was leading the
+party) upon a circular opening among the hills, beneath which was what
+appeared to be a table land of dark earth or peat.
+
+"A swamp," said Harry Girdwood.
+
+"It looks like a bog," said young Jack, "but yet I can see something
+moving."
+
+"It is water."
+
+"A lake."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"How black--how dismal it looks."
+
+It did, indeed.
+
+Silent and gloomy, like a table of metal, spread the darkling waters of
+this strange lake.
+
+Wild and desolate was it in the extreme.
+
+On every side it was enclosed by towering heights, bare, treeless and
+solemn.
+
+Both boys were plainly impressed with the dull solemnity of the scene.
+
+"What does that look like?" said young Jack, in a low voice to his
+companion.
+
+"I don't know--Lerna, the famous marsh, near Argos."
+
+"No; it was there that Hercules killed the Hydra, wasn't it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I should like to think that it was like that," he said, glancing
+around at the brigands about them.
+
+"And that you or we might emulate the example of Hercules."
+
+"Ah, yes."
+
+"But our enemies are more than hydra-headed."
+
+The other glanced eagerly about him before he spoke.
+
+"It is a question; I should almost sooner run a good deal of risk than
+be marched quietly off."
+
+Now at this present juncture there was a signal from the topmost hills,
+and upon a trumpet note being blown in answer by one of the brigands,
+dark, dusky forms appeared upon every side.
+
+Men sprang up in the rocky hills all round the dark waters of the lake,
+as promptly as the kilted savages responded to the summons of their
+chieftain, Rob Roy Macgregor Campbell.
+
+Whatever wild fancies the two boy prisoners might have had in their
+minds, this startling phenomenon effectually drove them away.
+
+And fortunate it was, too, for them.
+
+Hunston called a halt.
+
+The men were nothing loth.
+
+The road they had traversed was steep and rugged, and it had perhaps
+told less upon the two boy prisoners than upon any of the party.
+
+The brigands sat and refreshed.
+
+They made a hearty meal of cold meat and coarse bread and herbs, and
+they drank of their wine from the skins until their swarthy faces
+flushed purple; and whilst they feasted and made merry, the captives
+were constrained to look on--in envy perhaps--but not to share the
+banquet.
+
+Hunger fell upon them.
+
+But the boys guessed that their sufferings would only give pleasure to
+their captors, and so they kept their troubles in this particular to
+themselves.
+
+"Tighten your belt," said Harry Girdwood; "squeeze your stomach, Jack,
+and don't let these wolves see that we are peckish."
+
+"Not me."
+
+Taking the hint, Jack drew in a reef.
+
+The two young comrades were, in reality, not much improved by this
+movement; but they thought they were, and imagination goes a great way.
+
+But hunger is an intruder whose importunities there is no denying for
+any length of time, and so it fell out that, in spite of their brave
+and manful efforts at keeping up each other's pluck and spirit, he
+gnawed at their vitals in a way which reduced not only their stamina,
+but their spirits.
+
+"This is to be our prison," said Harry Girdwood gloomily; "I feared it
+would be."
+
+"It is rather like the Lethe than anything else," said young Jack,
+pointing to the silent water below. "If we remain here long, we shall
+forget all that has gone before, you may be sure. This is the place to
+drive us out of our wits more than any spot we could imagine."
+
+"Rather the Styx than the Lethe," said Harry; "banish all hope who
+enter here."
+
+It was indeed a spot to evoke gloomy reflections, and the boys were in
+a frame of mind to indulge in such.
+
+This place, they found, was fixed upon as the camp of the brigands, who
+had felt it imperative to change their headquarters, since they had
+positive proof that their old stronghold was known to their enemies.
+
+Here they were not in danger of surprise, for their men commanded every
+outlet, and it must be a rare chance to take them by surprise.
+
+Within a couple of hours of the arrival there of the two boy prisoners
+and their captors, the whole of the band sauntered down in twos and
+threes, until the vast host that they formed fairly amazed young Jack
+and his companion.
+
+"Let us fix a sum on them," said Toro, "so that their parents and
+friends may release them if they wish."
+
+This was approved of by one and all of his hearers.
+
+There was only a single dissentient voice.
+
+This was Hunston's.
+
+"If you attempt to temporise," he said, "you will be beaten, for sure."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Beaten by whom?"
+
+"Harkaway."
+
+"Bah!"
+
+"Such is my experience of him," returned Hunston.
+
+"Nonsense; why shouldn't we make sure of the money if we can?"
+
+"Why not?" said Hunston; "if we can, which I doubt."
+
+"Harkaway is a most affectionate parent, I know well," said Ymeniz; "I
+have heard it from a dozen different sources. Once let him know that
+his son and the other boy are in danger, and he will pay any money for
+their release."
+
+"Well." said Toro, "let us say five hundred pounds."
+
+"Five hundred?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Not enough."
+
+"How much is five hundred pounds?" demanded Ymeniz.
+
+"Twelve thousand, five hundred francs," replied Toro.
+
+"Very good, very good; a fair sum."
+
+"Is it not?"
+
+"How shall we claim it?"
+
+This question was put to the assembled council generally, and answered
+eagerly by Hunston.
+
+"Let me do that?"
+
+"Very good, Hunston; be yours that task."
+
+"But remember our old friend Tomaso is still in the power of these
+cursed English."
+
+Toro paused, and from all the band arose the unanimous cry--
+
+"Tomaso must be rescued or be avenged!"
+
+Hunston addressed himself to the business with considerable interest.
+
+It is not necessary for me to go through the correspondence which took
+place, nor to dilate upon the ingenious manner in which the letters
+were delivered by Hunston or his emissaries.
+
+With his wonted shrewdness, he watched for the result of his last
+threatening letter himself, and after making the most careful
+observations, he descended to the appointed spot and fetched the letter
+containing the money.
+
+The five hundred pounds were there, in five Bank of England notes of
+one hundred each.
+
+"Five hundred pounds," he said, his vicious eyes glistening as he
+touched the crisp new notes, "five hundred pounds! Heaven, what a sum!"
+
+He looked about him.
+
+He was alone.
+
+Not a soul in sight.
+
+"Why should I share it?" he said; "why should it not all be mine?"
+
+Why indeed?
+
+Because he feared his lawless companions.
+
+Nothing more.
+
+"I'll take up a hundred, one hundred," he muttered, half aloud, "and
+this shall serve a double purpose. The four hundred shall remain mine,
+and the one hundred theirs, But seeing that they can get nothing out of
+Harkaway, they will be the more easily worked upon, and I shall achieve
+all I want at one stroke; a noble notion."
+
+Back he went, and then began a comedy which Hunston went through like a
+veteran actor, a comedy that was destined to have a tragic finale.
+
+"Toro," said Hunston to the Italian, "to you I may speak as the leader
+of these brave fellows; also to you, comrades in general, I may talk
+without fear of my motives being in any way misconstrued."
+
+"Speak on."
+
+"Here is the reply of the cold-blooded Englishman Harkaway to my demand
+for ransom, and you are all my witness that I did not exact a very
+unreasonable sum."
+
+"No, no."
+
+"What says he?"
+
+"He sends this," returned Hunston, holding up a single hundred pound
+note: "one hundred pounds--two thousand, five hundred francs--in a
+word, one-fifth of the sum we demanded, and with it a letter."
+
+A murmur of indignation followed.
+
+"What does the letter say?" they demanded.
+
+"He defies us; he offers this sum, but says that if the boys are not
+released before sunrise, he will come and fetch them."
+
+"Let him come."
+
+"So say I; but what shall be done with the boys meanwhile?"
+
+A momentary silence followed; then came the deep stern words--
+
+"Let them die."
+
+This speaker was Toro.
+
+The Italian's words were eagerly caught up.
+
+"Aye, let them die; but when?"
+
+"When you will," said Hunston; "I care not, so that we are lid of them.
+We see clearly that there is no counting upon these Harkaway people for
+the ransom set down by us, however reasonable our demands may be."
+
+"True."
+
+"Then, I say, let them die to-day."
+
+"Impossible," said one of the brigands, stepping forth.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because the traitor, Lirico, is to die at daybreak; we can't have two
+executions so near to each other. Let them all die together."
+
+"Lirico," said Hunston, "and why has he to die? I haven't heard in what
+he has offended."
+
+"A hateful thing," was the reply of his informant; "Lirico has offended
+against the foundation rule of the band."
+
+"How?"
+
+"He has kept to himself the booty he has gained, and our law is that
+any member of the band who shall conceal his booty, or any part or
+fragment of the same, to the prejudice of his comrades and fellows
+shall die the death of a traitor."
+
+Hunston was silent.
+
+But had anybody been watching him closely then, they would have noticed
+that he changed colour.
+
+It was an unpleasant topic to tackle the English ruffian upon, after
+all that had just taken place.
+
+"Why so silent, comrade?" said an old brigand named Boulgaris, staring
+Hunston full in the face; "do you not approve?"
+
+"Of what?"
+
+"Of the law."
+
+"I--of course."
+
+"Of course you do," said Boulgaris boldly; "why, you would be the first
+to approve. Who could approve more of such a law than you, honest
+Hunston?"
+
+"Who, indeed?"
+
+Hunston winced under the cool scrutiny of the Greek.
+
+Did he know aught about what had taken place?
+
+The idea was utterly absurd.
+
+He (Hunston) had taken too much care that he was not observed for any
+vulgar pryer like Boulgaris to find a corner from which to spy upon his
+movements.
+
+Still it gave him a qualm.
+
+"Quite right," said Hunston, boldly; "quite right and just; any man who
+can play false to his fellows deserves to die the death."
+
+"Hear, hear! Let him die."
+
+"And the two boys shall die with him?" asked Boulgaris.
+
+"They shall, at daybreak."
+
+This was put to the assembled throng, and agreed to by all, when
+suddenly a single dissentient voice was heard.
+
+"They shall not die."
+
+The brigands looked up, and a boy appeared upon the scene, the boy who
+had lured the luckless lads to their present unlucky pitch.
+
+"Theodora."
+
+"Aye, Theodora," responded the boy--or rather girl--for a girl it was,
+as you have long since discovered, although in male attire.
+
+"And why shall they not die, Theodora?" asked Hunston.
+
+"Ask rather why they should die?" she said sadly. "What have they done
+to merit death?"
+
+"Hullo, hullo!" ejaculated Toro.
+
+"Why, whatever is the meaning of this change of tone? I thought that
+you, like all others, were most eager for revenge."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Why? Need I already remind you of the ample cause for vengeance which
+we all have?"
+
+"No," returned Theodora, calmly.  "But those boys are innocent of
+harm."
+
+"Then why did you lure them to their destruction?"
+
+The woman sighed.
+
+"Ah, why indeed?"
+
+"Yes, why?"
+
+"I was wicked, cruel, base, deceptive," she replied; "words cannot
+paint my wickedness. But I was punished for my badness by peril such as
+I have never yet known; and when really running a danger which I
+thought but to affect the better to lure our destined victims to their
+doom, I was rescued from the grave by them, by the very boys--brave,
+brave boys--whom I sought to destroy. Now," she added, turning bodily
+to the assembled brigands, "can you ask me why I have changed my tone?"
+
+A dozen voices were heard at once, and all uttered different
+sentiments.
+
+"These prisoners are mine by right," said Theodora, "for I have taken
+them, I have brought them here; it is for me to dispose of them."
+
+Some few of the brigands agreed to this; but the majority, overruled by
+Toro and Hunston, denied her jurisdiction altogether in the matter.
+
+The girl made a passionate appeal to the assembled brigands. But all in
+vain.
+
+They were resolved.
+
+It was put to the vote, and the result was easily foreseen.
+
+Death.
+
+Death by a majority of voices as of ten to one.
+
+"Death at the gibbet," exclaimed Hunston, triumphantly.
+
+"Aye, aye."
+
+"Nay," cried the girl, with superhuman energy, "these two poor boys
+have shown themselves better men than most here present. See how they
+bear their fate. Be men, then, and if they must die, let them die like
+soldiers."
+
+An animated discussion ensued on this, and finally it was agreed that
+the hapless boys should die next morning with the traitor Lirico.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+QUALMS--THE EVE OF THE END--A SAD VIGIL
+
+
+Hunston did not close his eyes throughout the night.
+
+The words of Boulgaris rang in his ear like a knell.
+
+Lirico was to die for concealing a part of the spoil which he had made.
+
+What of the four hundred pounds which he, Hunston, had kept back out of
+the sum fixed upon for the ransom of the two boys, and which Harkaway
+had deposited in the spot agreed upon?
+
+He knew the desperate men he had cast his lot with far too well to
+suppose for a moment that there could be any hope for him did they
+chance to discover his secret. Would they?
+
+The bare possibility of it made him shudder.
+
+His hand nervously sought the hidden notes, which were concealed in his
+chest, and the faintest rustle of the crisp new paper caused his cheek
+to pale.
+
+Once he dozed off, but barely were his eyes closed ere he was troubled
+by dreams that caused him to toss about and moan as if in great bodily
+pain, and when he awoke, he, dared not try to sleep again, so he arose
+and went to look at prisoners.
+
+The two unfortunate boys were awake, and talking to the now
+disconsolate author of all their troubles, the disguised girl whom they
+had lost themselves in saving.
+
+"Hullo, madam," exclaimed Hunston, brutally,  "what do you do here,
+talking with the condemned brats."
+
+"I am seeking to comfort them," replied the girl; "to prepare them for
+the butchers."
+
+"Butchers? Humph!"
+
+"I mean you and those who are persuaded by you."
+
+"No matter; you had better leave them now to themselves."
+
+"At whose command?" demanded the woman, drawing herself up proudly.
+
+"At mine," returned Hunston, who was fast losing his temper.
+
+"What, you dare!" ejaculated the girl, with flashing eyes.
+
+"Dare!" laughed Hunston. "Will you go away and leave the boys alone, or
+must I carry you away?"
+
+The girl's colour forsook her cheek, and she drew nearer to Hunston,
+and the latter, startled at her expression, drew back.
+
+"These unhappy boys are doomed to die at daybreak," she said, "but if
+you stay a moment longer to molest me or annoy them, I will summon the
+men and tell them that you would insult me and murder them."
+
+"It is false."
+
+"I know it," replied the woman, fiercely, "but do you suppose I would
+hesitate at that? And what would your life be worth?--what, I ask? Why,
+they would wait for no explanation; your presence here would be
+sufficient; they would tear you asunder. Begone, craven blackheart.
+Go."
+
+Hunston muttered something indistinctly, but he bent his head before
+the storm of this fierce woman's wrath and slunk away.
+
+She turned to the boys.
+
+"My poor fellows," she said, tenderly, her manner changing as if by
+magic, "my unfortunate, brave lads, what can I do for you?"
+
+"You have earned our gratitude," returned Harry Girdwood, "by the
+whipping you gave that cur."
+
+"Indeed you have," chimed in young Jack, with warmth.
+
+"How like a beaten hound he looked," said the woman. "But how can I
+ever hope to be forgiven by you?"
+
+"We have nothing to forgive."
+
+"Aye, but you have; you have saved my life and I take yours."
+
+"Not you."
+
+"I am the cause of it indirectly."
+
+"Perhaps; but at any rate the innocent cause."
+
+The girl's distress at this was painful to witness.
+
+She had conceived a great affection for the two boys, her youthful
+preservers, and she could not tell them how far she was guilty.
+
+She dare not avow that she had started out upon that risky trip to sea
+with the intention of simulating the peril which afterwards became too
+real, and so decoying the two boys as she had done.
+
+No; she dare not avow this.
+
+She had soon repented of her share in that black business.
+
+Soon--aye, but that soon was all too late.
+
+Too late!
+
+The thought wrung her heart, and she bent her head and wept.
+
+"This is very painful," said young Jack.
+
+"It is, Jack," said his comrade, in a broken voice. "I don't like to
+see a boy crying."
+
+They were still ignorant of their friend's real sex.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Don't you hear?"
+
+"I do; it sounds like some heavy instrument beating the earth close at
+hand."
+
+"Yes, like digging."
+
+The three started at the word.
+
+No sooner was it uttered than the meaning of it struck them all three,
+and sent a chill to their very hearts.
+
+Digging at that fatal hour, so short a time before daybreak, could have
+but one significance.
+
+Grave-making; and if the two hapless boys quailed at that awful sound,
+can we accuse them of cowardice?
+
+No.
+
+Assuredly not.
+
+Who amongst the bravest could listen to such a sound unmoved?
+
+To have been callous to such a thing would have shown them mere
+senseless logs, nothing more.
+
+"You know what that is?" she said, in a faint voice.
+
+"We do," responded Harry Girdwood.
+
+"And you?"
+
+This was to young Jack.
+
+"Yes."
+
+The reply of both was given in a grave voice, befitting such a solemn
+occasion.
+
+Yet their voices never trembled, never faltered.
+
+She understood them well, and her expression showed clearly as words
+the admiration she felt for their courage.
+
+"I am glad that you know the worst," she said, in a low but impressive
+tone, "for the unpleasant task of telling you is not left for me. Have
+you any thing to say before--"
+
+"No."
+
+"All that I would say," remarked young Jack, "that since they mean
+assassinating us, I hope that they will do their work cleanly, and not
+put us to the torture."
+
+"At the worst," added his companion, "we shall not give them the
+satisfaction of seeing us beg and pray for mercy."
+
+"It would be useless."
+
+"We know it."
+
+"And so shall not give them the chance of saying that two Englishmen
+showed the white feather."
+
+"Bravely spoken," said the girl, "but the night is growing old, and so
+listen to what I have to say."
+
+And then she made a communication which considerably startled them.
+
+At first they listened as though in a dream, for they could not believe
+in the reality of what she said, but they were not sorry to believe in
+its truth.
+
+The nature of this communication will appear later on.
+
+"And now," she said solemnly, "the time is short. I must insist upon
+your sleeping. Rest, and I will watch by your side. A friendly voice at
+least shall call you for the last dreadful trial of all."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE TRIPLE EXECUTION--A SOLDIER'S GRAVE--TORO'S LUCK.
+
+
+Morning dawned.
+
+The eastern sky was only just tinged with the light of the rising sun
+when the bugle call summoned the firing party.
+
+The party in question was composed of six men commanded by Hunston.
+
+He had insisted upon having this post, one that none of the brigands
+envied him--so that he might gloat over his victims at the last hour.
+
+The two boys were aroused with some difficulty, for strange though it
+may appear, they were sleeping soundly when the fatal moment
+approached.
+
+"Come," said the girl, in a hollow voice. "Lirico is already on the
+ground."
+
+"We mustn't be behindhand then."
+
+"No," added Harry Girdwood; "they must see how Englishmen can face
+death."
+
+And then, led by the girl who had, to her sorrow, brought them to this
+dire pass, they came to the spot where the tragedy was to take place.
+
+Lirico, the traitor, was already pinioned, and he stood with his eyes
+bandaged upon the edge of the grave which was shortly to receive his
+lifeless body.
+
+Upon either side of this was a newly-dug trench or grave.
+
+One of these was for young Jack.
+
+The other was for his stout-hearted comrade.
+
+They needed no telling what to do now; but each went through his part
+in the horrible ceremony as though it had been previously rehearsed.
+
+Not a word was spoken.
+
+The only signs of emotion which the boys exhibited were when they
+silently wrung each other's hands before taking their places before
+their graves.
+
+The girl passed before each of the unhappy victims and shook them by
+the hand one after the other. "Courage," she said, in a low but firm
+voice, "courage, brave hearts."
+
+"Bandage their eyes," said Hunston.
+
+"No; let us look upon our fate," said young Jack.
+
+"The old Harkaway brag to the very last," said Hunston, with a sneer.
+
+"You don't like to look a Harkaway in the face, assassin!" retorted the
+boy.
+
+"Fool!" exclaimed Hunston, "since you want it, you shall have it. Fire
+at the middle first. They can have an opportunity of seeing a real man
+die before their eyes. It may give them a relish for their own share to
+follow."
+
+The word was given.
+
+"Ready! Present! Fire!"
+
+The six rifles flashed simultaneously.
+
+Then, as the wounded Lirico was struck, he bounded into the air and
+fell back into the grave--stone dead!
+
+Hunston stood smiling grimly, even while the very men turned sick at
+the butchery they were forced to enact.
+
+He, with fiend-like satisfaction, noticed the sickly pallor of the two
+boys' faces, and it gladdened his black heart.
+
+"They aren't quite so happy now," he muttered. "Now it is they suffer.
+Oh, if Harkaway were here too. It would make me drunk with joy."
+
+The girl turned to young Jack.
+
+"Courage," she whispered, "courage; be bold."
+
+And then turning to the firing party, she said--
+
+"Come, do not delay. It is needless to prolong the sufferings which
+these poor boys feel already."
+
+"Silence, and begone!" exclaimed Hunston fiercely. "You have no right
+to speak to the men."
+
+"I have every right," returned the woman, boldly. "Silence yourself, I
+say, and know your place!"
+
+Her voice and manner half-awed Hunston, who fell back a pace or two.
+
+"My poor comrades," she went on, addressing the firing party, "this
+work is not to your taste. I'll load for you."
+
+So saying, she set to work to reload the rifles, which were piled now.
+
+And she observed the very greatest care in this task.
+
+"Not a shot must miss," she said to the men of the firing party,
+earnestly. "Every bullet must have its billet. We have to murder, but
+even then not to torture, these unhappy boys."
+
+Hunston smiled sardonically.
+
+"How very tender-hearted you have become," he said, with a sneer of
+contempt.
+
+"Silence!" said the girl, turning fiercely upon him, so that he
+actually quailed before her indignant gaze. "Silence, I tell you,
+bully--butcher--villain--silence!"
+
+Hunston would have retorted at this, but prudence bade him be silent.
+
+For the girl was a great favourite with all the men, and he feared that
+they might take up the cudgels for her in a way which might be
+unpleasant for him.
+
+"So, young Harkaway," he said, jeeringly, "you wish to see it all go
+before you. It prolongs your pleasure, and so I can't complain. This
+one next."
+
+He pointed with his sword to Harry Girdwood.
+
+The latter looked deadly pale but resolute.
+
+"Ready! Present! Fire!"
+
+Young Jack turned half round, and saw his brave comrade clap his hand
+to his breast, totter and fall.
+
+A cry rose to his lips.
+
+But he stifled it ere Hunston should have this small gratification.
+
+Hunston looked round at young Jack, and he positively bit his lips with
+sheer vexation to find that he was unable to make the boy betray the
+least sign of fear.
+
+"You keep it up well, boy," said Hunston, "but I know well that you are
+ready to sink through the ground with fear, nevertheless."
+
+"Liar!"
+
+Hunston flushed purple.
+
+But he kept down his rage.
+
+"As you are going to die, boy, I may let you off the birching which
+your impertinence merits. You have all the old brag of your father."
+
+Jack was silent.
+
+"All his deceit; all his sham and falseness--"
+
+The boy said nothing.
+
+"All his craven-hearted, black-hearted villany."
+ But young Jack saw through the other's game clearly enough.
+
+He held his peace.
+
+He knew well enough that the real way to enrage the ruffian was to
+appear unmoved at his taunts.
+
+So when Hunston had exhausted his expletives and was about to give the
+word to the firing party, young Jack spoke.
+
+"One moment."
+
+Hunston made the men a sign to ground arms.
+
+The boy was about to beg for mercy.
+
+Here, then, there was one chance of wreaking his spite upon the lad.
+
+Now he should be able to feast his ears with the unhappy boy's piteous
+appeals, for he well judged that, once he began to plead for pity, all
+his fortitude would go.
+
+"Before they fire," said young Jack, pale but resolute, as his comrade
+Harry had just shown himself, "one word."
+
+"Go on."
+
+"I can speak as one on the brink of the grave," said the boy, "and so
+my words may be prophetic. Before many weeks are over, you shall kneel
+and sue for mercy to my father, and it will be denied you. You will
+grovel in the dirt, and crawl and cringe in abject misery; but it will
+be hopeless, and in the bitterness of your despair you will think of
+this moment, and curse the hour you ever molested one of my race, or
+anyone in whom we are interested."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Hunston, in a boisterous and forced manner;
+"quite a sermon. Preaching is a new quality in the Harkaways. It is
+unfortunate that you are to be cut off in your early youth. You would
+soon bloom into an odd mixture of Puritan and bully."
+
+But he could not provoke his victim.
+
+Having said all he had to say, young Jack coolly folded his arms and
+waited the end of the tragedy, apparently not hearing what Hunston was
+saying.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Make ready! Present! Fire!"
+
+As the word was spoken, the volley was fired.
+
+The unhappy boy--the last of the three victims--threw up his arms, and
+fell back into the new-made grave yawning to receive him.
+
+Poor young Jack!
+
+The body did not even quiver after it had fallen into the grave.
+
+Apparently death had been instantaneous.
+
+"Fill in the graves and cover up the carrion," said Hunston; "and then
+let us get away and make merry."
+
+The girl stepped up and interposed herself.
+
+"Begone and leave the rest to me,"
+
+"To you?"
+
+"Aye."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"It was so agreed," said one of the men.
+
+"Let us pray for them now," said the girl. "Surely, having destroyed
+their bodies, you do not wish them any further harm."
+
+She waited for no reply, but falling upon her knees, was soon lost in
+holy meditation, her hands clasped fervently, her head bent upon her
+breast.
+
+The men doffed their hats reverently and glided noiselessly away.
+
+Hunston feared to shock their superstitious susceptibilities, and so he
+followed them in silence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For several hours she was left to her meditations.
+
+And when, some hours later in the day, Hunston returned to the spot,
+the three graves were filled in.
+
+Over those of the two unhappy lads some pious hands had raised a rough
+wooden cross.
+
+"The first to taste our vengeance," muttered Hunston.
+
+"May the others soon follow," said a voice at his elbow.
+
+He started.
+
+It was Toro.
+
+"This is the turn of our luck," said the Italian, exultingly.
+
+"I hope so."
+
+"I feel it so. The rest of the hated race will soon follow, if we have
+the least good fortune."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE BRIGAND'S RECRUIT--HUNSTON'S PERIL--DELICATE
+GROUND.
+
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Below; down that crevasse. Look again."
+
+"I see; it is Ymeniz."
+
+"It is, it is."
+
+The speakers were two of the brigands who were plying their lawless
+trade; and passing along a mountain ridge, a short time after the
+execution, they suddenly espied the body of a man lying flat upon his
+back.
+
+Upon his breast was something white, which they could not quite
+distinguish.
+
+The form and features, however, they had no particular difficulty in
+recognising.
+
+It was their comrade Ymeniz, they could see well.
+
+"He has fallen down there," said one to the other.
+
+"It looks so."
+
+Now, strange to relate, that although they said this to each other,
+they both had misgivings.
+
+The body lay in such a strange attitude.
+
+However, they soon proceeded to solve the problem, and set all doubts
+at rest.
+
+Passing down to a lower ridge by a circuitous path well known to them
+both, they reached the bottom of the crevasse.
+
+"He is dead--murdered!"
+
+"Hah!"
+
+"And here, by all the powers of evil!" exclaimed the brigand, "here is
+the confession of the murderer."
+
+"A confession!" exclaimed the brigand.
+
+"Yes. Take it," said the other, lifting the paper from the blood-stained
+breast of the slain Ymeniz, "take it and read for yourself."
+
+"Nay, you know I am no scholar; do you read it out to me."
+
+In a sonorous voice the brigand read the following document--
+
+"I, Jack Harkaway, proclaim war to the knife against the murderers of
+my boys. The villains Hunston and Toro will tell you all that I never
+threatened in vain. One of your number shall die daily until I have
+exterminated you root and branch. No amount of precaution upon your
+part can avert your doom. You claimed a ransom of five hundred pounds
+for my son. I have paid the sum demanded, and you have played me false;
+therefore, you die. To the last man you shall perish. You shall learn
+to look forward to your fate in fear and trembling; and day by day the
+survivors, anticipating their turn, shall learn to curse the hour that
+they were led to murder my two innocent boys. Beware!"
+
+The two brigands looked at each other half scared.
+
+"What of that, do you think?"
+
+The other looked nervously around him before replying.
+
+"It is grave."
+
+"Very."
+
+"Poor Ymeniz! he has been stabbed in the back."
+
+"No; here is the death wound below the heart."
+
+"Then he has not been taken by surprise."
+
+"Evidently."
+
+The two men made their way with all despatch to their camp, carrying
+the paper with them.
+
+The sensation it caused is indescribable when Boulgaris read it aloud
+to the assembled brigands.
+
+"Death to the Englishman Harkaway!" exclaimed one of the brigands,
+impetuously.
+
+The cry was caught eagerly up by all--save one.
+
+This one was Hunston.
+
+It was not that he hated Harkaway less intensely than his comrades that
+he remained silent.
+
+It was simply that in his fierce denunciation of the brigands, Harkaway
+had told about the money.
+
+Lirico was barely cold in his grave for an offence which, beside that
+of Hunston's, was a mere paltry pilfering.
+
+The secret was in great danger now.
+
+If they should believe Harkaway, then his (Hunston's) position was
+indeed critical. What should he do? What would be better than to cast
+doubt and derision upon Harkaway's dark menaces.
+
+"The man is a charlatan, a humbug," he said, curling his lip; "and his
+purpose is more than accomplished could he but know it, which he does
+not, I am glad to say. He would laugh rarely could he but know what an
+alarm you have taken at this message."
+
+But they would not let this pass unchallenged.
+
+"It is no joke, Hunston," said Boulgaris, seriously.
+
+"How do you know?" demanded Hunston, quickly.
+
+"The death of Ymeniz is proof enough. That is no joke."
+
+"True!"
+
+"Moreover, I for one feel sure that this Englishman Harkaway speaks
+truly."
+
+"How?"
+
+"In saying that he gave the ransom."
+
+"In full?"
+
+"In full."
+
+"Why, where, then, do you think it is?" demanded Hunston, with an
+assumption of boldness, yet trembling as he waited the reply.
+
+Boulgaris answered with a single word--
+
+"Stolen."
+
+A murmur ran round the assembled throng.
+
+"What!" cried one of the brigands, stepping forward; "is it possible
+that we have more thieves and traitors amongst us?"
+
+"Never!"
+
+"Death to all traitors, say I!"
+
+"And I."
+
+"And I."
+
+And so the cry went round from mouth to mouth.
+
+Hunston trembled for his very life.
+
+"Who can have stolen the money?" demanded one of the men, fiercely.
+
+"Who but he who was charged to fetch the money from the old well, the
+spot appointed--who but the comrade that fetched the money?"
+
+"Why," exclaimed Toro, turning to Hunston, "then it was--"
+
+He paused.
+
+Hunston turned heartsick as every eye was directed towards him.
+
+"Never!" exclaimed Hunston, fiercely.
+
+This was a critical moment for the latter.
+
+For awhile his life hung upon a very slender thread.
+
+Hunston, to begin with, was no favourite.
+
+But he was a lucky villain.
+
+At the very moment that matters were looking so very unpleasant, their
+attention was called off in another direction.
+
+"Do you hear that? The sentry is giving the alarm."
+
+They were all accustomed to danger, and were on the qui vive ere the
+alarm was fairly sounded.
+
+Pistols, knives, and blunderbusses were called into requisition.
+
+And all was ready to give an intruder a warm reception.
+
+Toro climbed up a crag and peered over.
+
+Then turning to the men, he motioned them to silence.
+
+"Hush! He comes this way. Back!"
+
+And then, at a sign from him, every man glided quickly, silently off,
+and concealed himself behind a rock, or bush, or wherever a favourable
+place was to be discovered.
+
+Then a stumbling noise was heard, and a man crept through a gap and
+hobbled on to the scene.
+
+He was a strange, wild-looking fellow, with long fair hair and eyebrows
+almost as light as an albino's.
+
+His cheeks were fair, but much sunburnt, and almost destitute of beard.
+
+He progressed with difficulty, and leant heavily upon a staff cut
+roughly from a tree, and from its green bark and slovenly-stripped
+branches only recently cut, too.
+
+He was apparently a young man, and if he progressed with so much
+difficulty, the natural inference was that fatigue and perhaps illness
+was the cause of it.
+
+He was dressed in a very tattered outlandish costume.
+
+He carried a long knife stuck in his waistband, but he had no arms
+beyond this.
+
+His arms were bare to the elbow, and the left one was bleeding from a
+flesh wound that did not look many hours' old.
+
+Evidently he was no milksop, for although the wound was pretty severe,
+the only care he had taken was to tie it loosely up with a strip of
+white rag.
+
+Perhaps he had lost blood and began to feel it, for, as he drew into
+the open, he dropped heavily down upon a rocky seat and gave a sigh or
+grunt of relief.
+
+"I'm not sorry to come to an anchor."
+
+He spoke in English.
+
+But if he thought to rest here in peace, he was destined to be
+disappointed.
+
+Barely had he stretched out his legs, when he was startled by a sound
+at his side, and glancing up, he found a huge, black-muzzled fellow
+towering above him and covering him with a long-barrelled horse pistol.
+
+"Hullo!"
+
+Out came his long knife instanter.
+
+"Move or speak, and I pull the trigger," said the brigand.
+
+"Thank you for nothing," said the stranger.
+
+"Who are you?" demanded the brigand.
+
+"Just what I was about to ask you," returned the stranger, lightly.
+
+"Whence come you?"
+
+"Precisely the question I was going to put."
+
+The brigand's colour came and he grew vicious.
+
+"If you are wise, you'll not try to fool me," he said.
+
+"If you have any wit," retorted the new-comer, "you'll not come
+pestering me with questions; I'm not in the humour, and when I am put
+out, I'm dangerous. Good-morning."
+
+The brigand, finding he could get nothing out of the eccentric
+stranger, fell back a pace or two, and the latter thought that he was
+to be molested no further.
+
+He was mistaken.
+
+Nor was he long in making this discovery.
+
+The withdrawal of the brigand was a signal for a regular mob of the
+lawless men to make their appearance.
+
+Every nook and cranny about the opening was guarded by armed men; and
+now, when the cool stranger glanced up-wards, he found a dozen rifles,
+pistols or blunderbusses pointed at him.
+
+Still he did not appear disconcerted.
+
+He only glanced about him with a coolness that was remarkable, and
+muttered--
+
+"Dear, dear, how very attentive these dear boys are."
+
+Before he could speak to them, however, they stepped out from their
+hiding places, and with their firearms still making him their target,
+they advanced to close in upon him.
+
+When he saw the object of this manoeuvre, he jumped up and plucked out
+his knife.
+
+"So, so," he cried, "sold, eh? Come on, all of you."
+
+"What does he say?" demanded one of the Greeks, turning to Toro.
+
+"He challenges us all at once to fight him."
+
+"Why, the fellow's mad or an Englishman."
+
+"Yes," said Hunston, "an Englishman. That makes him feel he is a match
+for a mob of Greeks, and I don't know that it is all madness."
+
+Suddenly the stranger appeared to liven up.
+
+"What, you are not the police, then?" he ejaculated.
+
+"Police!" said Hunston, contemptuously turning round to the speaker.
+
+"What do you mean by that?"
+
+"Why, I took you for the police in pursuit of me."
+
+"What have you been doing?"
+
+"Am I among friends?"
+
+"We are brigands, but you can speak freely."
+
+"Well, then, I am an unlucky wretch who has been forced to bolt away
+from his master and his living--and all for nothing."
+
+"What do you call nothing?" said Toro.
+
+"A trifling peccadillo, sir; nothing more, I assure you--merely a few
+pounds and a paltry bit of jewellery belonging to an Englishwoman of
+the name of Harkaway."
+
+They all pricked up their ears at this name.
+
+"Hullo, hullo!" exclaimed Toro; "what is this? Stand forward, man. Do
+you know Harkaway?"
+
+"I do--to my sorrow," replied the man; "he was my master."
+
+The brigands all pricked up their ears at this.
+
+"Harkaway's servant, were you?" said Hunston, eagerly.
+
+"I was, sir."
+
+"And what may be your object in coming here?"
+
+"To join you."
+
+"Do you know--"
+
+"Who you are? Yes, of course; at least I can guess it--I'm uncommon
+good at guessing."
+
+And he chuckled again.
+
+"The fellow's an idiot," said Hunston.
+
+"Do you bring any information to us?"
+
+This question was put by the Italian bully and brigand, and to him the
+stranger turned with an elaborate bow.
+
+"What do you want?"
+
+"To get hold of Harkaway himself," cried Toro.
+
+"Then I can help you to do this."
+
+"You can--then money shall be yours," said Toro.
+
+"I hope so; why, I've got that already from them."
+
+"You have!--much?"
+
+"A pretty lump. Look."
+
+It was a bag of money composed of pieces of copper, silver and gold.
+
+It was a good round sum, and it looked considerably more than it was.
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"I have these few nicknacks," added the stranger, producing a bundle
+tied in his pocket-handkerchief.
+
+They tore open the bundle eagerly and it was found to contain various
+articles of plate, a silver candlestick, and some jewels.
+
+"Those," he said, pointing to the latter, "belonged to Mrs. Harkaway,
+and I believe she set some store by them--they were wedding presents."
+
+"So much the better," exclaimed Toro, exultingly.
+
+"So say I," added Hunston.
+
+"Is all this a fair amount for a fellow to bring as his entrance fee?"
+demanded the stranger.
+
+"What say you, comrades?" demanded Toro of the bystanders. "You are the
+best judges. Shall we admit this man in as a brother and a comrade?"
+
+"We will," shouted the brigands.
+
+"Agreed on all hands?" said the Italian chief.
+
+"Agreed."
+
+It was answered as if with a single voice.
+
+"Good," said Toro; "do you, Boulgaris, prescribe the oath."
+
+The oath, which was administered in Greek, was not at all understood by
+the novice, but he subscribed to it cheerfully.
+
+"You swear to devote your life to the destruction of your enemies,"
+said Hunston.
+
+"I do," responded the new brigand, with fervour.
+
+"Enough. What is your name?"
+
+"Geoffrey Martin."
+
+"Geoffrey Martin," repeated Toro; "the name has a ring about it that I
+like. Now understand, the end of the Harkaways draws near; one has
+already paid the forfeit."
+
+"Who?" cried the stranger.
+
+"Two!" said a voice.
+
+The brigands turned and beheld Diana, the widow of Mathias.
+
+"Two have already fallen, for I myself struck the wife of this hated
+Harkaway to the heart with my dagger," cried the fierce woman.
+
+And she then recounted (as we have done in a previous chapter) how she
+gained admittance to the Harkaway mansion, concealed herself in Mrs.
+Harkaway's chamber, and dealt her the fatal blow.
+
+To all this the brigands' new recruit listened calmly enough.
+
+When, with an air of triumph, Diana concluded her narration, the
+brigands cheered loudly.
+
+"Another of our hated foes dead. Three cheers for the brave Diana!"
+
+"Certainly," said Geoffrey Martin politely.
+
+And his voice was heard in the general shout.
+
+"Now, gentlemen," said he, when silence was once more restored, "allow
+me to correct one very slight error in the statement of this good and
+valorous lady."
+
+"What is that?" demanded Toro.
+
+"Her narrative is quite correct, with this little exception--it was not
+Mrs. Harkaway who was killed."
+
+Diana turned pale, and uttering a wail of disappointment, sat down.
+
+Hunston, after venting a few fearful imprecations, said--
+
+"Then I hope and trust it may have been the wife of that confounded
+Harvey."
+
+"It was not, and to tell you the truth, I am rather glad of it, for, do
+you know I have almost fallen in love with her?"
+
+"Cheek!" muttered Hunston. "Well, who was it, then?"
+
+"You must know I was waiting on them at the dinner table, when Mrs.
+Harkaway expressed a wish that her fan, which she had forgotten, might
+be brought.
+
+"I was going to call some of the female servants, but Harkaway himself
+went and before he had been gone a minute, we heard him scream out--
+
+"Help! Murder!"
+
+Away rushed Harvey and that long American fellow, Jefferson, while
+Mrs. Harkaway fainted.
+
+But in a few minutes the three came back with the news that Mrs.
+Harkaway's maid--Marietta by name--had been killed.
+
+"No fault of yours, madam, for the girl had been dressing herself in
+some of Mrs. Harkaway's clothes, and no doubt she looked as much a lady
+as her mistress."
+
+"What then?" demanded Diana.
+
+"The police took the matter in hand, and are now searching everywhere
+for the murderer."
+
+"Let them search," said Diana, with a scornful laugh.
+
+There was silence for a time; then Diana asked--
+
+"Did you hear anything of Tomaso?"
+
+"Yes. He is condemned to die."
+
+"When?" demanded Toro.
+
+"The date is kept secret, so that you may have less chance of rescuing
+him."
+
+Toro growled an oath and departed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+THE RECRUIT WORKS BRAVELY--HARKAWAY's VENGEANCE--"HE NEVER
+FORGETS A DEBT."
+
+
+The brigands soon found that they had made an invaluable acquisition in
+their new recruit.
+
+The day following his admission into their honorable fraternity, he
+brought in an addition to his already handsome booty.
+
+This was in the shape of a lady's reticule, containing a rich prize in
+money, and more jewels.
+
+"I came across my late mistress," said Geoffery Martin in explanation;
+"she had ventured out of the town with her new maid, and so I fleeced
+them royally. I did not leave them a stiver; moreover I secured this."
+
+So saying, he spread out before them a newly-printed placard, which,
+translated, ran as nearly as possible in this wise--
+
+
+                    "FIVE THOUSAND FRANCS REWARD
+
+"Will be paid to the police or to any private person, who will secure,
+or give such information as may lead to the capture of, one Geoffrey
+Martin, lately a valet in the service of Mr. John Harkaway."
+
+Then followed a description of his person, walk, and mode of speech.
+
+
+"The said Geoffrey Martin having absconded with a large sum of money,
+besides property of great value, it is the duty of every man to aid in
+bringing him to justice."
+
+He chose a good moment for bringing this paper in. There was a large
+muster of the brigands in camp.
+
+"Five thousand francs reward," he said to his newly-made comrades
+generally; "you have only to turn me over to the Harkaways, and you can
+make a small fortune."
+
+"You'll only find good men and true here," said Hunston.
+
+Geoffrey Martin turned upon the latter.
+
+"All?"
+
+There was a hidden significance in his tone which thrilled Hunston.
+
+"I am glad that they are all safe, friend; by the way, what is your
+name? I haven't heard it yet."
+
+"My name is Hunston, and I'm not ashamed of it."
+
+"No, of course you wouldn't be; so you are Hunston?" he added
+reflectively.
+
+"Did you know my name?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Indeed. Heard your master speak of me, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes; Harkaway and his friend Harvey."
+
+"Harvey," cried Hunston contemptuously; "a paltry, frivolous fool."
+
+"Yes; wasn't he? You should hear him speak of you."
+
+"There was never any love lost between us," said Hunston moodily; "we
+hated each other most cordially from boyhood."
+
+"Known him so long?" said Martin.
+
+"We were at school together, and at college together," said Hunston.
+
+"College--phew! then you must have been a swell."
+
+"Well," he said haughtily, "and what of that?"
+
+"Oh, nothing; I was only thinking."
+
+"What were you thinking?"
+
+"Why, if I had half your chance of getting on in life, you would never
+have found me here."
+
+"What do you mean? Are you ashamed of your comrades?"
+
+"No, no, not me," said Martin; "but I should be if I was you. You're a
+swell, and it's an awful drop for you. I'm only a poor devil--a nobody,
+and it's a rise in life for me to join your honorable company; give us
+your hand."
+
+And then, before he could say yea or nay, the new recruit seized
+Hunston by the hand and wrung it with real or affected warmth.
+
+Hunston strode moodily away, hanging his head.
+
+This singular individual, Geoffrey Martin, appeared greatly interested
+in the fate of the unfortunate boys, young Jack and Harry Girdwood, and
+he got Boulgaris to take him to the spot where the crosses had been
+erected over the graves by the pious hand of Theodora, the girl who had
+unwittingly lured them to the fatal trap.
+
+"So here you have buried them?" said Geoffrey Martin.
+
+"Yes, poor boys," said Boulgaris.
+
+"Poor boys," echoed Martin in surprise, "poor boys."
+
+"Yes, I see no reason for butchering two children, for they were little
+more."
+
+The new brigand eyed the speaker rather curiously.
+
+"Have you any pity to spare for Harkaway's boy?"
+
+"And why not?" said Boulgaris. "True, Harkaway's our enemy, and I hate
+him; I'd like to get the upper hand of him; but we don't want to fight
+boys. Besides, Harkaway is a good sort of enemy; a bold, daring fellow,
+not a sneak."
+
+"No, that he isn't," said Geoffrey Martin, with warmth.
+
+"I am sure he'd never murder a boy because the boy's father had wronged
+him."
+
+"True."
+
+"Besides, there is something in this Hunston I don't like. We are bad
+enough in all conscience, but this brutal butchery will, perhaps be the
+ruin of our band."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Well, we were not loved before; but this brutal deed will make us
+execrated by the whole country. The government scarcely dare to molest
+us; they are satisfied at keeping up a show of doing something. But
+Harkaway is rich and powerful, I am told; English money and English
+influence will force the government to pursue us, and all for what?
+Why, for murdering two helpless children, who had done us no wrong; who
+fell into a trap while saving the life of one of us."
+
+Geoffrey Martin opened his eyes in astonishment.
+
+"Is that true?"
+
+"Yes. Didn't you know the story?"
+
+"No."
+
+"It was the daughter of one of our old comrades, that the boys saved
+while sailing. Poor girl! If prayers and tears could move men's hearts,
+hers should have saved the boys."
+
+Geoffrey Martin coughed and blew his nose loudly.
+
+"Ahem!" he said, staring at Boulgaris. "You are a soft-hearted fellow
+for a brigand."
+
+"Not exactly that either," replied Boulgaris, grinning. "I feel
+incensed at this deed for its brutality, and for exposing all the band
+to risks and dangers for the sole purpose of gratifying their revenge."
+
+"Theirs; you mean Hunston's?"
+
+"No; for Toro was interested also in it."
+
+"Toro, Toro," muttered Martin; "why, the name sounds, familiar to me.
+Of course. They knew this Toro in Italy, I remember. He was one of a
+band that Harkaway and his friend Harvey exterminated."
+
+"It is true, then, about that band?" said Boulgaris, his eyes flashing
+eagerly.
+
+"Of course."
+
+"You see, then, from that, what cause we have to dread arousing the
+enmity of such a man as this Harkaway."
+
+"He is an awkward customer, and that's the fact of it; and I have
+heard, my brave Boulgaris, that if Harkaway once says he will have
+revenge, he never fails. Now, let's return."
+
+Back they went together, and as they neared the brigands' camp, they
+perceived signs of some great commotion.
+
+"What is the matter now?" asked Boulgaris.
+
+"Come with us," replied the first man, "and I will show you."
+
+They silently followed.
+
+Down one of the slopes and then through a narrow pass, and within five
+minutes' run of the brigands' stronghold, they came upon a number of
+their men gathered around a long figure stretched upon the ground and
+covered with a cloak.
+
+The brigand who had brought them there silently drew back the cloak,
+and showed that the figure was the corpse of one of their comrades who
+had been on guard there.
+
+"Look, another of our men killed. His death, like the first, has been
+sudden."
+
+A sure, swift hand had pinned him through the body with a long dagger.
+
+It had pierced his heart, and the point of the blade actually protruded
+near his shoulder-blade.
+
+"Look there," cried one of the brigands,
+
+"Where?"
+
+"At the handle."
+
+Fastened to the haft of the dagger was a slip of paper, upon which were
+these words--
+
+"_Remember Harkaway never forgets an injury._"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+THE VILLA AGAIN--A MESSAGE FROM THE ENEMY'S CAMP--HOW A SNARE
+WAS LAID.
+
+
+Harvey carried his project into execution, and went off, leaving Mrs.
+Harvey and Mrs. Harkaway under the impression that he was going about
+the vessel, and making preparations generally for their departure.
+
+They were one and all anxious to be gone from the place, which was for
+evermore associated in their minds with the mishaps of the last few
+days.
+
+When Harvey had been absent forty-eight hours, they grew anxious.
+
+But on the morning of the third day, Nabley the detective came with a
+message from Dick.
+
+He had met him by appointment and brought news.
+
+There was something in Nabley's face which made Harkaway anxious to see
+him alone.
+
+"Now tell me, Nabley," he said, eagerly, "tell me all. How is Harvey?
+What does he say of the boys? What is he doing? Has he any plan of
+action decided?"
+
+"Gently, Mr. Harkaway, gently," said the detective; "you overpower me."
+
+"Oh, Nabley, I say--"
+
+"There, there! don't be impatient. I'll give it all out as fast as ever
+I can."
+
+"I don't want all," interrupted Jack Harkaway, passionately. "How are
+my boys? Answer that. Are they safe? No, no! I read it in your face."
+
+And then he dropped heavily into a chair, looking the picture of misery
+and despair.
+
+Nabley had scarcely a word to say for himself.
+
+The sight of the brave Harkaway so utterly collapsed was more than he
+could endure.
+
+Jack rallied a little and turned again to Nabley.
+
+"Well, quick, tell me the news."
+
+And then, as Nabley still stammered, he went on--
+
+"I know; save your breath. I knew it; poor boys! poor Harry and my poor
+brave boy Jack."
+
+"Dirk Harvey bids you keep your courage up," said Nabley; "not to be
+downcast. It is quite time enough to be down upon our luck when we find
+out that the worst is true. The boys may yet live."
+
+"No, no," cried Jack; "I fear my poor boys are no more."
+
+"Let us hope they still live, but meanwhile, Mr. Harvey has treated the
+brigands as though the worst was true."
+
+"How?"
+
+Nabley made a significant gesture with his right arm as though stabbing
+violently at some unseen enemy.
+
+"What, the brave Dick seeking and taking revenge?" exclaimed Jack.
+
+"Yes. Two of the Greek brigands have fallen by his hand. The rest will
+follow, be sure of that; and, moreover, they never suspect whose hand
+has dealt the blow."
+
+"Not suspect!"
+
+"No, his game has been and will continue to be picking them off in
+single file. He meets one of them alone, and Harvey makes sure of him
+by his own strong right arm."
+
+"Oh, brave Harvey," said Jack.
+
+"Yes," said Nabley, "it is revenge. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a
+tooth; and I for one should like to see the whole gang food for kites
+and wolves."
+
+"You have suffered in losing your old comrade," said Harkaway; "judge,
+then, if you so keenly feel the loss of a friend, what must I feel for
+my boy--my own flesh and blood."
+
+"Yes," said Nabley; "I have suffered, but I will yet have a bitter
+revenge on my poor pal's murderers. He was to me a brave and true
+friend. Poor Pike! he was foully assassinated."
+
+"Yes, Nabley; he was cowardly shot by the villain Toro. But do the
+brigands know who is now taking revenge on them?"
+
+"Yes; it is told them in black and white. A paper fixed to each carrion
+carcase tells that this is another proof of Harkaway's vengeance."
+
+Jack's face flushed crimson at these words.
+
+"Well done, Dick; well done, brave old boy," he muttered; "well done!".
+
+"And he tells me that they are in a rare state about it in the camp. It
+has thrown all the lot of them into the greatest consternation. Hunston
+has grown very unpopular. It needs very little upon Harvey's part to
+make sure of him."
+
+"That's brave."
+
+"Now he's growing ambitious. One at a time no longer satisfies him, so
+he has a scheme for bagging half-a-dozen of the brigands at once."
+
+"How?"
+
+"You know the spot that the boys christened the fig-tree grove."
+
+"I do."
+
+"He pretends to have intercepted a letter (when he "stole" the money
+and jewels I took him by way of keeping up appearances), which informs
+him that one of your party--a Mr. Hardy, or Harpy, he pretended--would
+be passing through the fig-tree grove this evening, with money, on a
+journey of some importance. As this Hardy or Harpy is a dangerous
+person, the brigands, on Harvey's advice, are to send six of their best
+men on the business."
+
+Harkaway's eyes twinkled again at this.
+
+"Now," said Nabley, "we must bait the trap well. I'll be the bait."
+
+"You?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But why should you have so dangerous a post?"
+
+"I prefer it," said Nabley, quietly; "besides, although alone, I shall
+have some staunch and valuable friends with me."
+
+"You speak in paradoxes, Mr. Nabley."
+
+The detective's reply to this was to draw his two hands from his
+coat-pockets, and in each hand there was a six-shooter.
+
+"Here are twelve lives," said the detective, "and I've six more in
+here," tapping his breast.
+
+"You're a regular arsenal," said Harkaway, smiling. "But supposing,
+when you raise your hands, they close upon you and ransack your
+pockets."
+
+"I have no need to withdraw my hands to use them. I fire through the
+pockets."
+
+They must have been made with something of this intention, for they
+were cut in the side seams of the coat which were exceedingly roomy.
+
+"Well, well," said Harkaway, jumping up, "when do we get to work?"
+
+"Now."
+
+"Now?"
+
+"There are no preparations to make, Let Mr. Jefferson be sent for. Both
+of you get your arms ready, and follow me."
+
+"Good. What arms?"
+
+"Short axe, in case of close work, and rifle each. You'll be more than
+a match for six Greeks. Besides," he added, with a significant smile,
+"I shall not be idle."
+
+"Well, well; away with you," cried Jack; "I am all eagerness to be at
+work. I shall be quite another man when I have had a brush with these
+beasts."
+
+"Right, sir," cried the detective; "they will find a powerful foe in
+you."
+
+"Yes, Nabley," cried Jack, "my arm is nerved for this fight, and it
+shall go hard with me, but I will have my revenge on those Greek devils
+for the murder of my poor boys."
+
+The door opened and Jefferson entered.
+
+"The very man!" exclaimed Harkaway.
+
+"What, Nabley!" said Jefferson. "What news of Harvey?"
+
+"Mr. Harkaway will tell you all," answered the detective; "my time's
+up. Follow me as quickly as you can."
+
+"Off with you," said Harkaway, growing quite excited at the prospect of
+a brush with the enemy.
+
+"The fig-tree grove," said Nabley.
+
+"Understood."
+
+And off went the detective.
+
+"Jefferson," said Jack, "I am now about seeking my foes, and fear not
+but I will render a good account of my actions, for against the
+brigands I feel the strength of a giant."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+WHEREIN MR. MOLE PHILOSOPHISES AND HAS AN ADVENTURE--THE SCENT
+OF BATTLE--MOLE THE TERROR OF THE BRIGANDS--ISAAC THE
+ANNIHILATOR--MOLE'S PRISONER.
+
+
+It must not be supposed that Isaac Mole was idle all this time.
+
+He heard of the bold doings of his friends Harkaway, Harvey and
+Jefferson, not to speak of the valuable aid of Nabley the detective,
+and, figuratively speaking, his very soul panted for glory.
+
+"I feel I could conquer by my single hand half-a-dozen brigands," said
+Mole to himself; "but still I should prefer to come across a sleeping
+brigand. But ah, me!" there he sighed deeply, "brigands are as rarely
+caught asleep as weasels."
+
+Poor old Mole's desire to distinguish himself in this matter was very
+great.
+
+The plain truth was that poor Isaac was at times badly henpecked.
+
+On these occasions he would assume his most dignified deportment and
+point to his wooden legs.
+
+"There are proofs, Mrs. Mole," he would say, "that Isaac Mole never
+shunned the foe in his life."
+
+"Yah, yah!" his spouse would gracefully smile in reply, "dat no fault
+ob yours, Ikey Mole; de ignorant critters took off your legs because
+you so often lost your legs before."
+
+"Lost them before?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Before they were amputated, do you mean?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why, Mrs. Mole," and he would draw himself up to his full height, "you
+have been surely indulging in strong waters."
+
+"No, sar; no, Ikey Mole, not dis gal, sar. You lose your legs continual
+and your head too, sar, with strong waters--sperrits, sar, sperrits."
+
+Poor Mole, he was no match for her, and could only turn for consolation
+to where he had ever thought to drown dull care.
+
+The bottle.
+
+Mrs. Mole one day surprised him at a sly tipple in the grounds of the
+villa, and he knew it to his sorrow.
+
+Suddenly popping round the corner, Chloe emptied the contents of a pail
+over his luckless head.
+
+"Thar, you teetottler! you banderhoper, you good templar! Take a leetle
+tiddy drop of water with your rum; makes lubly grog well mixed, yah,
+yah!"
+
+And then the amiable partner of his joys and sorrows bore off her empty
+pail, leaving her husband to dry and shiver.
+
+"Philosophy, my dear Mole," said the worthy Isaac to himself,
+"philosophy is your physic; think of Socrates and be at ease--ugh! It's
+precious damp--too much water. I must have an extra drop to keep the
+cold out."
+
+And up went that inexhaustible bottle again.
+
+"Ha! Massa Ikey!" said a terrible voice close at hand, "you want some
+more water to mix with it, do you?"
+
+Mole clutched his bottle, jumped up, and rushed wildly to the house,
+with his loving spouse after him with another pail of water.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From that time Mole scarcely dared have a suck at his bottle within
+half a mile of the house.
+
+One afternoon, having dined early, Mole went for a walk in the suburbs
+of the town, and selecting a favourable spot, he reclined gracefully
+and dropped off into a gentle slumber.
+
+How long he slept he never knew until this hour.
+
+All he knew was that he dreamt that he was the hero of some gallant
+adventures, wherein the Greek brigands fell before his sword like corn
+before the reaper's sickle; yea, as the phantom miscreants succumbed to
+the onslaught of Don Quixote.
+
+Now, while he slept, a man crawled out of the thicket upon all fours
+and looked eagerly about him.
+
+The singular part of this incident was that, although the sleeping Mole
+was within six feet of the spot, he did not perceive him.
+
+Mole was partly hidden by the thickly-grown bushes.
+
+The man dragged himself painfully on; he was badly hurt.
+
+One of his legs was broken, and he carried no less than three pistol
+bullets in his body; in short, it was little less than marvellous that
+he was able to crawl at all.
+
+The history of this miserable wretch is soon told.
+
+He had been shot down by the unerring aim of Nabley the detective, and
+feeling himself badly hurt, he had sought safety in flight while there
+was yet time.
+
+Dragging his wounded body into the thickly-grown copse, he had lain
+hidden from sight, baffling the keenest search; and here he had
+presently lost consciousness.
+
+Loss of blood and anguish had rendered the hapless wretch powerless to
+help himself, and knowing well what little mercy he had to expect from
+the Englishmen did they come upon him, had lain there in fear and
+trembling at every sound until hunger was added to his other torments.
+
+He was nearly blinded with a blow he had received on the face, and now
+his only hope was to be able to crawl along until he came up with some
+of his comrades, who would help him to regain their stronghold in the
+mountains.
+
+"Oh!" he groaned, "a blight upon the hand that struck me down. Oh!"
+
+And the violence of his pains made him give a deep groan.
+
+Mole moved.
+
+Then opened his eyes; and waking, his glance fell upon a ghastly
+looking object, pale and bloody, dragging itself along.
+
+Coming towards him.
+
+Mole gasped.
+
+This was real, he knew at once; there was no doubt about that.
+
+It was one of the Greek brigands, who had seen him asleep, no doubt,
+and was about to do for him.
+
+Poor Mole.
+
+Cold beads of perspiration stood upon his brow.
+
+A channel of sweat trickled down the small of his back.
+
+His very wig stood up on his scalp with terror.
+
+What should he do?
+
+Alas! it would soon be all over with him.
+
+The ghastly object crawled on.
+
+A minute more and the wretched man would be up with him.
+
+Now, poor old Mole had on occasions been what is called pot-valiant.
+
+He sought his black bottle for Dutch courage; but before he could raise
+it to his bloodless lips, the wounded man perceived him, and he gave a
+cry of terror.
+
+"Keep off!" cried Mole, his teeth rattling like a box of dominoes.
+
+The wounded man, half blind as he was and frightened out of what little
+sense remained to him, took the black bottle for another revolver such
+as Nabley had carried; and having a wholesome dread of that terrible
+weapon, he cowered down, hiding his face on the ground.
+
+"Don't be violent," exclaimed the wretched Mole.
+
+"Mercy, mercy!" implored the brigand.
+
+"Have pity on me," said Mole, in abject terror.
+
+"Do as you please with me," whined the brigand, "only for mercy's sake
+don't fire again at such a poor wretch as I am."
+
+"Think of my helpless condition," said Mole.
+
+"I am done to death," said the brigand.
+
+"I have two wooden legs," gasped Mole.
+
+"Do what you will with me," cried the brigand, in despair, "only give
+me water--a drop for mercy's sake."
+
+And he prostrated himself in abject submission before the half dead
+Mole.
+
+Now the latter could not well misunderstand this attitude; but yet he
+could scarcely believe the evidence of his senses.
+
+"What's his game?" thought Mole; "he is trying the artful dodge on; and
+he's going to jump up and give me one for myself--not for Isaac. By
+jingo! What a topper I could give him as he lays there, what a--"
+
+He stopped short.
+
+"My eye! what a hole he has got in his head already."
+
+And then by degrees, in spite of his fears, he was forced to see that
+this piteous object was not dangerous.
+
+As Mole rose up to look at the brigand, the latter made still more
+signs of submission, and now he could no longer misunderstand.
+
+It is difficult to say which feeling filled Mole most completely,
+surprise or satisfaction.
+
+"Oh, oh," cried Mole; "I feel that my heart tells me I have great
+courage. Yes, I will capture this desperate brigand with my own brave
+hands."
+
+Here was a slice of luck.
+
+"I'll just drive him home," said the crafty Isaac to himself, "and then
+see if Chloe will dare to cheek me as she has done of late. I rather
+flatter myself I shall take it out of Harkaway and Jefferson
+themselves."
+
+First, though, he meant to have one more suck at the black bottle.
+
+But now again, to his intense surprise, at the sight of the bottle, the
+wounded man cowered and shrank back in terror.
+
+"Mercy, mercy, great captain," he implored; "as you are strong, be
+merciful."
+
+"What does he mean?" muttered the astonished Mole.
+
+"Don't fire again," cried the wounded man feebly; "I never hurt one of
+your friends. I am not responsible for the two boys' death. It was done
+without my will, for I don't war with boys or women; ah, how I suffer."
+
+"Don't fire! Why, what--ah, I see it; he takes the bottle for a pistol.
+
+"March on then," he said in a terrible voice; "on with you, or I'll
+fire."
+
+"Don't, don't! mercy!"
+
+"March on then, or I'll blow you to atoms," and he presented the black
+bottle again.
+
+The Greek held up his hands in supplication and moved on.
+
+"Go on!" thundered Mole.
+
+"I'll be your slave, your abject slave," groaned the brigand; "but oh,
+great warrior, captain, spare my life."
+
+"I'll eat you alive," hissed the cannibal Mole in his ear, "if you
+don't walk faster."
+
+"I will, I will."
+
+"Faster still, or you die."
+
+"Pity, pity."
+
+"Bah!" said the fierce Isaac, contemptuously, "why should I have pity
+on you after killing a score of your fellows with my own hand? Answer
+me that."
+
+The other was silent.
+
+In this way, the valiant Mole drove the miserable wretch to the villa.
+
+When, after a long and wearisome journey, they got within a stone's
+throw of the grounds of the house, Mr. Mole was suddenly startled to
+hear a loud, shrill cry of alarm, and who should appear before them but
+Mrs. Mole herself?
+
+"Whateber hab you there, Ikey?" she demanded.
+
+"A prisoner, my dear," responded Mole.
+
+"A what?" she exclaimed; "whose prisoner?"
+
+"Mine."
+
+"Yourn?"
+
+"Pardon me, my dear--yours, not yourn. Yes, my prisoner," he added
+modestly; "I have captured him."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In the wood."
+
+"What you doing there, Ikey?"
+
+"I was on the hunt. I came across them--five, and a little warm work
+went forward. The other four," he added significantly, "I have left on
+their backs, with a pretty decent sign of my handiwork upon all of
+them."
+
+Chloe gasped.
+
+"You're a drefful man," said Chloe; "and I'll run for Massa Harkaway."
+
+And she dashed down the garden, crying out for Harkaway and Jefferson,
+and goodness knows who besides.
+
+They were ever upon the _qui vive_ for danger, so down they came
+with a rush.
+
+"Why, Mr. Mole," exclaimed Jefferson, "you have indeed got a prize."
+
+"However did you manage it?" asked Harkaway, not a whit less startled.
+
+Mole coughed.
+
+"I felt that something was required of me," he answered, with touching
+dignity and modesty combined, "and so I went on the hunt myself, and I
+fell foul of a few of the Greek vampires."
+
+"A few," echoed Jefferson, elevating his eyebrows; "a few, you said."
+
+"Yes," replied Mr. Mole, "only five."
+
+"Not more?" said Jefferson, laughing; "then you must have felt rather
+bad in the inside."
+
+"Never, sir," said Mole, getting more and more dignified; "but I left
+the enemy rather unhappy, in the inside and the outside."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"This is the only survivor out of five; question him closely."
+
+Mole had carefully ascertained that the wounded Greek didn't speak a
+solitary word of English.
+
+"Ask him, I say, what I did for his comrades; how I larded them--how I
+peppered them, and made them cry peccavi. Damme, Jefferson, old boy,
+you should have seen me in action; gad, sir, I'm like an old war-horse
+at the first sniff of powder. Down they went, first one, then the
+other. Hang me! if I didn't play at skittles with' em, and I was in
+that humour, Harkaway, when you can't miss. I'd just cheek the corner
+pin and make a royal every go. What do you think of that, Harkaway?"
+
+Old Jack smiled.
+
+"I'm not proficient enough in skittles to appreciate the feat," he
+answered.
+
+"And so you tackled all this lot single-handed?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"How many?"
+
+"Ten."
+
+"I thought you said five."
+
+"Ten, sir, ten in all; five came up at first, but in as many moments
+they were all on their backs; and then up came another five of them,
+each heavily armed. I never forget; hang it! I couldn't forget such a
+job as that very easily. Five of the second lot fell at my first fire;
+I toppled over three more, and the other one--"
+
+What Mr. Mole might in his ardour have been tempted to draw for upon
+his glowing fancy, it is impossible to say, for just as he reached this
+point in his fanciful narration, up came Nabley.
+
+"Hullo!" he said, as he caught sight of the wounded brigand; "here's
+the missing man."
+
+"This," cried the rest of the people present as if with one voice.
+
+"Yes, this is the man I shot down at my first fire; he must have
+crawled away to hide; why, where is Mr. Mole running to?"
+
+The imaginative old gentleman suddenly vanished from the scene.
+
+He did not relish the presence of such a witness as this.
+
+"This is Mr. Mole's prisoner," said Jefferson, laughing; "you see he
+has brought in one, after all."
+
+"I bring you something better even then prisoners," said the detective.
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"Good news."
+
+"Speak; what is it?"
+
+"The brigands have given up Hunston."
+
+Harkaway started at the words.
+
+"That is news, indeed," he said; "and now justice demands that the
+villain shall speedily hang."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+THE FIG-TREE GROVE--A DOUBLE AMBUSCADE--THE LEECH-FISHER--HOW
+THE TRAP WAS BAITED, AND HOW IT TOOK--SOMETHING LIKE THE OLD
+FORM--TRIUMPHANT MARCH OF HARKAWAY AND CO.
+
+
+Within an hour--nay, less--of the foregoing conversation you might have
+seen an aged man wending his weary way along the high road from Athens
+towards the mountains.
+
+Thickly-grown fig trees leant over the road, and their well-garnished
+branches formed a roof of foliage through which no ray of sunlight
+could penetrate.
+
+He seemed an aged man.
+
+His steps tottered.
+
+It was strange that he did not seek the aid of a stout staff, or
+walking stick at least.
+
+But no, he preferred to keep his hands in his coat pockets.
+
+Now the coat he wore was a full-skirted frock, much resembling in shape
+the garment which was worn by our grandfathers, or their fathers, when
+George the Third was king, with huge pockets in the skirts and lappets.
+
+And into these big pockets the old wanderer's arms were buried up to
+the elbows.
+
+Perhaps it was because he felt somewhat chilly.
+
+There was a gentle breeze blowing through the trees.
+
+As he went along, he shot sly glances from time to time about him,
+almost as if he were expecting someone; but he had got nearly over a
+third of the distance down the fig-tree grove before there were the
+faintest signs of life about him, and there, apparently overcome by the
+fatigue of his walk, he dropped down upon a moss-grown bank to rest.
+
+He looked up at the leafy canopy overhead, and sniffed down the sweet
+odours that floated along on the gentlest of zephyrs.
+
+"Not such bad quarters," he muttered to himself (it was in English that
+he spoke); "not at all bad. There is only one thing required to make
+this the happiest day of my life; only one thing, and that is, success
+in my present undertaking--"
+
+He paused.
+
+"Hark!"
+
+What was it?
+
+He heard a faint rustling in the foliage hard by.
+
+This part of the country was reported to be infested with thieves, the
+regular hunting grounds of the brigands.
+
+A faint smile lurked round the corners of the old man's mouth, and
+there was a twinkle in his eye.
+
+"At last," he muttered to himself, "at last!"
+
+Just then there was a noise as of branches being pushed aside and dry
+twigs being crushed; and forth stepped a stalwart peasant, all in rags
+and tatters, and placed himself, hat in hand, before the old man.
+
+"Hullo!" exclaimed the latter, "why, where did you come from?"
+
+And yet his surprise looked more assumed than real.
+
+"Charity!" replied the beggar.
+
+"Charity!" echoed the old man, fumbling in his pockets, "by all means;
+take this, my honest fellow."
+
+So saying, he dropped a piece of money into his open palm.
+
+"Gold! Yes, a golden piece, by all the saints in the calendar."
+
+The beggar's eyes glistened greedily at the piece.
+
+"Heaven bless you!" he exclaimed; "may you live for ever."
+
+"Don't wish me that," responded the old man; "that is no blessing."
+
+"Not with your riches?" said the mendicant
+
+"No."
+
+"You are not easily satisfied then."
+
+And then came forth from the beggar a strange sound.
+
+Was it a signal?
+
+It almost appeared to be the result of a preconcerted arrangement, for
+while the sound of his laughter echoed down the leafy grove, there was
+a crashing of branches and general breaking of the dried twigs and
+undergrowth, and out swarmed a group of men numbering perhaps ten or a
+dozen.
+
+A villanous-looking mob they were too.
+
+They surrounded the old man and were about to attack him, when the
+first man who had already profited by the old man's charity warned them
+off.
+
+"There is no need for violence here," said he, hurriedly, and speaking
+in their native language; "he will give us up all he has got without so
+much as dirtying a knife over him."
+
+The old man laughed.
+
+A dry, cynical laugh it was too, and almost calculated to make one
+believe that he had understood what they said.
+
+"Who are these people?" he asked of the first beggar.
+
+"Poor men worthy of your pious charity, like myself," was the reply.
+
+"Then they shall have it," replied the old man; "more than they
+expect."
+
+He looked around him rather anxiously, as if expecting some more people
+to arrive.
+
+Now that glance was observed by more than one of the men, and it was no
+very difficult matter to excite suspicion in their minds.
+
+"He expects someone," said the foremost man of the party; "he is a
+spy."
+
+"See how he's looking about him," observed another. "What shall we do?"
+
+"Kill him at once."
+
+"Yes, kill him."
+
+"On to him."
+
+And the speaker himself was the first to act upon his own counsel.
+
+He stepped forward to catch the old man by the coat, but the latter,
+retreating a couple of paces, appeared startled.
+
+"Keep your distance, my masters," he said; "keep your distance, because
+I am a very dangerous fellow."
+
+They laughed at this.
+
+"Dangerous, you are?" cried one of them, "oh, oh! what is your name?"
+
+"Why, they call me the leech-fisher."
+
+"The leech-fisher!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Because I am my own trap and bait and all,"
+
+They looked puzzled.
+
+"He's mad."
+
+"Daft as he can be."
+
+"Poor old fool. But let us get his money if he has any, without killing
+him."
+
+"Money!" echoed the self-styled leech-fisher. "Here's plenty."
+
+And with these words he threw a pile of gold pieces upon the ground,
+making all the lawless ruffians' eyes glisten greedily.
+
+"You don't seem yet to understand the parable of the leech-fisher,"
+said the singular old man. "You are dense blockheads."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha! hear him," cried the first beggar. "He is quite a treat."
+
+"What I meant was that I am a trap for you. I have set myself to catch
+you; I am the bait; the leech fishers are their own bait, I am my own.
+So now come on, my merry men, my unbelieving pagans."
+
+One of the men here laid a rough hand upon his shoulder, when there was
+a loud explosion.
+
+A flash and smoke issued from the old man's square coat pocket, and the
+brigand staggered back.
+
+The rest of the party looked utterly amazed.
+
+What was it?
+
+"An ambuscade," ejaculated one of them.
+
+"No, no; it came from the old man's coat skirt. See, it is smoking."
+
+There was a small round hole in the cloth, and it was singed and smelt
+of gunpowder.
+
+"Death to the spy!" cried the Greeks.
+
+Two of the brigands fell upon him, one on each side, when lo! there was
+a double explosion, and with loud cries of pain, each fell back dead.
+
+The rest of the brigands now began to recover from the state of
+stupefaction into which this sudden and unexpected attack had thrown
+them, and accustomed to rapid action upon emergencies such as the
+present, they prepared to fall simultaneously upon this ancient Tartar.
+
+"Oh, oh! What, you think to capture me, do you?" he cried.
+
+In an instant all his feebleness had dropped, and lo! he appeared a
+very nimble man.
+
+Springing back about six feet, he drew both hands from those capacious
+pockets to which we recently drew the reader's attention, and then the
+mystery was revealed.
+
+Each had held a six-barrelled revolver.
+
+"How like you my music, you ruffians?" cried the strange man. "Oh, what
+would I give if my poor friend Pike was with me now!"
+
+Bang!
+
+Another shot, and another _hors de combat._
+
+The foremost of the brigands rolled over, stone dead.
+
+This was warm work.
+
+But as if it had not grown hot enough, there suddenly appeared upon the
+scene two men armed with rifles and revolvers.
+
+These two men were crack shots, unluckily for the brigands, and they
+speedily gave proof of their skill.
+
+Two of the mountaineers bit the dust before they could dream of helping
+themselves.
+
+Not three minutes had elapsed since the firing of the first shot, and
+already six men were down.
+
+"Surrender!" said one of the new-comers, in a loud, authoritative
+voice.
+
+But instead of responding, one of the Greeks drew a pistol and levelled
+it at the towering figure of Harkaway, for of course he was one of the
+marksmen, but before he could pull the trigger, bang went another
+chamber of the old man's revolver, and the pistol fell to the ground.
+
+The hand which had held it was helpless, the arm shattered at the
+elbow.
+
+There was in truth something dreadful in this carnage.
+
+But neither Harkaway nor Jefferson thought any thing of this.
+
+Indeed, horrible as it may sound, they killed a brigand with as little
+compunction as they would have slaughtered a wolf.
+
+"Surrender!" cried Harkaway, for the second time. "Yield now, or by
+Heaven, you shall all die on the field."
+
+The Greeks looked around for assistance.
+
+They were five.
+
+The enemy only three.
+
+As a rule, these ruffians were not deficient in bulldog courage and
+ferocity, but this desperate fighting had surprised and frightened
+them.
+
+"Yield, ruffians, to better men than yourselves."
+
+They paused.
+
+"To pause is death," cried Jack Harkaway, in a loud voice.
+
+As the last word was spoken, up went the two rifles.
+
+"Nabley," cried the American.
+
+"All right," answered the disguised old man.
+
+"Look after that outside brigand on your left."
+
+"I will, and his neighbour, too?"
+
+"If you can."
+
+"I am thinking of my murdered friend, Pike, and I feel I can take
+twenty such vagabonds!" echoed the detective, fiercely.
+
+"I'll take that big fellow, Jeff," said Harkaway. "You pot the other."
+
+"Good."
+
+"Now, then, you villains, when I count three, look out," said the
+detective, with a mild expletive.
+
+Not mild enough for repetition here, by the way.
+
+"One, two--"
+
+The brigands, having held a hurried consultation, here threw down their
+arms.
+
+Just in the very nick of time.
+
+Two seconds more and they would have had no chance.
+
+"Now," cried Harkaway, still with the gun ready for use, "forward!
+march!"
+
+The brigands looked mischievous for a moment.
+
+So did the rifles.
+
+So did the revolver.
+
+These two weapons were great persuaders.
+
+With slow, unwilling steps the five men marched onward into captivity.
+
+"I'll see to the wounded," said the detective.
+
+Four of the brigands had been killed outright.
+
+Others were writhing on the ground and using bad language.
+
+"Two and four make six," muttered Mr. Nabley; "six and four are ten.
+Why, I could have sworn that there were eleven. Yes, certainly there
+was another. Where the deuce could he have got to?"
+
+The most diligent search, that is, the most diligent search possible
+under the circumstances, failed to find the faintest trace of the
+missing man.
+
+"That's the one I gave that smack in the face," said Nabley to himself.
+"Well, I know I gave it to him pretty warm besides that. He hasn't got
+far. He has crawled somewhere to die, I suppose. Well, well, I can't
+deny him that little luxury."
+
+And then, by dint of threatening the wounded with instant death, he
+persuaded them to crawl after the rest.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+And when our three adventurers marched into the town with their
+prisoners between them, there was a loud outcry.
+
+Cheers, bravos, huzzahs, at every step of the way.
+
+"That's the Englishman Harkaway," said one of the bystanders, as they
+marched onward towards the prison, "and that is the American
+Jefferson."
+
+"Dreadful men those to make enemies of. I have heard that Harkaway has
+destroyed hundreds of brigands and pirates."
+
+"Yes, I have heard so," answered the other. "It was an evil moment for
+those villains of brigands when they shot the poor young Harkaways.
+They will lose many a life for those two."
+
+"Ah, that they will."
+
+"Who is that driving the two wounded men before him?"
+
+"That is an English secret police officer. He is even more dangerous
+than the others. He has killed four men with his own hands in this
+skirmish. I believe an old friend of his has been murdered by the
+brigands, and he has sworn to have revenge."
+
+"It is taking the law into their own hands with a vengeance."
+
+"All honour to them for their bravery."
+
+"Three cheers for Harkaway!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+THE SECRET WORK GOES ON--WHO IS THE TRAITOR?--THE FALL OF A
+FAVOURITE--THE RECRUIT'S MUSINGS--A STRANGE REVELATION.
+
+
+It was true.
+
+Hunston had been given up by the brigands.
+
+They knew but little of Harkaway, but that little told them that he was
+not the man to make a false assertion.
+
+They felt sure that Hunston had received more money for the ransom of
+the boys than he had acknowledged, and so they voted his doom.
+
+Under ordinary circumstances he would have been shot.
+
+As it was, they had learnt so terribly to respect Harkaway that they
+gave up his enemy in preference to taking the law in their own hands.
+
+Not a day passed but one or more of the brigands suffered at the hands
+of the enemy whose revenge they had so unwisely provoked.
+
+Let them go armed, with a support of armed men within easy call and on
+the watch, it could not avail them.
+
+They were picked off, slowly, surely, quietly, mysteriously.
+
+And this was the chief reason that they sought to negotiate with the
+Harkaway party by giving up their enemy Hunston.
+
+But still the work went on.
+
+There was only one man in the whole band who had the courage to lay the
+facts before them.
+
+"We must move away from this part of the country," he said. "Once let
+us see how matters turn out with our comrades who have fallen into the
+hands of these English people, and then we must be gone."
+
+But while they waited more fell.
+
+Several got taken prisoners, and the band presented a very thin
+appearance.
+
+The day of trial approached for the brigands, of whom Hunston was one.
+
+And the verdict was universally foreseen.
+
+They were condemned to death for the murder of the two boys, Harry
+Girdwood and young Jack.
+
+In five days they were to be executed.
+
+In the court there was one person who heard the sentence with the
+greatest possible terror.
+
+This was Theodora.
+
+Why should it so affect her?
+
+It was surely not that she could have any sympathy with such rogues and
+murdering villains.
+
+Justice was swift in the execution of its decrees here, and the
+condemned brigands were doomed to death within five days.
+
+"Five days!" Theodora repeated to herself again and again, as she left
+the court. "Five days! So short. Well, then I must my do duty come what
+may. To-morrow may yet be in time--or the next day."
+
+Still she was sorely perplexed.
+
+"If I avow all, I shall incur the undying enmity of the band," she
+reasoned; "and if I keep silent, I shall be the murderess of those
+men--men with whom I have grown up and been taught to look upon as
+brothers."
+
+She had some strange secret upon her mind which troubled her sorely.
+
+In her dire perplexity she went to the camp, and did her best to excite
+the men to an effort on behalf of their imperilled comrades.
+
+Pedro listened to all she had to say.
+
+Then he gave his opinion.
+
+"We are clearly bound to make an effort to save our friends," he said;
+"we can not let our comrades perish without attempting to save them."
+
+"No, no!" answered the brigands, with one voice.
+
+But perhaps the most demonstrative of all was the last recruit who had
+joined the brigands--the Englishman, known amongst his new comrades as
+Geoffrey, the discharged servant of Harkaway.
+
+"When shall the attempt be made?" said Pedro; "that is the next
+question."
+
+"At once," said Toro.
+
+He looked around for some supporters; but he looked in vain.
+
+Toro was no longer in good odour.
+
+His connection with Hunston had rendered him exceedingly unpopular.
+
+He was too daring a spirit for them to break out into open murmurs, but
+quietly he was deposed; and then Pedro was admitted as leader.
+
+When the question of giving up Hunston to the enemy was first mooted,
+Toro had violently opposed it; but his was the one solitary voice that
+was lifted for his old comrade.
+
+"The only chance of success," suggested Pedro, "is to wait and attack
+the procession on the way to execution. The prison itself is too well
+defended for us to hope for success."
+
+"That's true," said Geoffrey; "and failure would ruin them."
+
+"Surely."
+
+It was arranged consequently that the attempt should be made upon the
+day appointed for the execution.
+
+The utmost secrecy should be kept as to their plans.
+
+"Let not a word be breathed of our resolves anywhere," said Pedro,
+"unless we are all together in council assembled, for I fear that we
+have had a traitor in our camp."
+
+"A traitor!"
+
+"Aye."
+
+"One or more?"
+
+"One, at least, would not surprise me after all that has occurred."
+
+"Nor me either," said Geoffrey.
+
+Saying which, he glanced significantly over his shoulder in the
+direction of Toro.
+
+The latter, on the rejection of his plan, had stalked moodily away, and
+was walking up and down buried in bitter reflections.
+
+"Hah!"
+
+"If I could believe that possible," exclaimed one of the brigands, "it
+would be a speedy end of his rule here."
+
+Saying which he drew his long dagger significantly.
+
+"Well, well," said Geoffrey, who acted cautiously, and was satisfied at
+having unsettled their minds with regard to the Italian bravo, "let us
+seek the traitor, and when found--." He left the rest unsaid; but they
+knew well what was meant.
+
+The only person quitting the camp was Lerna.
+
+So that no traitor could well carry the news to the enemy this time.
+
+"Let no precaution be neglected," said Pedro; "we must choose trusty
+sentinels. I'll take the watch at the gap myself."
+
+"Good."
+
+"Geoffrey."
+
+"Present, captain."
+
+Toro gave a start at that reply, which clearly gave the death-knell to
+his own command.
+
+"Do you mount guard at the cross roads below."
+
+"Leading to the fountain avenue, do you mean, captain?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Good."
+
+And shouldering his musket, he gave a stiff salute and marched off.
+
+"Perhaps you would not have far to look for traitors," said Toro, as
+Geoffrey disappeared, "did not your prejudices blind you."
+
+"Do you allude to Geoffrey?" asked Pedro, coldly.
+
+"Judge for yourself."
+
+"Speak out boldly."
+
+"I have been bold enough for you," said Toro, passionately,
+
+"Speak in the presence of him you would accuse."
+
+"I fear no man here" cried Toro.
+
+"Nor does any man fear you."
+
+"Then by thunder, he shall!" and out came his sword.
+
+At this unmistakable demonstration several of the brigands made signs
+of cutting in, and the Italian saw that it was a desperate game he was
+venturing on.
+
+He saw it just in time, for the brigands were ready, one and all, to
+fall upon him with dagger and sword.
+
+Gradually he fell back and left them, but the seed was sown.
+
+The few words which Geoffrey had spoken had done their duty well.
+
+"So, so" muttered Geoffrey, as he went; "Hunston is done for, and Toro
+shall soon follow. Thirty-two men have been 'dropped' for our dear
+boys--thirty-two. Gad! but it is a goodly number. They will learn to
+respect the name of Jack Harkaway in this miserable land--and to rue
+the day that they molested anyone of us. Thirty-two--aye, and the rest
+shall follow, as sure as my name is--Who goes there! Speak! By Heaven,
+stop! Nabley--just in time, but silence."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+THEODORA'S ERRAND--FATAL NEWS--THE MYSTERY DEEPENS--HER
+RESOLVE--TO THE VILLA--INTERVIEW WITH HARKAWAY--THE VOICE FROM THE
+GRAVE--A HEART OF GOLD.
+
+
+Theodora now made her way with all speed to the waterside prison, to
+which allusion has been previously made.
+
+The head gaoler of this prison had a daughter of the same age as
+Theodora.
+
+His wife had nursed them both as babes, and Theodora looked upon them
+as her parents, and on the girl as her sister.
+
+To them she was wont to appeal at any time of trouble, and now she came
+to tell them her cares.
+
+She asked for her foster sister, and called her aside.
+
+"What is it now, Theodora dear?" asked the gaoler's daughter,
+anxiously. "You look quite pale and haggard."
+
+Theodora shook her head sadly.
+
+"I have got involved in a matter in which I am responsible."
+
+"But the evil is over?"
+
+"No."
+
+"As far as you are concerned, is it, dear?"
+
+"No; I say no. Are not our men to be executed for the murder of the two
+boys?"
+
+"And richly they deserve it," exclaimed Mariana.
+
+"No, no. They can not deserve it for what they are innocent of."
+
+"It is no fault of theirs," retorted the gaoler's daughter; "They are
+guilty in intention, at least."
+
+"Well, well, Mariana. I am not so base that I could see them suffer
+death, knowing what I know--what we know, in fact."
+
+"But you would not betray me?" exclaimed the gaoler's daughter,
+anxiously.
+
+"No, darling. The necessity for danger to you--to us, I may say--is
+entirely done away with."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"The gallant men will rescue their comrades on Thursday on the way to
+the execution."
+
+"What!" said Mariana; "Thursday!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you don't know," she exclaimed, with a wild scared look.
+
+"Know what?"
+
+"That it has been changed. They are to be executed in the morning."
+
+Theodora gave a cry of terror and staggered back.
+
+"No, no, Mariana," she said, wildly; "it is impossible."
+
+"It is true"
+
+"When was this made known?"
+
+"Just now."
+
+"Why was it altered?"
+
+"Because they have discovered that an attack was meditated by the
+brigands upon the way to execution on Thursday."
+
+"Impossible!" cried Theodora, starting up. "Why, it was only just
+agreed upon. I have left them not two hours ago, and it was then that
+they came to this resolution."
+
+"It is already known here. A messenger from the great Mr. Harkaway
+sought the governor with the news, and as Mr. Harkaway is all-powerful
+here, the execution takes place to-morrow morning at daybreak. It is
+said that he has his own spies in the camp of the brigands."
+
+Theodora clapped her hands to her head, and paced wildly up and down.
+
+"There is no way out of it, dear Mariana," she cried. "No way, no way,
+but one."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"I will see this Mr. Harkaway, and tell him all."
+
+"But you will ruin us all."
+
+"No. He will be overjoyed with the news I bring, and will do as I
+wish--all I ask to repay me for the words of comfort which I have for
+him."
+
+"I doubt it."
+
+"I know him well," retorted Theodora. "I know his boys too well to
+believe the father so bad and merciless as you suppose him. All his
+enmity would be forgotten could he but believe the glad tidings which I
+have for him."
+
+"Then the knowledge of this will risk all our lives."
+
+"No; I am convinced that all will be well."
+
+"Theodora!"
+
+"Delay me not. My duty points clearly to that."
+
+And before she could offer to interfere further with her resolve,
+Theodora was gone.
+
+She fled like a deer.
+
+Nor did she pause for breath until she was at the villa.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Mr. Harkaway will not see anyone," said the servant.
+
+She eyed the panting girl with suspicion, as Theodora leant for support
+by the door, while her left hand clasped her beating heart.
+
+The tragic events of the past few weeks, and the murder of Marietta in
+Mrs. Harkaway's bedchamber, had led them to distrust every body and
+every thing.
+
+"I must see him," gasped Theodora.
+
+"Impossible," returned the girl curtly; "call to-morrow in the
+afternoon."
+
+"Afternoon," returned Theodora. "After six in the morning will be too
+late. It is life and death, I tell you. Go and tell him."
+
+"Obstinate girl, I tell you Mr. Harkaway has serious business on at
+daybreak, and has gone to rest, giving the strictest orders that he is
+not to be disturbed."
+
+"Call him," returned Theodora, with forced calmness, "and he will have
+no need to go on this business at daybreak."
+
+"Hah!"
+
+"Do you hear?"
+
+The girl retreated backwards, never moving her eyes from Theodora.
+
+"This is some hired assassin." she thought. "They can't tackle my
+master, and knowing how wary he is, they have hired a girl to do the
+deed."
+
+She was about to thrust to the door, when Theodora, in sheer despair,
+burst in, and cried at the top of her voice to Harkaway--
+
+"Mr. Harkaway! Mr. Harkaway; come, come and hear news of your poor
+boys, I say."
+
+At this wild outcry in the middle of his house, Jack stepped out of his
+room.
+
+"Keep back, sir; keep back," screamed the servant "She's an assassin."
+
+At these words Harkaway slipped back into his room, and reappeared
+armed with a pair of pistols.
+
+"Now, what is it you require, my girl?" he demanded of Theodora.
+
+"A few words with you."
+
+"Don't trust her," shrieked the servant; "I saw a knife in her girdle.
+Don't trust her."
+
+Theodora smiled faintly.
+
+"I am alone, unarmed," she said; "the great Mr. Harkaway, the hero of
+the day here, is surely not afraid of me."
+
+"I am afraid of no one," returned Jack; "but I warn you, my girl, that
+if any treachery be meditated, each of these pistols carries a man's
+life."
+
+"It can not affect me," returned Theodora, calmly. "I come to bring you
+news which will gladden your heart, and have no fear of your enmity."
+
+Her words and her manner thrilled Harkaway strangely. He lowered the
+pistols.
+
+He had her shown into a room, and followed her in.
+
+"Sit down there, my girl, and tell me all," he said, trying to appear
+composed, while he was in reality singularly moved.
+
+"I come, Mr. Harkaway," said Theodora, who had now regained all her
+calmness, "to bring you the most welcome news that ever gladdened your
+ear--that ever sent balm and comfort to your bruised heart."
+
+Jack turned pale; he thought he had heard her speak of his boys before
+leaving his room.
+
+"Speak on," he said, his voice faltering.
+
+"Tell me, sir, what could I say that would restore happiness to you--to
+your wife--to your friends and home? What could I say to lift the veil
+of mourning from your house and hearts?--to restore the former gaiety
+to this tomb-like place."
+
+Jack Harkaway listened as one in a dream.
+
+"Girl," he said, in a voice that was almost inaudible, "you know not
+what you say."
+
+"I am perfectly cognisant of all," she replied.
+
+"Then your errand here is to torture me?"
+
+"You wrong me."
+
+Harkaway looked her sternly in the face.
+
+And Theodora bore his glance without flinching.
+
+"Your manner tells me," he said, "that you know better than any one
+what alone could restore happiness here."
+
+"You are right."
+
+And she gravely inclined her head as she answered.
+
+"And you know it is impossible," he said.
+
+"It is not."
+
+"Not impossible!" ejaculated Harkaway. "Know you what you say?"
+
+"Perfectly."
+
+"Girl, girl," cried Harkaway, passionately, "the grave can not give
+back its dead."
+
+"It does--it has."
+
+Harkaway gasped for breath.
+
+She was about to speak on, when the ghastly pallor of his countenance
+and its wild, haggard expression frightened her.
+
+"Girl, go on, tell me," he cried excitedly; "do not play with me."
+
+"Calm yourself, Mr. Harkaway, pray--"
+
+"Go on, go on."
+
+"You alarm me."
+
+"Speak, in mercy's sake," implored Harkaway; "this suspense is ten
+thousand times worse than all the good or bad news which you could
+bring me--are you fooling me?" he added springing up and seizing his
+pistols.
+
+"No."
+
+"Speak on then."
+
+"Your son Jack--"
+
+"Yes, yes; my boy--my own darling brave lad--what of him?"
+
+The girl suddenly turned pale. "Hark," she said, "I think I hear
+footsteps outside; quick! to the window; I think we are watched," and
+the girl sank in terror at Jack's feet.
+
+Harkaway, with one bound, sprang to the window, pistol in hand, ready
+for use.
+
+But it was a false alarm; and, having satisfied himself that there were
+no eavesdroppers, Harkaway returned to his seat, and the girl resumed--
+
+"Are you able to bear good news?"
+
+"Yes," he said, with a sickly smile; "the novelty would perhaps affect
+me--speak then--you said my boy--"
+
+"Lives," answered the girl.
+
+"Impossible," he faltered; "why, Harvey saw their grave."
+
+"And I too saw them in their grave."
+
+"In their grave!" echoed Harkaway; "and yet you say they live."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where are they?"
+
+"Close at hand; but I wish to ask you in return--"
+
+"All you will--anything, everything--only bring me back my boys."
+
+"I only ask to save the lives of the men unjustly accused of the
+murder, and who have been doomed to die to-morrow."
+
+"Granted--why, it was granted unasked," said Harkaway.
+
+"Enough," said the girl; "I see that I may count upon you. Will you
+come with me to your son and his friend?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He sprang up with the greatest alacrity, but a sudden fancy crossed
+him, and he seized the girl by the shoulder.
+
+"You are not playing me false?" said Jack.
+
+"Look in my face and be assured."
+
+He gazed long and earnestly at her, and she bore his fixed look
+unflinchingly.
+
+"Yes, yes," he said, more to himself than to her; "you are truthful--I
+am sure of that--but I'll not neglect any precaution; for my head is so
+sorely perplexed by all you have told me that I scarcely know if I am
+asleep or waking."
+
+He pressed his brow with his open hands, and then looking carefully to
+the priming of his revolvers, he started out with the girl; and as they
+issued from the grounds of the villa, he spoke his last words of
+mistrust before giving her his whole confidence.
+
+"You see, Theodora," he said, for she had told him her name, "I don't
+hang back. I freely confide in you."
+
+"You do well."
+
+"I believe so--see that my confidence is not misplaced, and you shall
+have no cause to repent it."
+
+"Your words would imply a promise of reward for me; but I seek none."
+
+"I am willing to believe it, but still my fixed resolve--"
+
+"Your fixed resolve could not make me take it," said the girl, proudly.
+"I have told you my object in my present mission; I have no other."
+
+Harkaway was greatly surprised at this, but as he stole a sidelong
+glance at her, surprise was not the only expression in his face.
+
+Admiration was strongly mixed with it.
+
+"Tell me where we are going?" he asked presently, as they got clear of
+the town.
+
+"To the prison by the water."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"They are there."
+
+"But in prison--how came they there? In prison! Why, then, without
+knowing it, I have been probably twenty times within earshot of both."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"How came they there?--no half measures now. Surely this is the time
+for revealing all?"
+
+"And now, Mr. Harkaway, I will tell you all as we walk on. The seeming
+mystery shall remain so no longer."
+
+So saying, Theodora began the brief but startling narrative which
+follows--and which may fairly be entitled--
+
+THE DEAD ALIVE.
+
+"Your dear son Jack and his friend Harry Girdwood saved my life when I
+was in danger of drowning at sea. They brought me safely ashore, only
+to fall into the hands of my remorseless companions, the mountaineers.
+Ah, I see you would call them by something less gentle in sound. Well,
+it was a planned thing. I was the decoy, but alas! I thought but little
+then how soon I was to repent of my share in that evil work."
+
+"Go on."
+
+"I will, to the end, even though you should learn to loathe me. Well, a
+price was put on their heads."
+
+"Which I paid."
+
+"You paid one-fifth."
+
+"No, no; I paid all, as demanded."
+
+"Hunston returned to the camp with only one hundred pounds, and they
+voted the death of the two boys. Poor boys! both brave boys. The
+bravest veteran on the battlefield never faced death with the heroic
+calmness of those two young heroes, sir."
+
+"Bless you for those words, my girl," exclaimed the gratified Harkaway.
+"I am proud of my dear boy."
+
+"I demanded their release--I implored--I begged--I prayed in the most
+abject terms. But they had felt the weight of your hand too often. They
+and theirs had suffered so much that I was powerless. I could only
+obtain one small concession."
+
+"Say on, say on!" exclaimed Harkaway. "What was that? I burn with
+eagerness to know more of my dear boys."
+
+"I was to do the last sad honours to the noble dead. Three were to be
+executed; one of themselves, a traitor called Lirico. By dissimulating
+to Hunston--the viper! how I tremble with horror at the very name--I
+obtained one concession--Lirico was the first to suffer, the boys were
+to follow."
+
+"Oh, Hunston! villain!" groaned Harkaway, "villain!"
+
+"The execution took place at daybreak. I waited on the firing party.
+When the wretched Lirico was dealt upon, I passed round and gave the
+men to drink from a spirit keg which I had specially provided. Then,
+while they feasted upon the drugged spirit, I passed round and reloaded
+the muskets for what they thought the final butchery."
+
+"Well, well, do not torture me, girl. Quick, tell me the end."
+
+"Can you not guess?"
+
+"No, no. Quick, tell me all."
+
+"In loading the muskets I forgot the bullets."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed old Jack, half-hysterically. "I see it all now,
+brave girl."
+
+"The rest was no easy task. As the men fired, they fell back in the
+grave and simulated death, as I had instructed them overnight; and now
+you can understand how I saw them in the grave and yet can prove that
+they live."
+
+"I do. Girl, you are brave and good; I know not how to thank you for
+the lives of my poor boys."
+
+"The night before their great trial, I exacted a solemn promise from
+them that they would follow me to a hiding place without the least
+offer of resistance."
+
+"I begin to see. But how did you contrive--"
+
+"To get them secreted in the great prison?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You shall hear. My foster-sister is the daughter of the head gaoler.
+Her lover is completely at her mercy, and he holds a superior post in
+the prison. It was the only condition upon which I could spare the
+brave boys' lives, and so they were forced to yield."
+
+"And all this time we might have been spared the bitterest agony."
+
+She hung her head.
+
+"I know it, but I dared not speak sooner, for I feared to betray my
+friends."
+
+"You may trust me," said Jack.
+
+"I know it, for I have saved your boys."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They reached the prison.
+
+"Sebastian," said Theodora, presenting Harkaway to her foster-sister
+and the latter's lover, "this is Mr. Harkaway."
+
+The Greek official bowed with an air of constraint.
+
+"Theodora has told you all, sir?"
+
+"Yes, you have risked much to save my boys' lives."
+
+"Since I can count upon your forbearance," said Sebastian, "I will say
+no more. Follow me to the presence of the boys."
+
+So saying, Sebastian led the way through the stone-paved passages to
+the tower overhanging the sea, in which the cell of the two boys was
+situated.
+
+At the base of the tower were jagged, sea-beaten rocks.
+
+Beside the tower, at about half the height of the tower, reckoning from
+the level of the sea, was a gravel terrace, covered with a waterproof
+canopy, so as to form a sort of shed.
+
+And looking out of the tower windows as they passed up its steep inner
+staircase, Harkaway inquired what this place was.
+
+"That is used as the prison mortuary."
+
+"Those black, ugly outlines there are--"
+
+"Bodies."
+
+"Ugh!"
+
+"They are put into those black bags in lieu of winding sheets, then
+placed into those rough wooden shells, which are lowered to the prison
+cemetery below by that crane you see to the right."
+
+"A very poor look-out."
+
+But away with such dull thoughts.
+ Here he was on the threshold of new joy--new life.
+
+"Your boys are here," said Sebastian, pausing before a huge barred
+door.
+
+He undid the fastenings, and pushing open the door, made way for
+Harkaway to pass in.
+
+"Enter, sir," he said.
+
+Harkaway's heart beat high.
+
+He pushed open the door--entered.
+
+"Where are they?"
+
+"There."
+
+A momentary pause.
+
+"There's no one there," said Harkaway, in a tone indicative of
+powerfully-suppressed emotion.
+
+Dire apprehensions of evil stole over both Sebastian and Theodora as
+they followed Harkaway into the cell.
+
+"Theodora," gasped Sebastian, staggering back, "they are gone."
+
+"Where? How?"
+
+"They must have escaped."
+
+"Liar!" yelled Harkaway, suddenly springing back and drawing his
+six-shooter; "this is some plot. Thieves! murderers! You think to fool me;
+but you shall pay the penalty for your villainy. You are in an injured
+father's grasp. Die, brigands!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+YOUNG JACK AND HIS COMRADE HARRY GIRDWOOD--DEAD OR ALIVE--THE
+RIDDLE UNRAVELLED--THE PLAN IN CYPHER--A RELIC OF THE
+PAST--EUREKA!--THE CYPHER UNRAVELLED.
+
+
+Now for young Jack.
+
+Once more let us see the bold young Harkaway and Harry, his brave
+comrade.
+
+Too long have we been absent from them.
+
+Too long have we been forced by the exigencies of our history to leave,
+not only the Harkaway family and party generally, under the cruel
+impression that the two boys had been foully murdered, but the reader
+likewise.
+
+They lived.
+
+Aye, it was every word true that Theodora had said.
+
+Sebastian was not a wit less truthful.
+
+When he opened the door of the cell in the tower, he fully expected to
+find the two boys there.
+
+Where were they?
+
+By what jugglery had they contrived to get out of such a formidable
+fortress as that place?
+
+This the present chapter is to relate.
+
+To give it clearly, however briefly, we must go back to the day of
+their entrance into their gloomy prison home.
+
+Jack and Harry were alone.
+
+"This is a rum go, Jack," said Harry Girdwood. "What do you think of
+it?"
+
+"Precious dull, old boy," grumbled young Harkaway.
+
+"Better than a grave on the mountain side."
+
+"It is just that," said young Jack. "But it wouldn't be quite so good
+if this sort of thing was meant to be permanent."
+
+"Growler, growler," said Harry Girdwood. "Why, I call these famous
+diggings, after that hole they meant us to rest in while the worms made
+meat of us. Besides, we must get away."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Escape."
+
+Young Jack looked up at the word, and his heart beat a little quicker.
+
+But he said nothing.
+
+Frowning walls on every side.
+
+The cell was fully eighteen feet high, and the window was close up by
+the ceiling.
+
+"If we want to get out of this," said young Jack, "we must begin
+operations from this moment."
+
+"Good."
+
+"Do you know, Harry, what is to be the first step?"
+
+"No."
+
+"To get at that window."
+
+"But it is about eighteen feet high."
+
+"Well, we must reach it," said young Jack.
+
+Both boys were expert gymnasts.
+
+The greasiest of greasy poles were vanquished by either with the
+greatest of ease.
+
+In the stormiest weather they could mount into the topmost parts of the
+rigging on board ship.
+
+And the consequence was that the morning after their entrance into
+their prison found young Jack perched up at the window, looking down at
+his comrade and fellow-prisoner, and giving graphic descriptions of all
+he saw there.
+
+"What's on the other side, Jack?"
+
+"The sea, the open sea, old fellow," cried Jack.
+
+"And below?"
+
+"The sea, again, old fellow."
+
+"To the right?"
+
+"The sea, the sea--the open sea, old fellow. Water, water, everywhere,
+and not a drop to drink. At least it would be an awful _drop_ to
+get at it."
+
+"Can you see any thing to the right?"
+
+"Water only."
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"Yes--hallo!"
+
+Some thing fell.
+
+A roll of some thing white and soft dropped at Harry Girdwood's feet,
+and he hastened to pick it up.
+
+Some thing white, we said.
+
+Well, it had once been white, but now it had got very considerably
+discoloured with age and dust, which seemed to indicate that it had
+been a long while up on the shelf in its hiding place.
+
+Yes, its hiding place.
+
+They opened the bundle, and found it to be composed of three slips of
+cotton, upon which were written, in red ink, curious things which they
+could not make much of.
+
+Upon one of these pieces of cotton were certain cabalistic signs, such
+as figures, algebraical marks, and geometrical figures.
+
+Upon another was traced a plan of some building.
+
+A third was a sectional view, drawn roughly, but upon architectural
+principles, and marked with initial letters of reference.
+
+"This is a rum go," said Harry Girdwood, laughing.
+
+Young Jack had dropped from his perch and joined his fellow-prisoner on
+_terra firma,_ and together they poured over these singular rags.
+
+Now young Harkaway soon lost patience, and speaking contemptuously of
+their find, he proposed pitching it through the grated window into the
+sea.
+
+"Not I," said Harry; "there's some thing here which it will amuse me to
+puzzle out."
+
+"If you like to kill time that way, Harry," answered young Jack,
+laughing, "no harm; there's plenty of time to kill in this dreadful
+dungeon."
+
+And puzzle over this precious treasure Harry did.
+
+The cloth upon which were the cabalistic signs was headed with certain
+words, which were all but illegible, and this he managed to construe.
+
+"Simple cypher, left in hopes that it may yet serve some unfortunate
+Englishman to escape from the tender mercies of this hole."
+
+Below this were the following figures and signs--
+
+3. 15. 21. 14. 20.--6. 15. 21. 18.--19. 20. 15. 14. 5. 19.--21.
+16.--6. 18. 15. 13.--7. 18. 15. 21. 14. 4.--20. 23.
+15.--6. 15. 21. 18.--19. 9. 4. 5.--15. 6.--3. 8. 9.
+
+                        Neath)
+13. 14. 5. 25.--             > C.--23.
+                        Press)
+                        it.
+
+8. 1. 20.--9. 19--
+                    revealed.
+
+Now when Harry Girdwood had got through the above puzzle once or twice,
+he was in a regular fog. The only result was to get himself heartily
+laughed at by his fellow-prisoner.
+
+So Harry Girdwood kept what he knew of the matter to himself.
+
+Upon that same day towards sundown, when Sebastian came round to bring
+their food, Harry Girdwood said--
+
+"We are not the first Englishmen who have been here, my friend."
+
+Sebastian gave him a sharp glance, as he answered--
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"There is no mystery in it," replied Harry Girdwood; "I saw some words
+written in pencil upon the wall."
+
+"Where?"
+
+The eagerness of his manner aroused the curiosity of both the boys.
+
+"Somewhere here," replied Harry, pretending to seek for the marks upon
+the wall.
+
+But of course he found nothing.
+
+"It is strange," he said, still looking about; "for I made sure it was
+hereabouts somewhere. I saw some words which made me sure that it was
+occupied by an Englishman once."
+
+"You are right," replied Sebastian; "quite right. An Englishman named
+Terence Dougherty--"
+
+"That Englishman was Irish," said young Jack.
+
+"Possibly; but he was a priest. He was confined here for a long while.
+So long that he went mad."
+
+"Mad, did you say?"
+
+"Yes, and raving at last; his madness appeared to have so much method
+in it that it quite deceived our head doctor."
+
+"How did he deceive the head doctor?"
+
+"By his apparent sanity. He was mad as a March hare, and he used to
+rave about having discovered the way out of the prison."
+
+The two boys pricked up their ears at this speech.
+
+"What was more natural?" said Sebastian. "A prisoner is always thinking
+how he can get away."
+
+"Of course."
+
+"And yet," said Sebastian, "the old priest was sure he had discovered
+the way to elude our vigilance when he chose to put his plan into
+execution; and his dying words startled us."
+
+"How?"
+
+"He said to the doctor within twenty minutes of drawing his last
+breath--'Doctor, you think I am mad. Not a bit of it, and I tell you
+that I have given my life to the study of prison breaking--getting out
+of this particular cell--and, doctor, I should have got out if the
+great commander death had not ordered me off by another route. As it
+is, I leave my work for the benefit of the first Briton who shall fall
+into your claws and drop into my cell, and then--mark me well--he'll
+profit by my work, unless he be a greater fool than you have taken me
+to be, and get away."
+
+"He was very mad," said young Harkaway.
+
+"Very."
+
+Harry Girdwood said nothing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They were alone.
+
+Young Jack was full of deep and serious thought.
+
+Harry Girdwood arose suddenly from his puzzle.
+
+"Eureka!" he cried; "I have discovered it."
+
+"What?" demanded the startled Jack.
+
+"The cypher. It is alphabetical. Listen here."
+
+Young Jack approached.
+
+"It is clear as daylight," said Harry; "these figures correspond with
+the letters of the alphabet."
+
+_"'Count four stones up from ground. Two from side of chimney. Press
+underneath. See what is revealed under it.'"_
+
+"Hurrah!" cried young Jack.
+
+"Hurrah!" yelled Harry Girdwood; "but stop. Let us see if there is any
+thing in it, for we may yet escape."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+WHAT THE CYPHER DID FOR THEM--THE END OF THE PASSAGE--NEARLY
+SAVED--BACK AGAIN--LOST--THE DEAD-HOUSE ON THE TERRACE.
+
+
+Four Stones up.
+
+Two across.
+
+"Do you understand it now, Harry?"
+
+The latter scratched his head and looked about.
+
+"I understand it well enough," he replied; "but there is one
+difficulty."
+
+"What?"
+
+"A tool."
+
+"Let us try with our hands first," said Jack.
+
+And so saying, he set to work himself to try as he suggested.
+
+"One, two, three, four, and two up. Good! Now, Harry, lend a hand here.
+Come."
+
+Harry Girdwood dropped on one knee beside his companion and together
+they pressed the stone indicated in the singular cypher.
+
+For a moment they felt no effect, but after a minute's effort they
+found that they had made an impression.
+
+The discovery set them all aglow.
+
+"Once more."
+
+"Harder yet."
+
+"Of course; only mind, Jack, no jerking."
+
+"All right"
+
+"We must work without making any noise; a jerk might bring down one of
+the stones with a clatter, which would alarm the guards.
+
+"Caution is our watchword."
+
+Soon they had the satisfaction of seeing the stone revolve and drop out
+into their arms.
+
+Then they saw that beyond the hole thus left there was an open space.
+
+It was pitch dark.
+
+Now, the hole in the wall was only just big enough for one of them to
+squeeze through, and Harry Girdwood pushed in eagerly, and then he
+perceived that beyond was a sort of tunnel on a small scale, with a
+roughly-hewn flight of steps at the end of it.
+
+"I can see some steps," said he.
+
+"Go on," said Jack, with feverish eagerness.
+
+"I will; but you go to the door, Jack, and listen."
+
+Jack stood eagerly watching at the dungeon door.
+
+Young Jack was full of eagerness.
+
+Harry had disappeared, and he could not see or hear him.
+
+"All right."
+
+The answer came in a hollow, echoing sound, which indicated that Harry
+Girdwood had made some considerable progress.
+
+This increased his eagerness greatly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Harry."
+
+No answer.
+
+He was too far for young Jack's voice to reach him.
+
+Quitting his post at the door, young Jack ran back to the hole in the
+wall, and called out eagerly to his exploring comrade--
+
+"Harry, Harry!"
+
+"Hullo!"
+
+"Come back, quick! I can hear someone coming."
+
+"The deuce you can."
+
+Back he scrambled as fast as the narrow space would allow of, and he
+was soon in the cell again.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"I heard the bell go and the iron door along the passage outside.
+Sebastian is coming."
+
+"Confound it! Look what a precious mess."
+
+The displacing of the stone had left traces of the work.
+
+But having seen their danger, they were prepared to provide against it.
+
+Quick as thought they swept up the dirt, mortar, and rubbish, and threw
+it into the hole.
+
+Then, joining hands, they raised the stone and lifted it into its
+place.
+
+At that moment the key turned in the massive and half rusty lock.
+
+Sebastian entered the cell, tray in hand.
+
+He had not the faintest suspicion that any thing was wrong.
+
+"Will you leave the tray, Sebastian?"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"For us to work up our appetites; we have none to speak of now."
+
+"Very good," returned the man; "there can be no harm in that."
+
+"Of course not."
+
+Sebastian then left the room.
+
+"Thank goodness he's gone!" said young Jack, who was all impatience to
+see what Harry was to do next.
+
+Harry Girdwood watched until the door was fairly closed, and then
+turned again to the hole in the wall.
+
+"Come along. Follow me, Jack."
+
+"Trot on," said young Harkaway. "I'm after you."
+
+They both scrambled through the hole, and when they were upon the other
+side, they replaced the stone.
+
+And this done, the cell wore its original aspect.
+
+Their way now lay down a rugged flight of steps, roughly cut in the
+solid earth.
+
+The greatest care was necessary to avoid stumbling.
+
+At length Harry Girdwood came to a standstill.
+
+"Jack," he said, in a whisper,
+
+"Here."
+
+"Keep close now."
+
+"Right."
+
+"Nearer. Lend me a hand here. That's it. Now help me to raise the stone
+here."
+
+"Are you sure you are right?"
+
+"Certain."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"This is exactly the position of the stone we have to lift away that
+old Dougherty describes in his plan."
+
+Young Jack said no more, but lent his aid, and together they shifted
+the stone from its place.
+
+Then daylight peeped into their dark hiding-place.
+
+There was something leaning against the opening.
+
+They pushed it aside, and stepping over a pile of sacks, found
+themselves in a covered shed overlooking the sea.
+
+A place of curious aspect, with no sign of life in it
+
+All was as still and gloomy-looking as if it were a huge mausoleum.
+
+"I know what this place is," said Harry Girdwood.
+
+"What?"
+
+"It must be the dead-house on the terrace that I see noted down in old
+Dougherty's plans."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+While they were in the dead-house upon the terrace, a stirring scene
+was being enacted in the cell in the tower above, which they had only
+lately vacated.
+
+In fact, Jack Harkaway the elder had only just entered the cell with
+Sebastian as they found themselves upon the terrace.
+
+"Where are we now?"
+
+There were several ugly-looking long boxes, whose shape was uniform and
+suggestive, standing upon tressels.
+
+Besides these, there were no objects in the room or shed beyond a few
+badly-filled sacks which rested against the wall.
+
+They looked anxiously about them.
+
+Nearly facing the place where they had made their entrance was a door,
+and this they tried without a moment's loss of time.
+
+Fast.
+
+Immovable.
+
+"The window, then," said Harry Girdwood.
+
+Back they ran on tip-toe to the window, and pushing open the casement,
+they looked out.
+
+The sea.
+
+Between thirty and forty feet below, and lashing the very base of the
+prison.
+
+They turned to each other simultaneously.
+
+"Ugh!"
+
+"No chance here."
+
+"This is a funny go."
+
+"Well, Jack," said Harry, ruefully, "I'm glad you find it funny; for my
+part, I don't see the joke."
+
+"Your friend, old Dougherty, did, no doubt."
+
+"Don't be hard on poor old Dougherty," said Harry, laughingly. "It is
+very likely that his plan is complete, if we could only find it out."
+
+"Where is it?"
+
+"In our cell," said Harry; "I'll go back and get it."
+
+And putting aside the sack, he pressed his way into the opening.
+
+Young Jack glanced around him at the boxes on the tressels.
+
+An unpleasant feeling stole over him.
+
+He did not relish being left alone with the dead.
+
+He felt convinced that those ugly boxes did contain the bodies of dead
+prisoners.
+
+"I'm with you, Harry," he said.
+
+After him he pressed, and up the long, narrow tunnel made by old
+Dougherty they passed.
+
+Sometimes on all fours; sometimes standing nearly upright.
+
+"A few steps more, and we are there," said Harry.
+
+"Hah!"
+
+"What now?"
+
+"Listen!"
+
+"I can hear voices," said Harry, in a whisper. "This is the stone which
+is all we have to displace to get back to the cell."
+
+"Then the voices are there?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"By jingo!" exclaimed young Jack, "then they must have discovered our
+absence already."
+
+"Of course."
+
+"How I should like to yell out something! Wouldn't it startle them just
+a little?"
+
+"Don't be foolish, Jack," said his companion, uneasily. "You would ruin
+us."
+
+"They'd never discover where we were. Shall I startle them?"
+
+"No. Our only chance of safety depends upon keeping snug."
+
+"All right."
+
+They could hear noisy tones of anger, which denoted that something
+unusual had occurred.
+
+"There are several people there," said Harry, listening intently at the
+stone.
+
+"By Jove! how I should like to give them a cheer."
+
+"Keep quiet," exclaimed Harry. "You will ruin us."
+
+But, by a mere chance, he was wrong there.
+
+Had young Jack really indulged in his propensity of devilment on this
+occasion, it would have saved them many hours of mental anguish and of
+bodily suffering, for the angry words uttered in the cell but lately
+tenanted by the two boys were spoken by Jack Harkaway the elder?
+
+Yes.
+
+Cruel fate was playing them a sad trick.
+
+They were now actually fleeing from their father and protector.
+
+The voice raised in anger, and whose echo came but feebly to them in
+their hiding-place, was his.
+
+Harkaway's.
+
+And thus were these loving hearts parted by a few inches of stone wall.
+
+The boys, on the one hand, taking the confused sounds for the murmur of
+their enemy's voice.
+
+And at that very moment Harkaway was nearly distracted to have all his
+hopes dashed rudely to the ground.
+
+And in his anger, two lives were sorely endangered.
+
+Sebastian and Theodora were both menaced--aye, both.
+
+Harkaway could only believe that they had been fooling him, and that he
+had been trapped there with a view to further treachery.
+
+His rage, in consequence, knew no bounds.
+
+But we must now follow the two brave boys.
+
+"Back we go, or we shall be captured," said Harry Girdwood.
+
+Young Jack led the way back as fast as the narrow space would permit.
+
+And soon they were in the dead-house again, and groping about here,
+they presently came upon a cupboard in which they discovered a number
+of tools.
+
+"Luck at last," ejaculated Harry.
+
+"Here, let's make sure of these two knives," said young Jack.
+
+They were long-bladed weapons, something similar in shape to the
+American bowie.
+
+They took one each and placed them in their waist belts.
+
+They little thought then of the singular yet immense service these were
+to be to them.
+
+Now barely were these knives secreted when they were startled by the
+sound of heavy foot-falls upon the stone-paved passage beyond the
+dead-house door.
+
+"What shall we do now?"
+
+Young Jack stepped up to the door, and listened intently for awhile.
+
+"There are only two people," he said to his comrade, Harry, in a
+whisper.
+
+"Only two. Well, that's quite enough, I should say."
+
+"Let us hide behind the door," said young Jack, eagerly, "and then fall
+upon them, and make a dash for liberty."
+
+The steps drew nearer and nearer.
+
+"Let us hide here," said Harry, pushing the lid off one of the long
+coffins or shells.
+
+But even as he did so, both boys started back with looks of horror.
+
+And why?
+
+The removal of the coffin lid revealed a ghastly corpse, the face
+showing the last agonies which the dead man had suffered, and they, to
+judge by the distorted face and twisted mouth, must have been horrible
+indeed.
+
+They pushed back the lid.
+
+"Ugh!"
+
+"Horrible, horrible!" gasped young Jack. The footsteps sounded nearer.
+
+They were coming to this place, whoever it was.
+
+The boys looked about them in despair.
+
+At the last moment young Jack's eye lighted upon an empty sack upon the
+ground, lying beside the full ones to which we have previously alluded.
+
+"Let's get in that."
+
+"Good."
+
+Harry Girdwood jumped at the proposition.
+
+Now the sacks were very large, and made of coarse canvas, thick enough
+to avoid falling into folds, which would reveal the contents to any one
+at a glance.
+
+So, quick as thought, young Jack held it open while Harry got in, and
+then Harry, holding up the sides of it with both hands, stood erect
+while young Jack joined him.
+
+"This is a novel way of jumping in sack," said the irrepressible Jack.
+
+"Hush!"
+
+"They come."
+
+A key was heard grating in the rusty lock, and as the boys inclined
+against the other sacks so as to look as much like one of the pile as
+possible, the heavy door ground suddenly ajar, and two ugly-looking,
+black-visaged men entered the shed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+THE BLACK TRADE--A TRAFFIC IN DEATH--A PLACE OF HORROR--CAN IT
+BE TRUE?--TWO BOYS IN ONE SHROUD--A FIGHT WITH A SHARK--GIVING HIM THE
+SACK--DEEP-SEA FISHING ON A NOVEL PLAN.
+
+
+The two black-looking ruffians looked about them stealthily as though
+they were on no good errand there.
+
+Then one of them listened at the door awhile.
+
+"You had better lock the door, Fleon," said one of the men. "What we
+have to do mustn't be overlooked."
+
+"True."
+
+The boys heard the door closed and locked, and the sound seemed to lock
+out another hope for them.
+
+"Now, Fleon, come here."
+
+"Well, what now?"
+
+"We must come to terms."
+
+"Of course, Barthes, but there is no need to go far into that matter;
+the terms are simple enough."
+
+"You are allowed forty-five francs for each burial, that is, for cost
+of the shell and sheet."
+
+"No, forty only."
+
+"Well, forty; and if I sign the register in my quality of head
+gravedigger, you can go and get your money at once. Besides, you will
+have my sacks."
+
+"You drive a bargain like a Jew. Keep your sacks."
+
+"And drop the bodies out into the water?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Impossible."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"They would float."
+
+"No matter, the sharks below would soon take care of the few that
+floated."
+
+"Are we agreed," cried Fleon, "for halves?"
+
+The other made some grumbling rejoinder, but grumbling he closed with
+the proposition.
+
+"Very good, very good," said Fleon, rubbing his hands. "Now let us cast
+them up."
+
+"One, two, four, six, eight, eleven, thirteen," said Barthes.
+
+Now they were standing so close to the pile of sacks that the boys in
+their novel place of concealment could not only hear every word, but
+they actually felt the speakers brushing against them.
+
+But they dared not speak.
+
+They even held their breath.
+
+They heard, and partly understood, yet could not believe that they
+guessed aright.
+
+What could it mean?
+
+Surely not--
+
+No, no, no!
+
+The thought maddened the boys.
+
+It was too horrible.
+
+Yet what did the rest of the sacks contain?
+
+Besides, there were no other sacks in the shed but these.
+
+Both the boys heard the conversation.
+
+Yet so fearful a notion was it that each felt that he had not heard
+aright.
+
+They dared not speak.
+
+And their worst fears were indeed correct.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Hullo!"
+
+"What now?"
+
+"Thirteen."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You are wrong," said Fleon; "count them again."
+
+The man obeyed.
+
+"Thirteen; I was sure of it."
+
+"Well, that's a rum go," said Fleon. "I am positive that there were
+only twelve."
+
+"There's a baker's dozen now," said Barthes, with his brutal laugh;
+"the more the merrier."
+
+"Right."
+
+"What are you staring at?"
+
+"I can't make out that thirteenth one."
+
+"Well, I don't see that that's any thing to weep over. Thirteen at
+dinner is an awkward number, they say; but I dare say that the sharks
+won't object to it; they're nor so weak-minded as to be superstitious.
+Ha, ha, ha!"
+
+But still Fleon could not get over this last sack.
+
+"I've got it."
+
+"What, where the last sack came from?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, then, out with it, and ease your mind--not that I care much, so
+long as we land the money."
+
+"Why, they have brought the last one in from the hospital fever-ward; I
+heard the bell tolling at midnight, and I remember now that they said
+another was all but gone."
+
+"Why, of course," said Barthes; "and see how the lazy beggars haven't
+even taken the trouble to tie the neck of the sack round."
+
+"That's easily done."
+
+Before the boys could guess what was next to take place, the sack was
+jerked over, and a rope was twisted around the neck of the sack, thus
+excluding nearly all the air.
+
+But young Jack had already grown desperate, and he held his knife in
+his hand ready for an emergency.
+
+The jerk had sent the knife through the sack about two inches, and it
+prodded Barthes in the hand.
+
+"Hullo!"
+
+He yelled and drew back his hand
+
+"What now?"
+
+"I've cut myself."
+
+"Why, how on earth did you manage that?"
+
+"There's a knife sticking out of the sack. Let's open it and get it
+out."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"It's a pity to throw such a thing into the sea."
+
+The boys shivered.
+
+This time there could be no mistaking the words.
+
+"Jack," whispered Harry Girdwood, "do you hear?"
+
+"Yes; let us show ourselves, and go back to prison, or--"
+
+But before he could complete his proposition, they were jerked in the
+sack up on to their feet.
+
+"Come, let's do it quick"
+
+"Good!"
+
+"Phew!" grunted Barthes; "it's precious heavy."
+
+"Heavy enough for two," said Fleon.
+
+"Over with it. Now, then, both together at the word three."
+
+"One."
+
+"Two."
+
+"Three."
+
+They raised the sack on to the window ledge and--
+
+"Oh, murder!" cried Barthes, his cheek blanching with terror. "I felt
+something move in the sack."
+
+"So did I," faltered Fleon.
+
+"It's alive," cried the man Barthes, turning pale.
+
+"Over with it, then; sharp."
+
+It was poised for an instant, no more, over the dizzy height.
+
+Then down it went.
+
+As it fell, a wild, despairing shriek went up to Heaven.
+
+A piteous cry.
+
+It was cut short by the sharp flight through the air.
+
+A splash.
+
+Then all was still.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The two ruffians stood staring at each other, their eyes half starting
+from their sockets.
+
+The perspiration stood out in big beads upon their foreheads, and they
+shook like ague-stricken wretches.
+
+"Look over," said Fleon in a hoarse whisper. "What do you see?"
+
+"I see," responded the other, in the same constrained tone, "there's a
+shark! I see his fin."
+
+"There's plenty more in the neighbourhood."
+
+"No; he's all alone, and, my eye! what a feast he'll have!"
+
+"I see him! He strikes for the bottom. He's got him, whether he's dead
+or alive."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+A WATERY GRAVE--THE BED OF THE OCEAN--A BOLD STROKE FOR LIFE--THE
+RACE WITH A SHARK--A NARROW SQUEAK--HOW TO GIVE A SHARK THE SACK--THE
+BOAT--"FREE, FREE AS AIR!"--A STRANGE ENCOUNTER WITH A GENTLEMAN ON
+TWO WOODEN LEGS.
+
+
+Poor boys!
+
+Unhappy Jack.
+
+Luckless Harry Girdwood.
+
+The fall from such a height to the water would render death almost a
+certainty.
+
+Hand and foot bound, they could not move.
+
+Yet stay.
+
+Could it be possible that these noble boys were to fall victims to the
+villainy of such ruffians?
+
+No.
+
+As they reached the bottom, the two boys, momentarily deprived of their
+senses by the fall, were partially restored by the shock.
+
+Instinctively the knives go to work.
+
+Young Jack here rendered the most signal service.
+
+He held his knife in a tight grip even as they fell.
+
+And barely did they come in contact with the bed of the ocean, when
+young Jack stabbed upwards, and, at a single stroke, cut his way out of
+the sack.
+
+At the self-same instant his left hand grappled his friend and trusty
+comrade Harry.
+
+To kick the earth fiercely with his feet was to Jack a natural impulse,
+and striking upwards, he made for the surface.
+
+Will he reach it?
+
+Doubtful.
+
+It seemed a weary, weary way to get.
+
+But now the water grows lighter and less dense.
+
+Jack and Harry can see about them.
+
+Both are experienced swimmers and divers, and they always keep their
+eyes open under water. And now this habit serves them in good stead,
+for looking up, Jack perceives a huge floating mass bearing down upon
+him through the water.
+
+Jack and Harry have Fleon's words, and the cruel jokes of Barthes,
+still ringing in their ears, and they know, alas too well what it
+means.
+
+A shark.
+
+With the energy of despair, both boys strike out, diving lower.
+
+And now for a moment their fate seems sealed.
+
+They discover that their rapid movements are stopped by the sack, which
+they have not got quite clear of, and which, puffed, follows them up
+through the water in their progress to the air and light.
+
+And this, by a miracle, saves them.
+
+The voracious monster of the deep strikes for the two boys, but its
+unwieldy body not answering its helm with the swiftness of an ordinary
+fish, it shoots fairly into the ripped-up sack, in which it gets its
+huge maws entangled.
+
+A strange trap for a shark.
+
+A shark trapped by no more cunning contrivance than a canvas sack,
+ripped up on one side.
+
+And while the fierce beast wallows about in this novel trap, lashing
+the water furiously with its fins, the two boys gain the surface of the
+water, marvelling at their escape.
+
+Together they turn over on their backs, and gulp down big draughts of
+the welcome air.
+
+Presently they get their breath again.
+
+"Jack, old boy, are you safe?" was Harry's question.
+
+"For the present, Harry, old chum. How do you feel?"
+
+"Saved, thank Heaven!"
+
+"God bless you, old man."
+
+Thus the two boys, rescued from such a complication of perils, pass
+their first moments in getting a gasp of Heaven's fresh air.
+
+Each is full of thankfulness for the other's escape, and for the moment
+thinks but little of himself.
+
+Suddenly young Jack reverts to their last danger.
+
+"Where is he, the monster?" he asks, with great eagerness.
+
+"The shark?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Don't know."
+
+"Doesn't relish us."
+
+"Fancies we shan't be tender after getting out of prison so recently."
+
+Young Jack and Harry were only just out of the jaws of death, and
+already they were joking.
+
+"Have you got your wind yet, Harry?"
+
+"Then follow me. I can see a sort of archway in the prison wall, and a
+boat, I think."
+
+"Hah!" cried Harry, "I remember."
+
+And turning easily over, he shot out for the prison wall.
+
+A few strokes brought them in sight of a flight of stone steps under
+the archway.
+
+And as they catch sight of the steps on ahead, they become conscious
+that they are being pursued by another of those ravenous beasts of
+which Barthes and Fleon were talking in such cruel levity.
+
+"Quicker, Harry, quicker, old lad!" gasps young Jack.
+
+"Right; I see."
+
+Three vigorous strokes, and Harry grasps a chain fastened to a staple
+in the wall to which a boat is moored.
+
+He is on the steps.
+
+Then grappling with young Jack, he helps him up with a desperate jerk.
+
+Just in time.
+
+Hardly are they landed when the hideous monster shoots past him.
+
+"Ugh! you beast!" growled young Jack.
+
+And he shook his fist at the shark, while the latter, after shooting
+past, turned round and paddled leisurely back, making sure of them yet.
+
+But they were not left long at liberty to enjoy the shark's
+disappointment, for they were startled by a great noise and commotion
+going forward in the prison.
+
+Young Jack looked inquiringly at his companion.
+
+"Our absence discovered?"
+
+"I suppose so. Let us make tracks as soon as we can."
+
+With this they set to work to loosen the boat.
+
+It took them some little time to force the padlock which held the chain
+to the staple, but together they accomplished it.
+
+Then, lowering their sculls, they pushed out to sea.
+
+"Free," murmured young Jack, exultantly; "free at last."
+
+"Don't be too fast"
+
+Now each took a scull, and with long, deep strokes they pulled for
+their own safe part of the coast.
+
+Wind and tide were in their favour, and they shot through the water at
+racing pace.
+
+"Pull round; here's our place. Now for it."
+
+"Both together," said Harry Girdwood, excitedly.
+
+Three long, vigorous strokes, and the boat ground far up high and dry
+upon the shingle.
+
+They ran on wildly.
+
+And now the villa was in sight, which fact made them increase their
+speed.
+
+Ah, how their young hearts beat at the sight of it.
+
+"Won't they be surprised?"
+
+"And pleased."
+
+"And shan't we? Ah, me! Hello! who's this coming here? Why, blow me,
+Harry, do you see who it is?"
+
+"Of course; it's old King Mole."
+
+"Mr. Mole, Mr. Mole, Mr. Mole!" they both yelled out. "Here we are safe
+back!"
+
+The old gentleman staggered back in sheer amazement.
+
+"Is it possible?" he exclaimed. "Surely--yet, no; it can't be."
+
+"Can't it though?"
+
+And to put all doubt at rest, they each seized hold of a hand and
+nearly dragged him off his frail supports.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+RESTORED--GENERAL REJOICINGS--HOW MR. MOLE WAS CRUELLY
+MALIGNED--FATHER AND SON--THE DEATH KNELL AND THE REPRIEVE--"SOON WE
+WEIGH ANCHOR"--GOODBYE TO GREECE.
+
+
+"Mrs. Harkaway?"
+
+"Who's there?"
+
+"Me; your obsequious humble to command."
+
+"Good gracious!"
+
+And then upon the other side of the door Mrs. Harkaway was heard to
+whisper--
+
+"It's Mr. Mole. I declare he is quite tipsy."
+
+"You are right there, my dear Mrs. Harkaway," responded the gallant
+Isaac; "more than tipsy--obfuscated, groggy--excuse the slangy
+phrase--tight--not with liquor, but yet full of spirits--figuratively
+speaking."
+
+"Whatever is he talking about?" muttered Mrs. Harkaway.
+
+"About introducing a young gentleman to you," replied Mole, who
+overheard every word, but who was too overjoyed with recent events to
+take umbrage at any thing now.
+
+"Excuse me just now, Mr. Mole," replied the lady, "I--I am dressing."
+
+"Humph!"
+
+Young Jack was bursting with impatience to push him aside and rush into
+his mother's arms.
+
+But Mr. Mole restrained him.
+
+"The young gentleman I would introduce, my dear Mrs. Harkaway, brings
+us news of our young Jack."
+
+"Hah!"
+
+A cry of joy, delight, anxiety, fear, hope, all commingled, burst from
+the mother of our young hero.
+
+The door was opened, and Mrs. Harkaway stood upon the threshold.
+
+She stared confusedly at the two boys.
+
+"Mother!"
+
+"Jack!"
+
+No more.
+
+In a moment they were locked in each other's arms.
+
+"Oh, Jack, Jack!" exclaimed the astonished mother. "Where have you
+been? Now that you are come back, I may tell you I feared I should
+never see you again."
+
+Jack's eyes filled with tears.
+
+He kissed her tenderly and held out his hand to Harry.
+
+"Here, mother dear," he said; "there is a sweet little cherub that sits
+up aloft to keep watch over the life of poor Jack--and Harry is the
+cherub."
+
+"Hush! Jack."
+
+"I shan't hush, Harry; you know that it's true. You are the cherub, and
+you know it. Why, mother, now that it's all over, and I am here, I must
+tell you that I never should have been here if it hadn't been for
+Harry."
+
+"Bless you, Harry," said Mrs. Harkaway, squeezing his hand.
+
+Just then, Mr. Mole, who had felt a tingling sensation at the nose, and
+fearing that he was about to disgrace his manly reputation by a tear,
+had retired, came stumping back with some news.
+
+"Here comes Jack--old Jack, I mean. Here's luck for us."
+
+A well-known footstep was heard, and Jack Harkaway entered the room.
+
+As his eye fell upon Harry Girdwood, he started back, and the colour
+forsook his cheek.
+
+Then he caught sight of his boy, and he gave a cry of delight as he
+held open his arms.
+
+Young Jack flew to him
+
+"Come here, Harry," cried Harkaway; "here, my boy--for you are a second
+son to me."
+
+And the two boys were soon locked in his arms.
+
+For some minutes not a word was spoken.
+
+His heart was too full for speech, but whilst they were thus
+engaged--engrossed by their own happiness--a deep sound was heard.
+
+A dismal, moaning sound.
+
+A bell that sounded like a distant funeral knell.
+
+What was it?
+
+Harkaway started up at the mournful sound.
+
+"Hark!" he exclaimed. "Do you hear that?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"An execution."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"At the prison."
+
+"Of whom?"
+
+"The brigands."
+
+"The villains have earned their fates right well."
+
+"Yes, yes," exclaimed Jack Harkaway, hurriedly; "but this execution
+must not take place, though Tomaso was shot yesterday."
+
+"Tomaso, the brigand," cried young Jack, "then why not the rest of the
+brigands."
+
+"Why? Because it is unjust, for the men condemned to suffer death have
+been sentenced for murdering you, my own boys."
+
+As the word was uttered, there was a loud commotion, and Theodora burst
+into the room.
+
+She gave a cry on seeing the two boys, and rushed up joyfully to Harry
+Girdwood.
+
+"Thank Heaven you are safe," she said hysterically; "but my own brave
+boy, do you hear? Do you know that that bell sounds the death-knell of
+men who, bad and wicked as they are, have been wrongfully condemned?"
+
+"I know."
+
+"Yes, my girl," said Harkaway; "we know--but there is yet time to save
+them. Come on, to the prison."
+
+They all left precipitately, and in a very brief space of time they
+were at the prison and the brigands respited.
+
+As young Jack said, they had earned the full penalty of the law.
+
+But they would not have it upon their consciences that these lawless
+ruffians should suffer for a crime which they had not committed.
+
+"There is one strange fact about this," said the governor of the prison
+to Harkaway, "and that is, that one of the prisoners has taken the
+liberty of respiting himself."
+
+"Which one?"
+
+"The Englishman Hunston."
+
+"What, Hunston escaped!"
+
+"Impossible."
+
+"Indeed it is not."
+
+"But how?--when? Why Hunston any more than the others?"
+
+"We can only give a guess," said the governor, "but it is a good one.
+His gaoler has disappeared with him; the rest is not a difficult matter
+to guess."
+
+It was quite true.
+
+Hunston, Harkaway's old schoolfellow and bitter foe, had once more
+contrived to elude justice.
+
+Both had disappeared--prisoner and gaoler with him.
+
+"I'm sorry for that," said Harkaway, "for it would have been a good
+thing to take care of that double-dyed traitor, but no matter, we shall
+have nothing to fear from him now; we have had enough of this place."
+
+"Are we, then, to leave Greece, dad?"
+
+"Yes, all our preparations are made, and in a few days, we will weigh
+anchor and get away from romantic Greece, and its precious scoundrels
+and brigands."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+THE LAST OF THE BRIGAND BAND--HUNSTON'S PERIL--HIS
+WANDERINGS--STARVATION IN THE MIDST OF PLENTY--ON THE LANDING STAGE AT
+NIGHT--AN ADVENTURE.
+
+
+And what of the band?
+
+Where was it?
+
+The fear-stricken few remaining of this once formidable host hid
+themselves in the recesses of the mountains, lurking, like thieves and
+miscreants as they were, in retired nooks and crannies.
+
+And so their lives grew wretched.
+
+Their famous recruit, Geoffrey, who was such a famous hand at bringing
+in plunder every day, disappeared.
+
+And with him disappeared all the booty he had brought them.
+
+Altogether, therefore, this Geoffrey was not so much of an advantage to
+them as they had at first supposed.
+
+And with the disappearance of Geoffrey, the sham brigand, we have to
+chronicle the sudden return of our old friend, Dick Harvey, to his
+beloved Harkaways.
+
+And what of Toro, the giant brigand?
+
+He was completely lost sight of for awhile.
+
+No one knew what had become of him.
+
+Hunston's first care on getting free from the prison was to get into
+the mountain fastnesses, in search of his old comrade, Toro.
+
+But he could not discover the least trace of his old comrade.
+
+He skulked about at night and fled to sleep in the mountains by day,
+shrinking at the echo of his own footfalls--starting at his own shadow.
+
+"My curses light upon the Harkaways one and all," was the speech ever
+upon his tongue; "they have been my bane--my curse through life."
+
+He resolved to get away from this place.
+
+Yes; he would fly.
+
+But how?
+
+Here was he well-nigh starving in the midst of plenty, possessed of a
+sum of money which was a small fortune in that land, and yet he dare
+not change or part with it.
+
+This life grew unendurable, and he resolved at all hazards to change
+it.
+
+Yes; he would get away from this place at once.
+
+Soon after dusk, he ventured, well disguised, into the town and down to
+the water side, and lolling about, he soon chanced to hear something
+which greatly interested him.
+
+A group of French sailors were smoking, and gossiping upon a subject
+which caught his attention as soon as he heard a name mentioned.
+
+Harkaway.
+
+"Yes; Mr. Harkaway and friends are going away tomorrow," said one of
+the sailors, who appeared to be a petty officer.
+
+"I shall come down and see the ladies go on board," said one of the
+sailors.
+
+"No, you won't," laughed the former speaker.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"You're too late."
+
+"They're not on board already, surely?"
+
+"Indeed, they are."
+
+"They start early."
+
+"They weigh anchor at daybreak, I hear."
+
+"Ah, well," said the other sailor, joining in; "they'll miss Monsieur
+Harkaway here, for he's as rich as Croesus."
+
+"Or Monte Christo," said another, laughingly.
+
+"Aye, that he is," said another sailor. "I was here when the ladies
+went on board, and I was lucky enough to be able to render some little
+service to Madam Harkaway."
+
+"What was it?"
+
+"It is not worth repeating," replied this modest Gallic tar. "All I
+know is, that Monsieur Harkaway made such a fuss about it that he would
+insist upon my going on board with him to drink their health."
+
+"And you went?"
+
+"Yes; and we swam in good wine. And when I came away, it was with
+pockets full of cigars and money to stand treat to you all round."
+
+"What a splendid fellow this Monsieur Harkaway is."
+
+"Aye, that he is."
+
+And amidst these words of praise Hunston slunk away, gnashing his teeth
+in rage and bitterness.
+
+"Hang him!" he muttered; "his old brag and ostentation have caught
+these fools! I wonder where his vessel is? If I could fire a torpedo
+under it and send them all where young Jack and the other boy have gone
+to, I shouldn't have a dull moment for the rest of my life."
+
+And the ruffian chuckled to himself maliciously.
+
+"Ah, but I was one with them," he muttered, "when I had their precious
+boy and that Harry Girdwood shot like dogs that they were. Ah! that was
+grand. Those were crumbs of comfort."
+
+And rubbing his hands and chuckling, he rambled on.
+
+He paused presently upon coming to a long, wooden landing stage,
+jutting out a long way to sea.
+
+Arrived at the head of the jetty, he looked out earnestly seaward, in
+the endeavour to trace out which of the many ships in the offing could
+be the Harkaways' vessel.
+
+"Well, well," he murmured to himself, "I don't care much, for I don't
+see what I could do if I knew it. I could only send my blessing
+straight after it--hah, hah! But with Harkaway's departure, I can
+breathe more freely. I have only to get over a few weeks quietly, and
+then all the dust which he has kicked up will blow over, and I can live
+quietly upon his money like a gentleman, until I decide upon the next
+step."
+
+While he sat thus looking out to sea, his attention was suddenly
+attracted shorewards.
+
+"Confusion!" he ejaculated, starting up; "there's someone coming along
+the jetty."
+
+It was true.
+
+Two sailors and a woman came sauntering along the landing stage,
+chatting as they came.
+
+There was barely room for four abreast upon the narrow wooden pier, and
+consequently they might recognize him, providing they had heard the
+description of him.
+
+"What an ass I was to come here," muttered Hunston; "to drive myself
+into a corner."
+
+He looked round.
+
+They did not appear to notice him.
+
+Not yet at least.
+
+So he crouched down, and lowered himself into a boat, which was moored
+to one of the end piles.
+
+Beneath the end of the jetty was a series of crossbars and beams,
+resting upon the low range of piles, which indeed served as the main
+foundation for the whole structure.
+
+So Hunston clambered nimbly out of the boat into this species of
+scaffolding.
+
+Here he lay at full length, listening for the approach of these three
+people.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"You had better come ashore now, miss," said one of the sailors.
+
+"No, no," replied Mrs. Harkaway's new maid.
+
+"But you'll never be up in time if you go to bed at all."
+
+"Oh, yes, Mistaire Saileur, I get up at the hour which I like; I shall
+go on board at three o'clock," said the wilful girl. "I shall get the
+seasickness quite early enough, I know. Besides, I don't like the water
+when it so dark."
+
+"The moon will be up directly."
+
+Jack Tiller was right.
+
+The moon just then burst through a thick cloud, and shot a ray of
+silvery light just upon the spot where the girl was kneeling.
+
+It fell across a living face just below the flooring of the jetty.
+
+A face rendered ghastly white by the action of the moonlight, with eyes
+upturned in eagerness and expectation.
+
+A startling sight.
+
+A weird and ghastly object to come suddenly before the strongest nerve.
+
+She started back, and sprang to her feet.
+
+Then, with a piercing shriek, she fled.
+
+The sailors looked aghast, staring at each other for explanations.
+
+"Let's after her, Jack!" cried one; "she'll be overboard double quick
+if she fouls agin them blessed bulwarks. It's as rotten as tinder."
+
+Off they ran, and they tried all they could to bring the girl back.
+
+But she had had such a scare that she would not hear of it.
+
+She had seen a man hiding there.
+
+"Bah!" cried Jack Tiller, "why should a man hide away from us?"
+
+"Yes, that's it, miss, why?"
+
+"I don't care, I know it was a man. I knew the face. I have seen it in
+madame's book of photographs."
+
+"The dooce you did."
+
+"Who was it?"
+
+"One of the brigands. The likeness was taken in prison."
+
+This made the gallant tars laugh again.
+
+"That's the natural bogey hereabouts," said Joe Basalt; "damme if I
+believe half their yarns about the brigands."
+
+"Nor I neither."
+
+And so, failing to persuade the girl to go on board then, they went
+back up the jetty, dropped into their boat, and, unlocking it, rowed
+out to sea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+A TRIP BY WATER--BOAT, AHOY!--A COMPACT FOR MONEY--THE STOWAWAY
+ON BOARD THE "WESTWARD HO!"--HIS VISION--IN THE HANDS OF THE
+PHILISTINES.
+
+
+Hunston had overheard every word uttered.
+
+The full sense of his danger flashed across him.
+
+He was watched, he felt sure.
+
+"Not yet," said Hunston to himself, "not yet. Sooner than let them get
+hold of me, I'd lay my bones at the bottom of the sea."
+
+With which intention he dropped into the water.
+
+But he did not even touch the bottom, for before he had got far under,
+he struck out, and after taking a dozen strokes; under water, he came
+to the surface.
+
+"That's another narrow squeak," he said to himself, as he took in a
+deep draught of air. "The last time I had to swim for it was in Cuba,
+and a narrow squeak it was too."
+
+He had been rescued on that memorable occasion by his enemy, Jack
+Harkaway himself.
+
+"Well, this squares that old account," he said, turning over on his
+back to float. "He saved me last time. He's the cause this time of my
+having to take this risk."
+
+He began to look anxiously about him.
+
+There was a boat at no great distance being rowed by two men, so
+Hunston thought of signalling them.
+
+"Suppose they are some of those wretched Greeks, and recognise me?"
+
+He gave it up.
+
+But he could hardly keep himself afloat now.
+
+What if they did recognise him?
+
+Would they give him up?
+
+Perhaps.
+
+Well, at the worst they could only take his life for his misdeeds, and
+his life was in sore jeopardy now.
+
+So he resolved to hail the men in the boat.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Boat ahoy!"
+
+"Hullo!"
+
+"Man overboard!"
+
+The signal of the sinking man caught the quick ears of the two men in
+the boat, and they pulled towards him double quick.
+
+Hunston caught hold of the side of the boat.
+
+"This arm. Catch under my armpit. There; thanks. I've hurt the other."
+
+Barely rescued from the jaws of death, and yet all his coolness and
+presence of mind had come back to him.
+
+In a trice he was lying at the bottom of the boat, panting and waiting
+to recover his breath to renew his thanks for their service.
+
+"Why, mounseer, you speak English," said one of the sailors.
+Hunston nodded.
+
+"I am English."
+
+"So are we."
+
+"I guessed as much," retorted Hunston, "by the way you pulled to help a
+poor devil. It was nearly all over with me."
+
+"Just in time. Well, that's one to us, messmate."
+
+"Yes, and you'll find that I'm able to reward you with something more
+solid than thanks."
+
+"Get along; me and my mate here don't save lives at so much an 'ed."
+
+"I believe you," said Hunston, "but I should be a villain if I did not
+do something handsome for you if I could."
+
+"I tell you what, mate, you shall lug me and my mate out of the water."
+
+"When you get the chance," laughed the other.
+
+"Jes' so."
+
+"How came you there, though?" demanded the former sailor, suddenly.
+
+"It's a long story," said Hunston, taking breath, and thinking up a
+good plausible "whacker"; "so I'll tell you without all the details."
+
+"Do."
+
+"There's a very rich and powerful man in this place, who has a very
+lovely wife. Well, this lady--"
+
+"Casts sheep's eyes at you."
+
+"Ha, ha!"
+
+"Well, that is about it," returned Hunston, laughingly. "It's no fault
+of mine. I'm sure I never encouraged her. But her husband is precious
+jealous, and the consequence is that he had got me out to sea in a boat
+with a gang of murderers--"
+
+"The swabs!"
+
+"Marlinspikes and grampuses!" cried the other.
+
+"They were going to practise a curious trick upon me. It is an
+institution of their neighbours and masters, the Turks, and they call
+it the bowstring."
+
+"D--n their fiddling," ejaculated one of the sailors; "I'd like to have
+'em here just awhile. I'd bowstring 'em and show 'em what black eyes,
+and good old English fisticuffs mean."
+
+"I don't think that they would care to be instructed in that," said
+Hunston.
+
+"I'd, I'd--"
+
+"Let the gentleman go on," said the other.
+
+"Well, the fact is, I got out, jumped overboard and capsized the boat
+in my struggling, and some of them, I dare say, have gone to the
+bottom."
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted one of the sailors.
+
+"Hurrah!"
+
+"I hope you finished off the lot of the swabs."
+
+"I don't think that. But anyhow, I'd give a trifle if I could get clear
+out of this place."
+
+"I can tell you how to do it"
+
+"You can?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"That's jolly."
+
+"Easily done."
+
+And then the sailor suggested bringing him aboard their ship and
+introducing him to the skipper.
+
+Hunston listened and then shook his head.
+
+"What," exclaimed the sailor, "won't do?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I'll tell you; a blessed outcry would be raised, and the skipper would
+be forced to give me up to be tried."
+
+"Well, they would not dare to play false."
+
+"Not while there was a British man-o'-war in the harbour; but nothing
+short of that would prevent the villains doing any thing they liked
+with me. They would go through the mockery of a trial with me, and I
+should be condemned to death beforehand."
+
+"The wampires."
+
+"Wuss wuss, nor wampires, Joe," said the other sailor, wagging his head
+gravely.
+
+"There is only one way to get out of this scrape," said Hunston.
+
+"Out with it then."
+
+"Why, earn forty pounds apiece and stow me away on board in the hold,
+anywhere, until you are out at sea," said the fugitive.
+
+The two sailors looked hard at each other.
+
+"Can't do it."
+
+"No."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Unpossible."
+
+"I'll tell you why not. Our skipper is the best commander afloat, on'y
+he won't have no nonsense. We daresn't do it, we daresn't."
+
+"Right, Joe."
+
+"Now, harkye, messmates," said Hunston. "I'm not the man to get any man
+to fail in his duty; I wouldn't insult you by mentioning it. But mark
+my words, your skipper would be the first man to approve of such an
+act."
+
+They shook their heads.
+
+"Not he."
+
+"I know he would, if what you say of him is right; only, d'ye see, he'd
+think it his duty to give me up for a fair trial. Well, and what would
+be the result of that? Why, as soon as you had set sail, they'd just do
+what they liked with me, and you'd never hear of me again in this
+world, whereas if I was concealed unknown to the skipper, he'd only be
+too glad afterwards to have such a good action done on board his ship
+without his having failed in his duty."
+
+They listened to this, and listening they were lost.
+
+That night Hunston slept in the hold of a ship, the two sailors having
+contrived to smuggle him on board with the greatest secrecy.
+
+It had been a difficult task for them, and indeed the sailors well
+earned the money which he gave them.
+
+Not a soul on board the ship, with the exception of the two sailors,
+had the least idea of his presence there.
+
+They contrived to make him up a very snug hiding-place behind some
+barrels of sugar and salt pork.
+
+And here they brought him food turn and turn about.
+
+And so he chuckled to himself by day and night at the way in which he
+had defeated his enemies, and escaped from Greek justice.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For three days and three nights he lay snug and quiet.
+
+This was the most prudent course.
+
+But long before the third night was over, Hunston had grown weary and
+heartsick of this close confinement.
+
+He had a sharp attack of the blues.
+
+He got drink from the sailors and drank heavily to kill dull care, and
+this defeated its own end.
+
+He fell off into a heavy sleep and dreamt all sorts of terrible things.
+
+He thought that without knowing it he had fallen into the power of the
+Harkaways again; that in flying from them he had suddenly, when he
+thought himself miles away from them and from imminent danger, fallen
+into their arms.
+
+And so went his alarming dream, when his worst enemies were assembled
+in judgment over him. Jack Harkaway, Harvey, and Jefferson, together,
+being his judges, the latter places were suddenly taken by three
+visitors from the other world.
+
+These were Harry Girdwood, young Jack, and oh, horror! Robert Emmerson,
+his murdered friend.
+
+His three visitors.
+
+And these three threatened and put him to tortures unimaginable, until
+he raved, stormed, and wept by turns; and then, broken in body and in
+spirit, he prostrated himself before them and begged them to kill him,
+and in this horrible phase of his vision he groaned so loudly that he
+awoke, to find the perspiration pouring off him in a regular bath.
+
+He was quivering like one suddenly stricken with ague.
+
+Not an inch of his body was free from this fearful palsy.
+
+"Oh, what would I give for the light now!" he thought; "will they never
+come?"
+
+Yes.
+
+What was that?
+
+Merciful powers! his prayer seemed to be answered.
+
+He saw the faint glimmering of a light
+
+Yes, it was coming this way.
+
+What a relief!
+
+He drew a long, long sigh.
+
+The light stopped suddenly.
+
+Then it was shaded from the part of the hold in which he was hiding.
+
+What could it mean?
+
+Silence was around him.
+
+He stretched forward to ascertain the cause of the light, and there he
+saw that which froze the very marrow in his bones with fright.
+
+The light was all reflected upon a young, handsome face which he knew
+but too well--so real, so vivid, so lifelike.
+
+The face, too, with the deathly hue of the grave upon it.
+
+It was young Jack's face, but looking to Hunston's frightened eyes pale
+as death.
+
+Hunston stared; his optics dilated and appeared ready to start from
+their sockets.
+
+He gasped, made an effort to articulate, and then his senses forsook
+him, and he became unconscious.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+HUNSTON'S PERIL--BLACK VISIONS--A DREAM OF VENGEANCE--AN
+UNKNOWN DANGER TO THE "WESTWARD HO!"
+
+
+An explanation of the foregoing is scarcely necessary, we believe.
+
+You bear in mind, of course, that Hunston was utterly ignorant of the
+miraculous escape of his destined victims--young Jack and Harry
+Girdwood.
+
+You must bear in mind, too, that although you, friend reader, may give
+a shrewd guess at the truth, Hunston had not the remotest notion of
+where he was.
+
+This said, you may perhaps understand the fearful effect of this waking
+vision upon the guilty wretch.
+
+Bear in mind that he had been lurking in a close and stifling hold,
+into which no single ray of sunlight penetrated, for three whole
+days--three long nights.
+
+Unwelcome conscience tapped and would not be deceived.
+
+A man with the guilt of Hunston upon his mind could not afford to be
+alone--nay, nor in the dark either.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When he recovered consciousness, his first sensations were of burning
+in the throat, and opening his eyes, he found himself being cared
+tenderly for by one of the sailors who had brought him there.
+
+"Come, come, I say, mister," said the honest tar, who had had a bit of
+a fright on finding Hunston's condition, "this won't do, you know."
+
+"I am better now," murmured Hunston, faintly.
+
+"You are a little, precious little. You will have to come on deck now,
+and chance what the skipper says about the job."
+
+"Yes, yes; I will," said Hunston, waking up.
+
+"He can't kill us."
+
+"Nor eat me," said the stowaway, with a sickly smile.
+
+"Not he."
+
+"Any thing is better than remaining longer here. I believe I should die
+if I did."
+
+"Then up you come at once, as sure as my name's Jack Tiller."
+
+"Tell me, my friend," Hunston said; "whither are we bound?"
+
+"For the Red Sea."
+
+"Pheugh! A long cruise?"
+
+"Well, yes."
+
+"And then we are going further yet, and to travel on until we touch the
+coast of Australy."
+
+"The deuce!"
+
+"That's it, sir."
+
+"What's the name of the vessel?"
+
+The sailor laughed.
+
+"What makes you grin?"
+
+"Why, I was wondering, messmate, why you never asked that before."
+
+"My thoughts were too full of getting away."
+
+"Ah, of course."
+
+"What is her name?"
+
+"The 'Westward Ho!' She was formerly the 'Seamew,' and the owner
+rechristened her."
+
+"What's his name?"
+
+"The skipper's? Why, captain John Willoughby."
+
+"The owner's?"
+
+"Mr. Jack Harkaway."
+
+Had a thunderbolt dropped down in the hold between them, Hunston could
+not have been more astonished.
+
+"What?"
+
+His tone startled the sailor.
+
+He saw it, and he did his utmost to calm himself.
+
+"Who did you say?"
+
+"Who?" echoed the sailor. "Why, who but Mr. Jack Harkaway? He's well
+known enough. Surely you don't mean for to go for to say as you never
+heard of him?"
+
+"I--I think I have heard the name," muttered Hunston.
+
+"Think! Well, so do I, unless you've been shut up in solitary
+confinement for the last fifteen years. Blow me tight, but the man that
+hadn't heard of Mr. Jack Harkaway, would be a living curiosity."
+
+"Jack Harkaway the owner of this ship!" Hunston murmured, like one in a
+dream, and relapsed into silence once more.
+
+No wonder that he had seen that vision.
+
+No wonder that the spirit of the murdered boy, young Jack, should hover
+about the vessel where his destroyer was hiding--in which his father,
+mother, and all that he held dear in life were journeying.
+
+The situation grew graver than ever.
+
+It was truly an alarming plight, and the more he thought it over, the
+more desperate did he become.
+
+"Jack Tiller," said he.
+
+"Your honour."
+
+"I'll stay where I am."
+
+"Oh, very good," replied the tar; "mum's the word. I thought your berth
+wasn't over cheerful."
+
+Jack Tiller gave a hoist at his slacks, and with something between a
+sigh and a grunt, he wheeled round and went on deck.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"If I could only see my way out of this, I should like better than any
+thing to fire the ship," said Hunston, to himself; "fire it and watch
+it close by, chuckling at them while they roasted. What a glorious
+return it would be for them. By the powers, it is about the only thing
+I could do to wipe them all off at once, all, all! Jack, Harvey, Emily,
+that Yankee braggart--curse him!"
+
+And Hunston sat brooding in the black and evil-smelling hold day after
+day.
+
+The only companion of his solitude being his own dark thoughts, his
+vicious resolves for vengeance.
+
+"It is my own cursed ill-luck," he would say to himself again and
+again, "to be beholden to this Harkaway for my life. Why, even now, he
+has saved me again, saved me in spite of himself. That's the merry side
+of the question."
+
+Merry as it was, it never made him smile.
+
+One dreadful thought filled his poor mind.
+
+One fearful fancy took such complete possession of him, that day and
+night he was brooding on it.
+
+"Once let me see a clear landing," he would mutter to himself, "once
+let me see my way straight to get ashore in a safe place, and then I'll
+make the 'Westward Ho!' too hot to hold them. Too hot--ah, yes, a
+precious deal too hot to hold them, that I would; for I would make up
+such a blaze as they would never be able to extinguish."
+
+And so he began devoting himself to the arrangements for this
+villainous purpose.
+
+What is more, he got all his plans mapped out, all ready for the
+execution of this most diabolical deed.
+
+Little did the happy passengers in the "Westward Ho!" dream of the
+fatal danger threatening them.
+
+They would not have enjoyed so many sweet slumbers, could they have had
+the faintest inkling of the truth--if they had suspected that near them
+was the villain Hunston, following them with a deadly purpose of
+revenge, which seemed to have increased year by year ever since the
+schooldays of Jack Harkaway.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+YOUNG JACK'S CONFIDENCES--HOW TWO INNOCENT CONSPIRATORS
+REPENTED--A CHANCE SHOT STRIKES HOME.
+
+
+"Harry," said young Jack, as they walked up and down the deck arm in
+arm, "I must tell you something that has been upon my mind for days
+past."
+
+Harry Girdwood turned round. Young Jack's serious manner impressed him.
+
+"What is it, Jack?"
+
+"I know you'll laugh," began Jack.
+
+"Do you, Jack?" returned Harry Girdwood, promptly; "that being the
+case, tell me at once. I like to laugh, as you know."
+
+"Well, Harry, it hasn't made me laugh. I was lolling half drowsily over
+the hatchway there, the other evening, when I suppose I dropped off
+asleep, and I dreamt of Hunston. I dreamt that I was going through all
+that ugly scene again, and while in the thick of the dream, something
+woke me."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What do you think it was?"
+
+"Can't say."
+
+"Hunston's voice, moaning, groaning with pain apparently."
+
+Harry Girdwood opened his eyes in wonder at this singular speech.
+
+"What are you talking about?"
+
+"Nonsense, rubbish; is it not? So I thought since. But you know that
+sort of dream when you wake up with the vivid effect of your vision so
+strongly upon you, that the dream-drama appears to continue after
+you're awake?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, that is exactly what happened to me. I heard Hunston when I was
+awake."
+
+There was something strangely impressive in his manner as he said this,
+which caught Harry Girdwood's attention in spite of himself.
+
+"Fancy," he said, with an assumption of indifference which he was far
+from feeling; "fancy, my dear Jack."
+
+"Of course," answered young Jack; "but very strange."
+
+"Not exactly strange, either, every thing considered, after all we have
+gone through. Why, Jack, you will hardly believe me when I tell you
+that I scarcely sleep without dreaming of Hunston. And what is there
+wonderful in that, after all that has taken place? It was enough to
+shake the strongest nerves, to startle the bravest man that ever
+lived."
+
+"You allude to the attempted execution of ourselves?" said young Jack.
+
+"Yes; and in spite of that brave brigand girl's assurances, there was
+great danger when we stood upon the brink of our grave with a firing
+party aiming at us."
+
+"I felt a good deal of confidence in her," said Jack, "but I couldn't
+help thinking that an accident in her calculations might happen very
+easily."
+
+"That's true. Supposing one of the bullets had been left in?"
+
+"Why, then one of us would have been food for worms by now, unless the
+wolves or bears had rooted us up out of our graves and made dinner off
+us; but I haven't told you all about my vision yet, Harry."
+
+"Did you dream again?"
+
+"No."
+
+"What more have you, then, to tell? Out with it. What else was it?"
+
+"The moans I heard grew more distinct while I listened, and I followed
+the sounds--"
+
+"In your sleep?"
+
+"No, awake. I followed the sounds to the hold."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"They were plainer heard there. I pushed my way over the barrels and
+boxes, and nosed down in all the corners with my bull's eye lantern,
+when suddenly I heard a half-suppressed cry, a violent gasp rather, as
+if someone had too suddenly found himself on the edge of a precipice,
+or had seen a ghost."
+
+"Well, well."
+
+"Well, at that very moment a hand was placed upon my arm."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I started back and drew my dirk, and then I found my self attacking--"
+
+"Mole?"
+
+"No. Joe Basalt."
+
+Harry Girdwood burst out laughing at this.
+
+"So it was Joe Basalt that was hiding and having a lark with you all
+the while?"
+
+"I didn't say so," replied young Jack, thoughtfully.
+
+"Why, then, what, in the name of all that's wonderful, do you think it
+could have been?"
+
+"I don't know, but Joe Basalt chaffed me. He swore I was walking in my
+sleep; but I have come back upon my old opinion since I have thought
+the job over."
+
+"You mean that you actually believe there is someone concealed in the
+hold?"
+
+"Is--or was. Now, you watch Joe Basalt, Harry, and see if there is not
+some thing very strange in his manner."
+
+"I will, if you like, but--good-morning, Tiller."
+
+This was to Jack Tiller, who came up to them touching his forelock.
+
+"Good-morning, Master Jack--morning, Master Harry. We've got a fishing
+party on, gentlemen, and thought as you might like to jine us."
+
+"Who's going?"
+
+"Me and Sam Mason, Tommy Shipwright and Bill Adams, Joe Basalt and old
+Higgy--only that lot among the common folk," added he, with a grin.
+
+"And who among the superior class?" asked young Jack, laughingly.
+
+"Mr. Mole."
+
+"What, Mr. Mole! Why, what on earth is he going for?"
+
+"That's exactly the p'int of it, young gentlemen,"
+
+"How so?"
+
+"We're going a-fishing with something new-fangled which Mr. Mole has
+inwented."
+
+The two boys looked at each other and grinned.
+
+"Larks are on, Jack," said Harry Girdwood. "I'm in it, for one."
+
+"And I too."
+
+"That's your sort," cried Joe Basalt. "Mr. Harvey's going, too, and Mr.
+Jefferson; now I go to Mr. Harkaway and ask his consent."
+
+And Joe left them singing--
+
+                   "Avast!" cries Jack, "do you suppose
+                    I ain't a man my dooty knows?
+                    For liberty afore we goes
+                    To ax the skipper I propose."
+
+And the well-disciplined sailor went to Harkaway's cabin and broached
+the question.
+
+"All right, Basalt," said Harkaway; "only look sharp after the young
+gentlemen; you know what boys they are to get into mischief."
+
+"All right, your honour; trust me."
+
+"I do, Joe Basalt," responded Harkaway; "I do, for I know that there
+was never a straighter or truer man ever trod a deck than you are."
+
+"Come, I say, your honour," remonstrated Joe Basalt, modestly, "draw it
+mild."
+
+"No deceit about you, I know it; nothing underhand about Joe Basalt."
+
+A sudden thought flashed through the sailor's head, and it brought up a
+very unpleasant reminder.
+
+With it came a flush to his bronzed face.
+
+He touched his forelock respectfully to Harkaway and ran up stairs.
+
+As he went he muttered to himself--
+
+"I felt like a miserable swab!" he muttered; "a d--d, deceitful son
+of a sea-cook--that's what you are, Joe Basalt, I wish I'd never had
+nothing to do with that precious stowaway."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+SHARK-FISHING--BILLY LONGBOW'S YARNS--TELL THAT TO THE MARINES--A
+NOVEL BAIT--HOW MR. MOLE HAD THE LAUGH HIS OWN WAY.
+
+
+The fishing expedition consisted of two boat-loads.
+
+To wit, the pinnace and the cutter.
+
+In the former were Jefferson, Dick Harvey and four sailors.
+
+In the cutter were young Jack, Harry Girdwood, Mr. Mole, Joe Basalt,
+Sam Mason, and Jack Tiller.
+
+"Now Jack," said Mr. Mole, settling himself comfortably at the rudder
+lines; "and you too, my dear Harry, you know, of course, we are going
+shark-fishing. You understand what that is?"
+
+"I know what a shark is, if you mean that," answered young Jack.
+
+"Rather," said Harry, with a shudder at old recollections "we had a
+white one after us once."
+
+"A white shark!" said Mr. Mole, beaming upon the boat's crew generally.
+"_Squalus Carcharias,_ the worst of the family."
+
+"They aren't got no families, axing your pardon, Mr. Mole, sir," said
+Joe Basalt, "for they eats their own mothers and fathers and children
+likewise."
+
+"Why, Bill Longbow told me a yarn once, your honour," said Sam Mason,
+"about a white shark. I mean," he added, nodding at Mr. Mole
+respectfully, "a squally cockylorium--a blessed rum name for a shark--as
+devoured all his family for dinner, supped off a Sunday school out
+for a pleasure-trip in a steamboat, and was a-goin' to wind up with a
+meal off his own blessed self, when his dexter fin stuck in his
+swaller, and he brought hisself up ag'in."
+
+A general laugh greeted this sally.
+
+So boisterous was their mirth, that it caught the occupants of the
+other boat.
+
+"That's Sam Mason at one of his Billy Longbow's yarns," cried a sailor
+in the pinnace.
+
+"So you had a white shark after you in the water," said Mr. Mole.
+"Rather unpleasant that."
+
+"It was indeed unpleasant at such close quarters," said Harry Girdwood.
+
+"Very close?" demanded Mr. Mole.
+
+"Not further off than--"
+
+"Than that squally cockylorium is from you now, your honour," cried Sam
+Mason, pointing behind Mole.
+
+The old gentleman looked quickly behind them, and there, paddling about
+the stern, was a monstrous white shark.
+
+Mr. Mole slid off his seat to the bottom of the boat with wonderful
+celerity.
+
+"Don't like the look of him?" said young Jack.
+
+"Ho! I'll tackle him presently, but I--I slipped down," said Mr. Mole.
+
+"So I see, sir."
+
+"And I mean to show you some novel sport in the way of shark-fishing,"
+said the old gentleman.
+
+"You?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He had brought a large hamper with him, which he now proceeded to
+unpack, the occupants of the boat looking on with great interest in the
+business.
+
+"Billy Longbow told me a yarn once," said the irrepressible Sam Mason,
+"about a wooden-legged nigger."
+
+Mr. Mole looked up.
+
+"What?"
+
+"A wooden-legged nigger," said Sam Mason, touching his forelock
+respectfully at Mole. "No offence, your honour, to your legs."
+
+"Oh, no."
+
+"Go on, Sam," said young Jack, laughing; "out with Billy Longbow's
+yarn."
+
+"This nigger was stumping along the banks of the Nile one day, when who
+should he meet but a blessed big crockydile about a hundred feet long."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"Draw it mild, Sam."
+
+"Well, that's what Billy Longbow said--a hundred feet long."
+
+"Oh, damme!" cried Joe Basalt, "make it ninety-nine, Sam, for decency
+sake."
+
+"I won't give in half a foot," persisted Sam. "Well, when Snowball sees
+Muster Crockydile so near as there was no getting out of the way, he
+says--'You jist wait a bit, Massa Crock, I'll gib yar suffin to sniff
+at.' An' so, without more ado, he unscrews one of his wooden legs, and
+walks into the animal's jaws."
+
+"Oh, oh, oh!"
+
+A general groan of incredulity.
+
+"Absurd," said Mr. Mole, without looking up from his task of watching,
+in case the shark should again show itself.
+
+"A fact, sir," said Sam Mason. "Well, he holds up his wooden leg
+perpendicular and the greedy crock comes on with a snap, but the wooden
+leg was a trifle more than he could get over; there it stuck and
+propped his great ugly maws wide open; out crawls Snowball, a kind of
+sorter modern Jonah, none the worse for it."
+
+"Bravo, Sam!"
+
+"Ho! it is quite true, for it's Billy Longbow's version of it," said
+the modest Sam.
+
+"And is that all?"
+
+"Not quite. He squatted down upon his stump, and prodded the crock in
+the eye with the other wooden leg until he caved in."
+
+"Oh, oh, oh! Sam, Sam!" they cried in a chorus.
+
+By the time the laugh had subsided, Mr. Mole was ready with his novel
+fishing-apparatus. Novel, indeed.
+
+He took a soda water bottle, filled with gunpowder and tightly corked,
+and through the cork was a twisted wire that was attached to the line.
+
+The other end of the line was a small square box, which was furnished
+with four handles, similar to that of a barrel organ.
+
+One of these handles was to pay out line, another was for winding in.
+
+"And the other two?" demanded Harry Girdwood.
+
+"Simple enough," said Mr. Mole; "this box is a battery, and in my line
+is a conductor that goes through the cork into the powder. When I feel
+a tug, a turn or two of my handle here sends a spark into the powder,
+and our friend the _Squalus Carcharias_ gets a good deal more than
+he has time to digest."
+
+"I begin to see."
+
+"Really, it is a very great plan, Mr. Mole."
+
+"Now for the pork."
+
+"Pork!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He had provided himself with a large morsel of fat in a flat strip, and
+this he proceeded to tie round the soda water bottle with twine.
+
+When this was done, he put out about thirty feet of his telegraphic
+line, and then hurled his novel bait out to sea.
+
+They looked eagerly out in the direction, and saw the great sea-monster
+dive swiftly after it.
+
+Then its huge carcase was clearly perceived in the limpid water turning
+over.
+
+Mole waited a moment.
+
+The line tightened.
+
+"Now for it."
+
+He gave two of his handles several vicious twists.
+
+There was a shock, and a kind of water spout not far off.
+
+Mole chuckled quietly, and wound in his line.
+
+"Do you think it has succeeded?" demanded young Jack, anxiously.
+
+"Do I think, do I know? Of course it has."
+
+They watched the place eagerly, and in the space of a few minutes the
+carcase of the huge white shark, completely rent asunder, rose to the
+surface of the water, and floated about.
+
+"Damme!" ejaculated Joe Basalt, "if that ain't the queerest fishing I
+ever come nigh."
+
+"And ain't Mr. Mole the best fisherman you ever see?"
+
+"That he is."
+
+"Let's give him a cheer; hip, hip, hip!"
+
+"Hurrah!"
+
+And they towed the vanquished shark alongside the "Westward Ho!" while
+Isaac Mole became the hero of the day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+MORE DEEDS OF DARING--HOW JEFFERSON SHOWED UP IN AN EMERGENCY--SINGLE
+COMBAT AND ITS RESULT--MR. MOLE TO THE FORE WITH A FRESH FEAT ON
+THE LONGBOW.
+
+
+"They've got a bite in the cutter," said Parry.
+
+They had, and it seemed to be a strong one. They had got a Tartar.
+
+A big fish was hooked, and dragging their boat through the water at a
+furious rate.
+
+"We must go and lend them a hand," said young Jack.
+
+They laid down to their work, and were soon upon the scene of the
+strife.
+
+Aye, strife is the correct expression.
+
+Strife it was.
+
+A steam tug could not have dragged them along at a better pace, or have
+made resistance more hopeless.
+
+"Pull hard."
+
+"Aye, aye, sir!"
+
+"Lay down to it, my lads," cried old Mole, excitedly; "look how they
+are flying through the water."
+
+"Aye, aye, sir!"
+
+"I remember Billy Longbow once," began Mason.
+
+"Hang Billy Longbow now!" said Joe Basalt.
+
+"Yes, let's bag this fish first and then--"
+
+"Ain't Mr. Mole got another of his soda water bottles?"
+
+"Lots of bait," replied Mr. Mole; "but the tackle isn't up to the
+mark."
+
+"Now he's slackening."
+
+"Yes--he's getting blown."
+
+"Now he rises."
+
+So he did.
+
+As they spoke, the flight of the cutter was checked, and a huge shark
+rose to the surface of the water for air.
+
+A couple of fowling pieces gave him a warm greeting, but without
+appearing to damage him much.
+
+The pinnace now pulled sharply round, and young Jack, standing up on
+the head of the boat, held the harpoon ready for use when they should
+be within reach.
+
+The moment was soon found.
+
+The harpoon flew from his grasp whizzing through the air, and struck
+the quarry.
+
+Tough as his hide was, the harpoon would not be denied admission.
+
+The shark snorted as it was struck, and dived down, down, until the
+line grew taut.
+
+Had there been but a single line to hold the voracious monster in
+check, it would have been but little use, so violent was the struggle,
+and so desperately sudden was the strain.
+
+But the two lines worked well together now.
+
+Much as the shark objected to their company, he had no choice but to
+cruise about within the comparatively narrow limits of his tether.
+
+"Beast!" said Dick Harvey, snapping a pistol as it rose once more to
+the surface. "You take a thundering lot of killing."
+
+"This must be settled," said Jefferson.
+
+"How?"
+
+"I'll show you," returned the Yankee, promptly.
+
+He drew his bowie, and watching the shark intently for a moment, he
+sprang over the boat's side into the sea.
+
+A cry of horror arose from one and all.
+
+What could this mean?
+
+Suicide--the maddest suicide that ever man had contemplated.
+
+Nothing could save him now.
+
+Nothing.
+
+"Jefferson!" ejaculated Harvey.
+
+"Hush!" cried one of the sailors, with suppressed excitement; "don't
+worrit. Let him have the same chance as the shark at any rate."
+
+It wanted a bold fellow to do such a deed as this, but Jefferson was a
+bold fellow, few bolder.
+
+He was no braggart; but his self-confidence was amazing, and it brought
+him through many and many a desperate strait.
+
+Would it bring him through this present affair?
+
+Doubtful--sadly doubtful, indeed.
+
+The wounded shark caught sight of the intrepid American, and all
+heedless of its hurts, dived after him.
+
+The spectators held their breaths.
+
+Jefferson rose to the surface in an instant, drew a long breath, and
+then down he plunged again.
+
+Barely was he under when up came the shark snorting, puffing, and
+blowing.
+
+There was a momentary pause just then.
+
+Then its huge tail lashed the water into foam and it rolled over, the
+water surrounding it being crimsoned with its life blood.
+
+"That's another gone coon," said Sam Mason exultingly.
+
+As he spoke, Jefferson shot up to the boat's side, where half a dozen
+eager hands dragged him in.
+
+"Phew!" he said, shaking the water from his face and head, "that beast
+has cost me my knife and my cutlass."
+
+He had sheathed them both in the shark before the ugly beast was done
+with.
+
+The spectators gave him a cheer.
+
+"That's sharp work, Jack," said Harry Girdwood.
+
+"Sharp, indeed."
+
+"It wants a quick hand and a sharp eye."
+
+"And it has got it, too, there," said Isaac Mole, enthusiastically;
+"the smartest performance I've seen for many a long day."
+
+Jefferson nodded and smiled at the speaker.
+
+"Thank'ee, Mr. Mole," said he; "such praise is indeed gratifying coming
+from you, the real hero of the day."
+
+Mr. Mole was radiant with smiles at this.
+
+"Jefferson," said the old gentleman, in his most condescending and
+patronising manner, "you remind me of myself in my best days."
+
+The boat's crew generally laughed at this.
+
+But Mr. Mole was not at all abashed.
+
+"Really, Mr. Mole," said Jefferson, "you flatter."
+
+"Not I," protested Mr. Mole; "I rarely remember doing a neater thing
+myself."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Truly."
+
+"Is it possible?"
+
+"What magnanimity!"
+
+"Humility itself," ejaculated another.
+
+The exaggeration of their expressions of wonderment as well as
+admiration did not at all upset Mr. Mole's moral equilibrium.
+
+He had a very large swallow for admiration, and he pleased to take it
+all as his legitimate due.
+
+"The only thing which can at all compare to Mr. Jefferson's gallant
+deed was an adventure that I will tell you of," said he, modestly. "I
+was on a whaling expedition up north----"
+
+"Whaling?"
+
+"You!"
+
+"Yes, yes, I, Jack. What is there surprising in that?"
+
+"Nothing, sir," responded young Jack; "only I was not aware you had
+ever done any thing in that line."
+
+"Now, how can you expect to know all my past career, my dear boy?"
+
+"Of course, sir."
+
+"Whaling, I repeat. We were chasing an enormous spermaceti whale. I was
+carrying the harpoon and tackle, and as we got within range I let fly
+at him with all my force. Now, perhaps I ought not to say it, but there
+were not many men who could approach me in handling the harpoon. I
+spitted the animal clean through the middle."
+
+"Dear me!"
+
+"No sooner did he feel himself struck than he sounded. Out went the
+line, but hang me if I could pay out fast enough, for he jerked me
+clean off my perch into the water."
+
+"Dreadful!"
+
+"Shocking!"
+
+Mr. Mole smiled grimly.
+
+"Not so bad as it sounds, after all," he said. "It startled me a bit,
+as you may suppose."
+
+"It would, of course," said Dick, tipping the wink to Jefferson.
+
+"But I had got back my presence of mind in half a crack, so I hauled in
+my line until I found myself on the whale's back. There I stuck on like
+grim death, jobbing and stabbing away with one hand, while I held on to
+the hilt of the harpoon with the other. I had only a dirk or short
+sword with me, but it was quite long enough for the whale."
+
+"No doubt, no doubt," exclaimed Dick.
+
+"In a few minutes I had jobbed all the go out of him, and he floated on
+the top of the water dead as a bloater, with me on the top, rather
+blown with being so long under water, but with that excepted, not much
+the worse for it."
+
+"Wonderful!"
+
+"Marvellous!"
+
+"A miracle!"
+
+Such were the mildest tributes of admiration which Mr. Mole's fanciful
+reminiscence drew forth.
+
+"You must have shipped a good lot of water, your honour," said Jack
+Tiller.
+
+"That I did."
+
+"More water than your honour has ever took since."
+
+Mr. Mole half smelt a lurking sarcasm in this, but the honest tar's
+face showed no signs of slyness.
+
+The only evidence of it being a dig at Mr. Mole's well-known weakness
+for strong waters was to be found in the merry twinkling of the
+listeners' eyes.
+
+"I remember something that happened to Billy Longbow--" began Sam
+Mason.
+
+"Avast, Sam!" interrupted Jack Tiller; "Billy Longbow ain't in it with
+Mr. Mole at a yarn."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+HUNSTON'S TRIALS IN THE HOLD OF THE "WESTWARD HO!"--THE SHINE
+WITH HIS PROTECTORS--A STRANGE REVELATION--TROUBLES.
+
+
+Hunston was, meanwhile, getting into a very bad state of mind.
+
+The mechanical arm was resuming its invidious advance--its mysterious
+yet none the less terrible attack.
+
+"I feel that I am going off the hooks," he would mutter to himself,
+grimly, from time to time. "I shall put my old enemy Jack Harkaway to
+the trouble of burying me after all.
+
+"Well, one good turn deserves another. I buried his brat, he shall bury
+me. Only he won't get as much for doing for me as I did for his son."
+
+He little dreamt that both young Jack and Harry Girdwood were upon that
+ship.
+
+He had seen young Jack once, and then his fears were so excited that
+they obtained a complete mastery over his cooler judgment.
+
+He took him for his own apparition.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Joe Basalt and Jack Tiller felt unhappy.
+
+They had long learnt to repent of their slyness in concealing the
+stowaway on board the "Westward Ho!"
+
+Honest Joe Basalt and rough-and-ready Jack Tiller consulted daily over
+the dilemma into which they had fallen.
+
+"Hark ye, Jack," said his pal Basalt, "we've bin an' made hasses of
+ourselves in getting that chap aboard, but our dooty is clear now."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"To go and make a clean breast of it to the skipper."
+
+"But the cove himself seemed so particular avarse to that."
+
+"Cos why? Ain't he bin telling lies by the pint measure? He's been
+humbugging of us," persisted Basalt.
+
+"Let's go and talk reasonable to him, then," said Tiller, "for this
+must come to an end. Damme, if I don't feel as if I'd been an' done a
+hanging job at the very least."
+
+They went to the hold and found Hunston.
+
+The appearance of the wretched stowaway was by this time something
+dreadful.
+
+"We have come to the conclusion, mister," said Joe Basalt, "that there
+is nothing for it but to let the skipper know all."
+
+Hunston pricked up his ears at this.
+
+"Do what?" he exclaimed, violently. "Split upon me, would ye?"
+
+"That's a rum word to use," said Joe Basalt. "You are precious
+feverish, and if you only was to see our skipper and let him know what
+you told us when we picked you out of the water, he would help you--"
+
+"To a halter," muttered the castaway.
+
+"Did you speak?"
+
+"No, Tiller, not I: I was only saying that he wouldn't care to see me,
+so drop it."
+
+"We can't"
+
+"Can't," repeated Joe Basalt.
+
+"Then listen to me," exclaimed Hunston, starting up with new energy;
+"if you tell a word about me to anyone it will be a breach of faith and
+I shall resent it."
+
+"Resent! How?"
+
+"Easily."
+
+"Well, if you means threatening me. I may as well tell you I ain't
+afeared of no man, and when you gets round and pulls up your strength
+again, I shall be happy to have half an hour with you quiet and
+comfortable, and my pal, Jack Tiller, shall stand by and see fair
+play."
+
+And honest Joe rolled up his shirt sleeves showing to the villain
+Hunston a pair of powerful and brawny arms.
+
+"I don't mean that," said Hunston.
+
+"But I do."
+
+"And so do I," added Jack Tiller.
+
+"I mean to say that if you betray me to Harkaway or to any of the
+party, I shall make a point of letting them know that you kept me snug
+here so long because you were well paid for it, and it may not please
+your master, perhaps, to learn that you are doing a little passenger
+traffic upon your own account; and what's better, sticking to the money
+you make over it."
+
+This staggered the two sailors not a little.
+
+"You lying, black-hearted swab," ejaculated Tiller, when he had got his
+breath. "Would you dare?"
+
+Hunston curled his lip contemptuously.
+
+"Dare!"
+
+"Why, you sneaking, lying Judas," cried Basalt.
+
+"Lying!" echoed Hunston; "is it not true?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Not true that I paid you for saving me and bringing me here?"
+
+"Yes; but--"
+
+"But--but--but pickles. The tale I shall tell will speak for itself."
+
+"Then, damme, you shall try it on now," ejaculated the exasperated Joe
+Basalt, moving towards the companion ladder.
+
+But before he could get any further, Hunston sprang before him, knife
+in hand.
+
+"Hold!"
+
+"Stand aside," cried Joe.
+
+"When you have sworn not to utter a word; but not till then--not till
+then."
+
+The two sailors stared at each other in surprise at this outburst.
+
+"Well, Joe," exclaimed his comrade, "did you ever see such a
+black-hearted villain?"
+
+"Not I. But put of the way with you, swab, or, damme, I'll make small
+biscuit of you."
+
+So saying, he ran at Hunston, and knocked the knife out of his hand.
+
+Hunston endeavoured to close with him.
+
+But the temporary strength with which his fury had invested him
+vanished suddenly, and he fell to the ground, a dull, heavy load.
+
+They ran to raise him.
+
+To their dismay they discovered that he was breathless--lifeless.
+
+"He's dead!"
+
+"Is he? Then, by the Lord Harry, we must go and fetch the doctor, or we
+shall get into an awful mess. Stay here, Joe, awhile. I'll go up and
+see for the doctor."
+
+"Stop a bit," said Joe Basalt, feeling the stowaway's chest. "He's not
+dead yet. I can feel something moving here. Yes, it's beating."
+
+"He's only fainting, then."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Quite enough, top. I'll go up and let them know, before he can go on
+again about it."
+
+Up he ran.
+
+Joe Basalt used his best exertions to bring the swooning man round.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tiller found Harkaway on deck.
+
+"Might I have half a word with your honour?"
+
+"A dozen, if you like, Tiller," said old Jack, turning from the party
+of daring fishermen, who had been relating their deeds of daring with
+the sharks, and was quite elated with the narrations which they had
+been giving.
+
+Jack Tiller hummed and ha'd, and looked uneasy, and so he pulled his
+forelock and spluttered out--
+
+"Please, sir, I've been and gone on like a darned bad lot, your
+honour."
+
+"Tiller!"
+
+"Yes, your honour, I have. I've been and let a berth here on board, and
+stuck to the money--leastways, that's what the passenger himself says,
+though, the Lord help me, I hadn't the least idea of doing such a
+thing; not I. I took a poor drowning wretch in, and I put him below in
+the hold to keep him snug, and--"
+
+Here Harkaway interrupted him with a cry of wonder and astonishment.
+
+"What, Tiller, you mean to say you have a stowaway on board the
+'Westward Ho?'"
+
+"Yes, your honour," responded the frightened mariner.
+
+"You have done very wrong, Jack Tiller," said Harkaway, "very wrong
+indeed."
+
+"I know I have, though Lord help me if I thought of wronging any man.
+The poor devil in gratitude, offered me money, and I took it; and now I
+feel as if I had been robbing your honour, that's all. But I'll be glad
+to hand over the money, and so will my pal, Joe Basalt."
+
+"Joe!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Is he in it?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You surprise me."
+
+"Devil a bit do I wonder at that, sir. We're a thieving, dishonest lot,
+sir, little as I thought it, sir."
+
+Old Jack smiled at this.
+
+"Well, well," he said, after a moment's reflection, "we'll go deeper
+into that question when we have seen your stowaway."
+
+"This way, sir," said the worthy Tiller.
+
+Old Jack followed him down below.
+
+On reaching the hold, he found Joe Basalt kneeling up in a corner over
+the wretched stowaway, who was still in a deep swoon.
+
+"How is he?" asked Tiller. "Any better yet?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Fainted again?"
+
+"Yes--hush! don't make a row."
+
+"Here's the governor, Joe," said Jack Tiller.
+
+Joe Basalt turned round with a start, and hung his head abashed.
+
+"It's all right, Joe," said Harkaway, "Don't worry any more about it;
+only you were wrong to conceal it from me, that's all. And now let us
+look at the patient. He is ill, Jack Tiller tells me."
+
+"Yes, your honour."
+
+"Turn your lantern upon his face."
+
+The sailor opened his bull's-eye.
+
+As its glare flashed upon the half swooning man, he opened his eyes.
+
+The recognition was mutual--yes, and instantaneous.
+
+The stowaway glared fiercely upwards, and uttered but one word--
+
+"Harkaway!"
+
+"Hunston!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+GOOD FOR EVIL--AN UNEXPECTED STROKE OF LUCK FOR
+HUNSTON.
+
+
+Harkaway, the noble and generous, and Hunston, the villain from boyhood
+to manhood, together--face to face!
+
+After all these changes and trials and vicissitudes.
+
+After all these acts of villainy, treachery, and cruelty upon the part
+of the miserable wretch Hunston. After so many acts of daring upon the
+part of our dashing hero, Jack Harkaway.
+
+Not a word was spoken for some moments.
+
+This strange encounter literally deprived them of the power of
+utterance.
+
+It was unexpected to both of them.
+
+Startling--appalling was it to Hunston upon regaining consciousness, to
+find himself face to face with the man of all others he dreaded and
+hated most.
+
+Need we say why?
+
+No.
+
+The reader has not, of course, forgotten that Hunston was ignorant of
+the two boys' preservation. Little did he dream that those two destined
+victims had, by little less than a miracle, escaped his vengeance.
+
+Bitter, indeed, therefore, were his feelings now, for he fully believed
+that young Jack was in his grave in the Greek mountains.
+
+Under any ordinary circumstances he would have felt tolerably easy, for
+well as he knew what an ugly customer was Jack Harkaway in a tussle, he
+was also aware that Jack would not take advantage of an enemy's
+powerless condition, no matter how deep were the wrongs inflicted.
+
+The murder of Harkaway's boy, Hunston knew well, was a crime which
+Harkaway would never look over.
+
+His fate was sealed.
+
+So deeply was he convinced of this that he would have laid violent
+hands upon himself if he had had the power.
+
+But the crowning crime of self-murder he was powerless to commit.
+
+"So, Hunston," said Harkaway, sternly, "we meet face to face once
+more."
+
+Hunston was silent.
+
+What could he say?
+
+"What new villainy brought you here?" said Harkaway. "What fresh act of
+devilry had you in contemplation when you got on board my vessel?"
+
+Hunston gave him a sickly and scornful smile.
+
+"Do you suppose that I knew where I was?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Hunston stared.
+
+"Then all I have to say is, that you haven't improved in wit or wisdom
+with increasing years. Why, the merest chance brought me here. I am not
+guilty of gratitude as a rule, you will say."
+
+"True."
+
+"You haven't the satisfaction of saying it," retorted Hunston, quickly;
+"I have said it for you. But the two men who hid me here had no idea
+who I was. Being hard pressed on shore--where you made it too hot to
+hold me--I took to the water, and when I was nearly sinking, I hailed
+their boat. They took me in and--"
+
+"And you returned the compliment."
+
+"How?"
+
+"By taking them in," said Harkaway.
+
+"They hid me away here to do me a service. I made my tale good to them.
+As my time, I feel, is nearly up in this world, I don't want to do them
+any wrong."
+
+Harkaway listened in some astonishment.
+
+The wretch's allusion to his approaching end thrilled Harkaway
+strangely.
+
+"Do you feel so ill?" he asked.
+
+Hunston smiled sardonically at this.
+
+"Nearly all over," was his reply. "Laugh away--laugh away!"
+
+"Hush, miserable man, hush!" exclaimed Harkaway. "You have known me
+nearly all my life; you knew me as a schoolboy and as a man."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And no one has better reason than you to know that Jack Harkaway does
+not fight with helpless enemies, still less does he rejoice over the
+sufferings of the worst foe he ever had."
+
+Hunston looked up.
+
+A faint gleam of hope appeared in this.
+
+But no; it was impossible.
+
+Too well he knew that his life was forfeited.
+
+But while he was ruminating thus, Harkaway had sent one of the men up
+on deck to fetch the doctor.
+
+In the course of two or three minutes the man returned, accompanied by
+the ship's surgeon.
+
+"A stowaway on board the 'Westward Ho!'" said the doctor, as he entered
+the hold; "I should sooner have expected to find one on board a
+man-of-war."
+
+"Examine him, please, doctor," said Harkaway anxiously, "and let us
+know how he is."
+
+The doctor made no reply, but proceeded without any fuss or
+demonstration to feel the sick man's pulse.
+
+"Very low," he said; "in a bad way. We must get him up out of this
+place, for it is enough to choke a black."
+
+He was tended as carefully as if he had been one of their best friends,
+instead of the bitterest, the most treacherous of their enemies; and,
+strange to relate, Jack Harkaway appeared not a little concerned about
+the villain's welfare.
+
+"Do you think that there is any danger?" he asked.
+
+"Immediate, do you mean, sir?" said the doctor.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Humph! I can scarcely say. Not exactly immediate, perhaps, if care be
+taken."
+
+"You think he will live?"
+
+"Unless the fever which has set in should take an unfavourable turn. He
+is constitutionally strong."
+
+"I know that."
+
+The doctor looked at Harkaway in some surprise.
+
+"You are a bit of a doctor, Mr. Harkaway?"
+
+Jack smiled.
+
+"A very small bit," he answered; "only I have known this man nearly all
+my life."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+The doctor's manner invited confidence, and it was quite clear that his
+curiosity had been awakened.
+
+Harkaway thought it over quickly and quietly, and he came to the
+conclusion that he could not do better than let the doctor participate
+in the secret.
+
+"You are surprised that an old acquaintance of mine should be here on
+board my ship, lurking and skulking as a stowaway?"
+
+"Well," answered Doctor Anderson, in a constrained manner, "if I
+confess the honest plain truth, I am."
+
+"It is simple enough; the man did not know that he was on my vessel, or
+it would be about the last vessel in the world he would have chosen for
+refuge."
+
+"Refuge?"
+
+"Yes; refuge is the word. Now I am the worst man in the world at half
+confidences. Tell me, are you a good man to keep a secret, doctor?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"Then I may tell you something that will rather startle you."
+
+"You will?"
+
+"Yes. That poor wretch you have the charge of is the worst enemy that I
+have. It is my old schoolfellow, Hunston."
+
+"Hunston!"
+
+"Yes. You remember the name, I perceive."
+
+"I do. But is it possible that the villain has the audacity to venture
+here?"
+
+"No; that is just what he would not do. He took to the water, being
+hardly pressed by his enemies."
+
+"Why, if your men knew who it was, they would tear him piecemeal."
+
+"Exactly; and that's what I wanted to speak of to you, doctor. We must
+take every care not to let them know."
+
+"Really, you are as careful of him as though he were a cherished
+friend."
+
+"Not quite," answered Harkaway; "only I don't care to drop on a
+helpless enemy, even such a viper as this Hunston."
+
+"But he is such an utterly bad lot."
+
+"True; and I should not feel the slightest compunction at taking his
+life in a tussle, in a fair stand-up fight; but what I can't do, is
+taking a man's life when he is helpless at my mercy."
+
+The doctor saw that Harkaway did not wish to discuss it further, and so
+he contented himself with obeying orders; and so Hunston got restored
+to health in the ship of his old schoolfellow, the man whom he had
+injured most deeply.
+
+Care and skill of the first description were lavished upon him.
+
+But for this, Hunston would probably have languished and died
+wretchedly upon the coast of Greece, unless an accident had thrown him
+into the power of the authorities.
+
+In that case, his destiny would have been speedily accomplished.
+
+His end--the scaffold.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+HUNSTON'S PROGRESS--MISGIVINGS--THE WARNINGS FROM THE
+GRAVE.
+
+
+"Mr. Harkaway."
+
+"Doctor."
+
+"A word with you, if convenient, sir."
+
+"Certainly, doctor," returned old Jack.
+
+And they walked on deck together.
+
+"It is only concerning the patient."
+
+"What of him?"
+
+"There is something concerning that mechanical arm which completely
+baffles me. It is poisoned, I fear."
+
+"You astonish me," said Harkaway.
+
+While they were talking this over, young Jack dropped into the cabin.
+Now, the boy knew better than anybody the history of the mechanical
+arm.
+
+It will not be forgotten by the reader that the death of Robert
+Emmerson occurred on board the pirate vessel during the captivity of
+young Jack Harkaway and Harry Girdwood.
+
+Although so many adventures have been gone through since then, you can
+not have forgotten that during their captivity Hunston and Toro had
+striven might and main to compass the poor boy's destruction.
+
+It is needless to recall to the reader's recollection that it was
+during that time that this wondrous work was perfected by Robert
+Emmerson, and that during that time his work was the indirect cause of
+his death.
+
+The legend of the steel arm was not forgotten by the boys.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"This arm was made by the notorious Protean Bob," said young Jack to
+his father. "You remember Protean Bob?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He was a highly-skilled mechanician, it appears, and that he gave
+himself thoroughly up to the manufacture of this arm."
+
+"It is certainly a marvellous piece of work," said Doctor Anderson.
+
+"The strangest part of the story is," said young Jack, "that only the
+inventor knows the exact working of it, and that there is concealed in
+the springs something deadly to avenge the inventor should the wearer
+of the arm ever prove wanting in gratitude. And Hunston, as you know--"
+
+"Never troubled anyone with gratitude."
+
+"No, indeed," said Doctor Anderson, reflectively; "the strangest part
+of that is, he never misses an opportunity of railing against you."
+
+"Against me!" said Harkaway.
+
+"Ungrateful ruffian!" exclaimed Harvey, who entered just as this was
+spoken.
+
+"He thinks when he gets well, you will take his life, for he is still
+ignorant of the boys being here, or of their lives being saved," said
+the doctor.
+
+"I see, I see," said young Jack; "he doesn't know that we escaped the
+death which he fancied so sure. He ought to suffer for that."
+
+"Hush!" said old Jack: "he is punished enough already."
+
+"Not quite. I don't think he could be punished enough," said Harry
+Girdwood.
+
+"Nor I."
+
+"Stop, stop," said Harkaway, seriously; "I have suffered more than all
+of you, at the hands of this man, and if I can forgive him, surely you
+can."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, as Hunston gained strength, his old evil passions returned in
+their full force.
+
+The nurses appointed to attend his bedside, were the two sailors who
+had rescued him from a watery grave, honest Joe Basalt and his friend
+Jack Tiller.
+
+These two bluff tars had been appointed to the post for reasons which
+the reader will readily comprehend.
+
+They had received a long lesson from old Jack and from the doctor too.
+
+They were forbidden to mention certain matters, and although Hunston
+would wheedle and cross-examine with the skill of an Old Bailey lawyer,
+he quite failed to get any information from them.
+
+"At any rate," exclaimed the patient, in utter despair, "you don't mind
+telling me whither we are bound."
+
+"Oh, yes, I do," returned Joe Basalt, who was on duty for the time
+being.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Can't tell."
+
+"You don't think that Harkaway means to--"
+
+"Mister Harkaway, if you please," interrupted Joe Basalt, surlily.
+
+"Well then, Mr. Harkaway," said Hunston, impatiently.
+
+"That's better."
+
+"You don't think that he means to hand me over to the authorities at
+the nearest port, do you?"
+
+Joe was mum.
+
+"Eh?"
+
+Not a word.
+
+Hunston still remained in ignorance of the presence of the boys--aye,
+even of their very existence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Massa Jack," said Sunday to our youthful hero, one morning, "we often
+gib poor old Daddy Mole a teasing, sir, a frightening."
+
+Young Jack grinned.
+
+"We have."
+
+"Ought he not to get off easier dan dat dam skunk, dat Hunston fellar?"
+
+"Yes, but you wouldn't recommend joking with him as we do with Mr.
+Mole?"
+
+"No. I'd let it be no joke, Massa Jack; I'd just frighten him out of
+his darned skin, dat's all."
+
+Harry Girdwood was taken into their confidence, and a fine plot was
+agreed upon.
+
+The only difficulty was the sailor nurse.
+
+Joe Basalt was on guard again.
+
+They gave Joe Basalt a good stiff tumbler of grog--and where is the
+sailor who could resist that?--and oh, wickedness! the grog was
+hocussed.
+
+In plainer language, that means drugged.
+
+Not very long after drinking their healths in a bumper, old Joe felt
+drowsy, and he fell asleep.
+
+The patient slept, and would not have awakened probably for two hours
+had not the two negroes Sunday and Monday set up a most unearthly,
+moaning noise.
+
+The pitch was low but thrilling, and not the pleasantest thing for a
+man to hear with a conscience laden with guilt as was the wretched man
+Hunston's.
+
+The sick man was for some time oblivious of the sounds which were going
+on for his special ear.
+
+But after a certain delay it began to tell.
+
+He moaned.
+
+Then moved.
+
+Then turned upon his back.
+
+"Hunston! Hunston! oh, Hunston!" Sunday groaned. "Awake."
+
+And then the two darkeys would groan together.
+
+A responsive moan from Hunston was heard.
+
+He opened his eyes, moaned and groaned, and awoke wakeful at once.
+
+And when he awoke!
+
+His startled eyes fell upon two awful and awesome figures.
+
+The two boys, young Jack and Harry Girdwood, standing hand in hand,
+their faces bearing the ghastly pallor of the grave and their brows
+smeared with blood.
+
+In the darkened cabin a flickering, phosphorescent light played upon
+them, a hint which had perhaps been borrowed from the practical joking
+in the chamber of the sham necromancer in Greece.
+
+The two victims glared upon the sick man, while he could only stare in
+fearful silence.
+
+He stared.
+
+Then he closed his eyes and rubbed them, and opened them again, as if
+to assure himself that it was real.
+
+But they never moved.
+
+Never spoke.
+
+He essayed to speak.
+
+But his tongue refused to wag.
+
+It stuck to the roof of his mouth.
+
+The perspiration stood out upon his brow in thick beads.
+
+Presently, when a sound came from him, it was a dull, hollow moan of
+anguish, that sounded like the echo of some "yawning grave."
+
+A sound which seemed to contain the pent-up agony of a whole lifetime
+of suffering.
+
+But his tormentors were merciless.
+
+They did not budge.
+
+"Away, horrible creatures!" gasped the miserable wretch, in tones
+scarcely louder than a whisper. "Away, and hide yourselves!"
+
+And he strove to drag the coverlet over his head.
+
+But there was a fearful fascination in it which forced him in spite of
+himself to look again.
+
+"I know you are unreal," he faltered. "I know my mind is wandering--that
+I fancy it all--all. Begone! away!"
+
+As well might he have invited them to shake him by the hand or to
+embrace him affectionately.
+
+No.
+
+There they stuck glaring upon him with eyes full of hideous menace.
+
+"What brings you here?" he said again. "Why do you come to torment me
+now? Rest in your graves. Away, I say, away!"
+
+His manner grew more violent as he went on speaking.
+
+"You had no mercy upon us," said young Jack; "and now remember when
+last we were upon earth."
+
+A groan from Hunston was the only response.
+
+"Beware!" said Harry Girdwood, in sepulchral tones. "Beware, I say!"
+
+"Beware!" chimed in the others, as in one voice.
+
+"I warned you that the time would come when you would beg for mercy of
+my father," pursued young Jack. "I told you that you should grovel in
+abject terror, and plead in vain--aye, in vain."
+
+"Never!" retorted Hunston.
+
+"To-morrow will show you."
+
+"What?" cried Hunston, in feverish eagerness, while he dreaded to hear.
+
+"Your fate."
+
+"It is false."
+
+"The rope is ready--the noose is run. You shall die a dog's death."
+
+"And you shall die hard," added Harry Girdwood.
+
+A groan, more fearful than any which had preceded, burst from the
+guilty wretch.
+
+"But Harkaway will be merciful."
+
+"As you were."
+
+"No, no, no; he is full of forgiveness, I know."
+
+"But not for crimes like yours."
+
+"He could not pardon you, even if he would."
+
+"Why not?" demanded Hunston, quickly.
+
+"Because the crew would drag you piecemeal. No, no, no, Hunston; your
+fate is sealed. The rope is ready--the noose is waiting for you. In
+torment and in suffering you shall die the death of a rabid cur, the
+death of a loathsome reptile, of a poisonous thing of which it is true
+humanity to rid the earth."
+
+He could hear no more.
+
+With a moan of incalculable terror he dived under the bedclothes to
+shut out the fearful vision.
+
+When he ventured forth again, they were gone.
+
+Vanished!
+
+They had returned as noiselessly as they had come.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Basalt."
+
+"Hullo!"
+
+The drugged sailor fought with the opiate which had been administered
+to him and opened his eyes.
+
+"There's no one here, is there, Basalt? Tell me."
+
+"What are you muttering about now?" demanded Joe Basalt, in his
+surliest tones.
+
+"Are we alone?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"I have had such an awful dream, my good friend," said Hunston, still
+on the shiver.
+
+"Then keep it to yourself," retorted Joe. "I don't care the value of a
+ship's biscuit for your dream--yours nor anybody else's--so stow your
+gaff. Close your peepers, and let me get a few winks, if I can, always
+providing as I'm not troubling your honourable self."
+
+Not even honest old Joe's withering irony could affect the patient, so
+profoundly pleased was he to find the supernatural visitors
+gone--melted, as it were, into thin air.
+
+Hunston turned on his side, muttering--
+
+"If I had but the giant strength of Toro, I would soon take my revenge
+upon all this ship contains--yes, a deep and deadly revenge."
+
+After a moment, he again muttered--
+
+"I wonder if the brigand Toro is alive or dead, or if I shall ever have
+his help to destroy my old and hated enemy Harkaway."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII
+
+WHEREIN HUNSTON'S EVIL PROPENSITIES CATCH HIM IN A
+TRAP--DANGER--ANOTHER SHARK--MR. MOLE SUFFERS.
+
+
+"I have had such horrible dreams, doctor," said Hunston the next
+morning.
+
+"I don't much wonder at your dreams being ugly ones," replied the
+doctor, significantly.
+
+Hunston coughed.
+
+There was no mistaking the doctor's meaning.
+
+The conversation hung fire for a moment.
+
+"I can quite understand that you may dream of many things which would
+scarcely bear repetition."
+
+"That's not the case," angrily retorted the patient.
+
+"Indeed."
+
+The end of it was the doctor treated the patient for the feverish
+symptoms which the tricks of the night had created, and as the day wore
+on, he got calmer and better.
+
+Time wore on.
+
+Days grew into weeks.
+
+The mysterious ravages of the secret poisoning still baffled Doctor
+Anderson and prevented the complete restoration of the patient.
+
+"There's something very extraordinary in this," the doctor would say to
+Hunston, "something which is quite beyond me. If we were not in the
+nineteenth century, I should almost be inclined to believe in a spell
+having been cast upon you."
+
+Hunston winced.
+
+"Upon me?"
+
+"Yes; or rather upon that wonderful mechanical arm. I should almost
+think that the wearer was under a ban."
+
+The doctor's words thrilled the listener strangely.
+
+Little did he know that Doctor Anderson was well acquainted with the
+history of the mechanical arm, and of its ill-fated inventor, Robert
+Emmerson.
+
+Little did he think that the doctor's words were meant to produce the
+exact effect which they had.
+
+The doctor's speech sank deeply into Hunston's mind, and he brooded day
+and night.
+
+But although it did not affect his health, it certainly had a most
+unwholesome effect upon his mind, and the result of this soon made
+itself manifest.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That same afternoon the two boys and their tutor were on deck.
+
+There was scarcely a breath of wind on the ocean, the sails were
+hanging loosely from the spars as the vessel rose and fell upon the
+swelling waves.
+
+"What a country this is for sharks!" exclaimed Mr. Mole, who was seated
+on the low bulwarks of the weather quarter, enjoying what little air
+there was, and carefully unloading his pocket pistol.
+
+"Beg pardon, Mr. Mole," said Harry, "but what is the name of _this
+particular country?"_
+
+Mole frowned horribly.
+
+"You are a very impudent boy."
+
+"No, sir, only a youth of an inquiring turn of mind. What is the chief
+city of this country?"
+
+"I never answer absurd questions."
+
+Mr. Mole took another suck at the pistol (_i.e._ flask), and then
+his countenance relaxed.
+
+"It is a place for sharks, though," he said; "only look at that great
+fellow down here."
+
+Harry looked, and so did young Jack.
+
+There was a monster of the deep moving slowly to and fro, occasionally
+coming up nearly to the surface and then sinking apparently without an
+effort almost out of sight.
+
+The fish was of greater size than those they had already killed.
+
+He came up and looked at old Mole and then turned away, evidently
+thinking the worthy tutor much too old, lean and tough for his dainty
+stomach; but when he caught sight of Jack and Harry, he showed more
+animation.
+
+Evidently they were more to his taste.
+
+"I mean to have a try for him," said Jack.
+
+"Do so, my boy. I shall make a sportsman of you yet, I see," observed
+Mole.
+
+"You have certainly put us up to a wrinkle or two lately, sir."
+
+"Bah! your father is considered a clever man in all that pertains to
+sporting, but what is he in comparison with me?"
+
+Young Jack did not hear the conclusion of this speech, for he had gone
+away to get his fishing tackle, a large hook attached to a chain.
+
+He quickly returned, and baited the hook with about ten pounds of beef,
+that had gone a little queer in the bottom of the tub.
+
+"Now, Mr. Sharkey, let us see if you can digest that," exclaimed Jack,
+as he dropped the hook overboard.
+
+The shark looked at it closely, and then looked up at Jack, as though
+he would much prefer the fisher to the bait.
+
+"It is no use, Jack," said Harry; "he is not hungry."
+
+"Strikes me it is unskilfulness in angling, rather than want of
+appetite on the shark's part," remarked Mr. Mole.
+
+"Would you like to have a try, sir?"
+
+"Hem! well, I don't mind showing you how to do it," responded the
+professor.
+
+Jack began to haul in the line, coiling it down just at Mole's feet, or
+rather where his feet should have been.
+
+But sharkey, finding himself in danger of losing his dinner, made a
+dart at the meat before it left the water, then discovering that the
+barb of the hook had stuck in his mouth, she darted off at a great
+rate, but sad to relate, the rope as it flew out over the bulwark, got
+twisted round one of Mr. Mole's stumps, and the worthy professor flew
+into the ocean For a wooden-legged man to swim well, or even to keep
+himself afloat by treading water, is a somewhat difficult task and so
+Mr. Mole would have found it, had not Harry Girdwood promptly followed
+the advice given by a celebrated American--
+
+"When you see a drowning man, throw a rail at him."
+
+Harry threw a plank, and Mr. Mole being fortunate enough to clutch it,
+was thereby enabled to keep himself afloat.
+
+But he was exposed to another danger.
+
+The shark being irritated by the rusty iron in his throat, was rushing
+hither and thither in a most furious manner, snapping his jaws in a way
+that made the spectators thankful they were on deck.
+
+And then, turning on its back, it bit at Mole.
+
+"Help, help!" shouted Mole.
+
+"Oh! the brute has taken my leg off."
+
+The shark resumed its natural position, and held Mole's stump above
+water, puzzled to know what to do with it.
+
+"This is my fault," said young Jack, and seizing a cutlass, he leaped
+overboard.
+
+"Lower away the boat," shouted Dick Harvey, who had just come on deck.
+
+He and Jefferson had also armed themselves, and were about to leap in
+to young Jack's assistance, when Harkaway senior appeared.
+
+"Hold, let no man here risk his life," he said.
+
+"But--"
+
+"But the excitement will do me good, I want a good fight to keep my
+spirits up."
+
+While speaking he had thrown off his coat and shoes, and cutlass in
+hand, leaped to the rescue of his son and old Mole.
+
+By this time, however, the boat had been lowered and was pulling
+rapidly towards Mr. Mole, who still clung to his plank about thirty
+yards from the stern of the vessel.
+
+Old Jack with a few powerful strokes reached him.
+
+"Hold on, Mr. Mole; the boat is coming. You youngster, swim out of the
+way at once."
+
+"I'm going to fight the fish, dad."
+
+"You are not. Away with you at once."
+
+During this brief conversation the shark had been down out of sight. He
+now rose to the surface, and perceiving three enemies, seemed undecided
+which to attack first.
+
+And while the fish was hesitating, Harkaway resolved to open the
+campaign. Accordingly he dived, with the intention of coming up beneath
+the fish and administering a stab.
+
+Old Jack Tiller and Joe Basalt were just at that moment engaged in
+hauling Mr. Mole into the boat; they had him half way over the gunwale,
+when the shark made a snap and away went the professor's other leg.
+
+"Mercy, help! The beast is devouring me by inches," screamed Mole, as
+he rolled headlong into the boat.
+
+Joe Basalt seeing that young Jack was still itching to have a go at the
+shark, seized him by the collar and dragged him in. They then rested on
+their oars and prepared to give the elder Harkaway any assistance they
+could.
+
+"I lay five to three against the monster of the deep," said Harvey.
+
+"I accept the wager on those terms," said Mole, who having discovered
+that he was unhurt, was reviving.
+
+He took another swig at the pistol and then sat up to watch the
+conflict.
+
+The shark, finding he had now only one opponent to deal with, turned
+towards Harkaway, who dived again, and getting this time fairly beneath
+the fish, thrust his cutlass up to the hilt in its stomach.
+
+Startled by this sudden attack, and smarting from the pain caused by
+the wound, the shark leaped up half out of the water, and then fell
+with a loud splash close by Jack.
+
+Everyone on board was by this time on deck, watching the unequal
+struggle.
+
+While the shark was twisting and turning to get at its adversary, Jack
+managed to give a second stab; but it was rather hot work, though, for
+Jack was obliged to dive so frequently that he had little time to
+recover his breath.
+
+He was just endeavouring to do so, when the shark made another rush at
+him.
+
+Old Jack dived again, and young Jack would have been over to his
+father's assistance had not Joe Basalt forcibly restrained him.
+
+A third stab made the shark feel very queer indeed.
+
+In fact, Harkaway thought the fish was done for, and had struck out for
+the ship, but just as he grasped a rope and permitted himself to be
+drawn up, the shark recovered and made another most vicious dart at
+him.
+
+Our hero, who had, in his time, vanquished so many foes, felt hardly
+inclined to let a shark get the best of him. He dropped from the rope
+and sank beneath the waves just as the head of the brute emerged
+therefrom.
+
+Then up again like a shot; and the keen cutlass tore its way through
+the vitals of the fish.
+
+Then a fin was lopped off, and a few seconds afterwards the huge
+carcase was seen floating on the waves.
+
+Harkaway seized the rope and fastened it round the head and tail of his
+vanquished foe, which was then hauled on deck.
+
+"Bravo, old man," exclaimed Harvey, shaking his schoolfellow by the
+hand.
+
+"You did that well."
+
+"Though you were certainly a long time about it," observed Mole. "I
+could have--"
+
+"You could have paid me three sovs. by this time," replied Harvey, "so
+just out with the dust."
+
+Mole made no reply.
+
+Jefferson then added his congratulations.
+
+"Pshaw!" said Jack. "Mr. Mole did it all."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Why, he poisoned the poor shark with his wooden legs. It's enough to
+make a fish disgusted with life."
+
+A loud laugh followed.
+
+"Meanwhile," said Mole, "will some-one be good enough to give me a
+lift?"
+
+The professor was hoisted up on deck, and when they had all changed
+their clothes, and the great shark-killer had shipped two new wooden
+pins, he grew quite as bounceable as ever.
+
+Especially as the death of the last shark was still jocularly attributed
+to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII
+
+OLD JOE PLOTS WITH HUNSTON--WHAT CAME OF THE PLOT.
+
+
+The Harkaway family and their guests were all assembled at dinner,
+after the shark-fishing, when the conversation turned upon their old
+enemy.
+
+"I wish we were fairly rid of him," said Mrs. Harkaway, "for all the
+while he is on board, I feel as if some misfortune were hanging over
+us."
+
+Jack smiled.
+
+"Have you had any dreams, Emily?" he asked, slily,
+
+"Don't learn to mock, sir," retorted the lady, with mock asperity, "You
+have been influenced by dreams yourself before now."
+
+Jack looked serious.
+
+"That's true."
+
+"And we owe this wretched man nothing--"
+
+"But hate."
+
+"We do that," said Jefferson; "but he is a miserable wretch, and we can
+afford to let him off cheaply, without paying old scores."
+
+"What do you wish to do, then?" demanded Harkaway. "I am willing to
+abide by the decision you may come to."
+
+"Well," said Mr. Mole, "I propose that he shall be put ashore."
+
+"When?"
+
+There was the rub.
+
+They were many weary miles away from the sight of land.
+
+"Put him ashore the first time that we come within reach of land,"
+suggested Harvey.
+
+"We will," said Harkaway, "if that is the general wish."
+
+"It is."
+
+It was put to the vote and found that everybody, without a single
+exception, was desirous of seeing the back of Hunston.
+
+Who can wonder?
+
+None.
+
+"Well, well," said old Jack, "that is agreed upon. And now, Emily, my
+dear, I hope that your mind is at rest."
+
+"Almost."
+
+"What! doesn't that satisfy you yet?"
+
+"For the present; but I shall be all the more satisfied when he is
+really out of the place altogether, for he is a regular nightmare to
+me."
+
+"You are fanciful, my dear," said old Jack.
+
+"Perhaps; but there have been times when you have not made so light of
+my presentiments," said Emily.
+
+As these words were spoken, the saloon door was opened and who should
+enter but Joe Basalt.
+
+Now old Joe wore a face as long as a fiddle, and addressing Harkaway he
+requested a few words in private.
+
+"Presently, Joe," said Harkaway.
+
+The old tar twisted his hat round and waited.
+
+"What, won't presently do for you?"
+
+"I'd sooner out with it at once," said Joe.
+
+"Well, out with it," said Harkaway.
+
+"Before everyone, your honour?" Joe demanded.
+
+"Yes."
+
+He looked shyly about him, and cast a furtive glance at the ladies
+before he ventured to speak out.
+
+"I want to break it to your honour as gently as possible, and I want to
+know what your honour thinks of me?"
+
+Old Jack stared.
+
+"Why, really, Joe--"
+
+"I think Joe wants to know if you think he's handsome," suggested Dick
+Harvey.
+
+"Do you admire the cut of his figurehead?" chimed in young Jack.
+
+But Joe Basalt was evidently too much upset and preoccupied by
+something on his mind to heed this chaff.
+
+"No, your honour," he said, fiercely, "what I want to know is--do you
+consider me a d--d mutineering swab?"
+
+"Joe, Joe," exclaimed Harkaway, laughing in spite of himself, "moderate
+your language; remember that there are ladies present."
+
+Joe reddened to the roots of his hair.
+
+"I ax their pardon, every mother's son of them," he said, tugging at
+his forelock; "but my feelin's carries me away."
+
+"Tell us what it is, then," said Jefferson, "and perhaps we can offer
+advice."
+
+"Well, then, sir, I've been insulted."
+
+"I see, I see," said Jefferson; "you have been having a row with one of
+your messmates."
+
+"And you have punched his head?" suggested young Jack.
+
+"Serve him right, too, Joe," said Harry Girdwood.
+
+"No, no, young gentlemen," said Joe, "I ain't done that, or else I
+should be quite happy--that's just it--because I wanted his honour's
+permission."
+
+"What?"
+
+"To give him a good licking," urged Joe Basalt; "you see, I couldn't
+well do it without, as it's the stowaway."
+
+The interest of the whole of the company redoubled at this.
+
+"He's been at his tricks again," said Joe.
+
+"I thought so."
+
+"And d--d dirty tricks they are, too. The swab can't do nothing fair
+and square and above board. He allers cruises about in a nasty, sly,
+piratical way."
+
+"What is it? Tell us at once."
+
+"Yes, sir, I will. Why, you see, the fact is, he has been a-sounding me
+about trying if the crew is satisfied with your honour."
+
+A low murmur went from mouth to mouth around the table.
+
+"He's never trying to undermine you, old fidelity!" ejaculated
+Harkaway.
+
+Joe nodded.
+
+"That's it, your honour."
+
+"Villain!"
+
+"And what's more, he's been trying it on with Jack Tiller."
+
+"He has?"
+
+Harkaway's brow darkened, and the expression of his face grew ominous.
+
+"How did Jack Tiller meet his advances?" asked Harvey.
+
+"Why, Jack ain't got no command over himself, and so he--"
+
+Joe paused.
+
+"So what?"
+
+"Why, Jack gave him one for himself; but he ain't damaged him much,"
+Joe hastened to add apologetically, "for Jack Tiller knows his dooty
+better than that, your honour. No, he's only put one of his toplights
+into mourning."
+
+This sent the two boys into ecstasies.
+
+"And so you see, your honour, when he opened fire on to me, I could
+hardly believe it possible, until he put it plainer, and then I was so
+staggered that I did not know what to do, so I thought I would come and
+let you know."
+
+Harkaway, looking up, caught his wife's glance fixed upon him.
+
+"You see, it doesn't do to scoff at secret apprehensions," she said,
+quietly.
+
+"No, no. This shall be seen to at once," he answered, rising from his
+seat. "Come with me, Dick, and you, Jefferson."
+
+They left the cabin, followed by old Joe Basalt.
+
+Now, when they got on deck, Jack Harkaway led the way to a part where
+they were alone, and not likely to be disturbed.
+
+"Now, Joe," said he, "I have been thinking this matter over. I know you
+have only spoken the truth, without a word of exaggeration. But we must
+catch the villain in his own snare."
+
+"How, your honour?"
+
+"I'll tell you. You must go back to this traitor, and you must play the
+part of a willing listener."
+
+"A what?"
+
+"A willing listener. You must let him think you are ready to join in
+his villainy, do you see?"
+
+"I do, your honour, but damme if I like it."
+
+"You will have to like it in this instance, Joe, for the good of us
+all. This man is the worst villain alive. I have forgiven him more
+wrongs than you would think it possible to forgive; but now the safety
+of all is concerned, and it must be done."
+
+Joe scratched his head, and looked troubled.
+
+"If that's orders, your honour, I've nothing but to obey."
+
+"Right, Joe."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Having primed Joe Basalt up in his lesson, they marched off to
+Hunston's cabin, and Joe entered, while Harkaway, Dick Harvey, and
+Jefferson took up a position near where they could overhear what was
+going on within.
+
+"Well, shipmate," said Basalt, "how goes it?"
+
+Hunston was lying on his side, holding a damp towel to his damaged eye.
+
+He only turned round, and grunted some few ungracious words.
+
+"I've brought you some news," said Joe, repeating his lesson; "there is
+a regular shine on deck."
+
+Hunston turned quickly round at this.
+
+"What's wrong?" he asked, anxiously. "You haven't been saying any
+thing, because I'm sure you were mistaken, as--"
+
+"As Jack Tiller was."
+
+"Yes."
+
+And Hunston fondled the blackened eye, mentally cursing Tiller and his
+hard, horny fist.
+
+"Not I," said Joe Basalt, "not I. There's a row aloft, I told you.
+Three men have been put into irons, and I have got into trouble as
+well."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Nothing," answered Joe Basalt, with a surly imitation of anger.
+"That's just it, for nothing, and aren't they up in the stirrups
+neither?"
+
+"They are!" exclaimed Hunston.
+
+"Rather."
+
+"And what do they say?"
+
+"Say!" exclaimed Basalt. "Why, they'd as lief draw a cutlass over his
+weasand, as they'd smash a ship's biscuit."
+
+Hunston's pale face grew crimson at these words.
+
+"That's good," he said; "they're men of spirit."
+
+"That they are."
+
+"And the rest of the crew; what do they say of it?"
+
+"Why, they are all up about it; all to a man. So if you have a good
+thing to offer, I'll undertake to say as they'll volunteer to a man."
+
+"Good."
+
+"And leave them Harkaway folks in the lurch here, as they deserve, the
+mean beasts."
+
+"Mean, indeed," echoed Hunston, secretly chuckling. "Why, they're worse
+than mean."
+
+"So you'd say if you only knew what a palaver they've made about having
+you here, pretending as it's all charity and the like, when, of course,
+we know--"
+
+"That it's all your goodness, and that of your hot-headed comrade."
+
+"Don't speak of Jack Tiller, my friend," said Joe, who was working into
+his part capitally by this time; "he sees now what a fool he has made
+of himself."
+
+"Did he say so?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why did he go on so?"
+
+"He quite misunderstood your meaning."
+
+"The deuce he did. Why, however could that be? I was pretty explicit."
+
+"He thought that it was to sell him. In fact, he made sure as you had
+overheard us grumbling together about the skipper, and that you was
+a-trying it on only to tell Mr. Harkaway all about it."
+
+"Did he say so?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then undeceive him immediately."
+
+"I have done so."
+
+"As for this," added Hunston, pointing to his discoloured eye and
+cheek, "I think nothing of it. All I'll ask of him is that he shall do
+as much for Harkaway."
+
+"That he will," said Joe, with sham heartiness. "And now how soon shall
+the ship be ours?"
+
+Hunston glanced anxiously towards the door.
+
+"There's no fear," said Joe, answering his look; "they are all too busy
+for'ard, talking about them poor devils in irons."
+
+"Brutes!"
+
+"Aye, that they are. But when shall we get them free from their
+floating prison, cos that's what it seems a-coming to?"
+
+"I'll tell you," answered Hunston, sinking his voice, "we'll serve the
+Harkaway party as he served your messmates."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Put them in irons."
+
+Joe Basalt gave a start at this.
+
+"And if they would not go?"
+
+"Chuck them overboard, all, everyone of them, except the women."
+
+"I should hardly like doing that," said Joe.
+
+"Then that shall be _my task_," exclaimed Hunston, warming up as
+he unfolded his diabolical scheme. "I should like to do that part of it
+myself. I swore to finish them all off," he added, more to himself than
+to Joe, "and I shall keep my oath after all, I begin to think. I'll
+throw them all overboard--Harkaway, Jefferson, Harvey, all."
+
+He looked up suddenly at the door.
+
+Three big forms stood upon the threshold of the cabin.
+
+The three whose names Hunston had just uttered.
+
+Harkaway, Jefferson, and Dick Harvey.
+
+"I thought I heard you call us," said the latter.
+
+Hunston's colour fled from his cheek.
+
+He looked from one to the other.
+
+Then he glanced at Joe Basalt.
+
+Harkaway was the first to break the silence.
+
+"Hunston."
+
+The sound echoed dismally, as though uttered in some bare-walled
+cavern.
+
+"Yes," he faltered, struggling to appear at his ease.
+
+"Come."
+
+"Where to?"
+
+Harkaway pointed silently to the door.
+
+"What do you want with me?"
+
+"Can't you guess?"
+
+The words were simple ones, yet they sounded like a death-knell to him.
+
+"We have heard all; every word. This crowning act of villany and
+ingratitude, baser than ever entered the mind of man, has doomed you.
+Follow me."
+
+Appalled, half stunned with fear, the miserable wretch tottered after
+Harkaway.
+
+Close upon his heels came Jefferson and Dick, while Joe Basalt brought
+up the rear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+THE TRIAL--HUNSTON'S PUNISHMENT.
+
+
+"Pipe all hands on deck!"
+
+"Aye, aye, sir."
+
+The crew came tumbling up.
+
+And when they were all assembled, Jefferson and Dick Harvey ranged them
+round in position, while Harkaway, with Hunston close by his side,
+stood forward to address them.
+
+"My men," said he, "I have had you called together upon no pleasant
+errand. But it is a question of duty, and, therefore, pleasant or
+unpleasant, must be done. What we have to do is an act of justice, and
+I don't wish that anyone should be able to impugn my motives. I would
+not leave it in the power of any man to say that I ever behaved
+unjustly to my worst enemy."
+
+"Hurrah!"
+
+A ringing cheer greeted Harkaway.
+
+"Now, my men, what I have to say to you concerns my own and my family
+history, perhaps, more than it does you. You have all heard my poor
+boy's adventures when he fell into the hands of the Greek brigands?"
+
+"Aye, aye, sir."
+
+"You know who it was that was instrumental in getting him condemned to
+death."
+
+"It was that sneaking lubber, Hunston," cried several voices at once.
+
+"It was. I need not enlarge upon all he has done to merit the worst
+punishment it is in our power to bestow, if ever he should fall into
+our hands--the worst I say, eh?"
+
+"Yes,--him!" said a voice, with a very strong expletive.
+
+The approval of the crew was perfectly unanimous.
+
+In vain did Hunston look about him for one of those disaffected men of
+whom Joe Basalt had spoken.
+
+Not a vestige of any thing like opposition to the general sentiments
+did he trace in any of those weather-beaten, honest countenances.
+
+"Well," resumed Harkaway, "and what would you say if, after that I have
+forgiven him, taken him in hand and had him carefully tended and
+nursed, what would you say if even then he tried to wrong me--to
+ensnare innocent, well-meaning men, into a murderous plot against my
+life?"
+
+"Why, I should say as he's the blackest-hearted lubber ashore or
+afloat," said one.
+
+"One word more," said Harkaway. "What should we do to this wretch if we
+had him here in our power?"
+
+"Give him a round dozen, to begin with," suggested Sam Mason.
+
+"And then string him up."
+
+A cheer came from a score of throats.
+
+"Men," said Harkaway, "this is the villain, Hunston."
+
+A pause.
+
+The men were so thoroughly taken by surprise at this that they had not
+a word to say for themselves.
+
+"I was anxious to spare him," said Harkaway, in conclusion, "for
+although he has always been false, treacherous, and cruel, I could not
+forget that he was a fellow-countryman, and that we were boys together.
+I would have returned good for evil, he refused it; I now mean to try
+evil for evil."
+
+The men applauded this to the echo.
+
+Joe Basalt and his comrade Jack Tiller passed the word forward from
+mouth to mouth.
+
+They told their shipmates what had taken place, and so thoroughly
+incensed them against him that his life would not have been worth five
+minutes' purchase had Harkaway, Jefferson, and Dick Harvey absented
+themselves.
+
+"Come," said Jefferson, "it is growing late; let us settle it off-hand."
+
+"What is the verdict?" said Harvey, "Let the men decide."
+
+Their decision did not take long at arriving at. As if with a single
+voice, the men responded--
+
+"Death!"
+
+A sickening sensation stole over Hunston.
+
+There was enough in that to appal the stoutest heart, it is true, and
+he now felt that it was all over.
+
+"Very good," said Harkaway, "His fate is with you."
+
+"String him up to the yardarm at once, then," suggested Sam Mason.
+
+"Tie him up by the heels and let's shoot at him."
+
+"Let him walk the plank."
+
+"No; hanging is better fun. It's a dog's death that he has earned, so
+let him have his deserts."
+
+A rope was got and the end of it was flung over the yardarm, and a
+running noose made in it.
+
+Then rough hands were laid upon the doomed man.
+
+This aroused him into lifting his voice in his own behalf.
+
+"Harkaway," he said, "do you know that this is murder--cold-blooded
+murder?"
+
+"So is every execution, even if sanctioned by law."
+
+"But it is done upon ample proof."
+
+"We have proof enough."
+
+"You haven't a single witness against me," said Hunston, eagerly.
+
+"Plenty."
+
+"Where's one? Let go, I tell you," he cried frantically, at the men who
+were dragging him towards the rope. "This is murder; you'll hang for
+it, Harkaway; you'll--cowards! all of you upon one."
+
+But they did not pay much heed to his ravings.
+
+"Do you hear, Harkaway?" he cried, "This is murder, whatever you call
+it. It will hang you yet; at the least, it will transport you for
+life."
+
+Harkaway smiled.
+
+"I shall not soil my fingers in the matter."
+
+"It is your work!" now yelled Hunston, struggling with mad desperation.
+
+"Then we'll all have a hand in it," said Harkaway; "we'll all pull
+together, so that no one can fix it upon his fellow--"
+
+"You'll not escape," yelled the miserable wretch. "You'll swing for it
+yourself; you will, I swear. You have no witnesses; these two sailors
+are notorious liars."
+
+"Take that, you swab," cried Joe Basalt, dashing his fist in his face.
+
+"They are greater curs than yourself," yelled Hunston; "such witnesses
+would swear away your own life for a glass of grog--witnesses indeed--"
+
+He stopped short.
+
+His glance fell upon two forms standing close by--young Jack and Harry
+Girdwood.
+
+Both were dressed as he had last seen them in the mountain haunt of the
+brigands.
+
+Hunston was still in ignorance of the rescue of the boys.
+
+For all he knew, their bodies were rotting in their mountain grave in
+Greece.
+
+They bent upon him the same sad and stern look which had been so
+efficacious before, and he cowered before them.
+
+Appalled at the horrible phantoms come to mock him at his last moments,
+he clapped his hand to his eyes in the vain endeavour to shut out the
+sight.
+
+Vain, indeed, for the sight possessed a horrible fascination for him,
+which no pen can describe.
+
+"Down, and beg for mercy," said young Jack, solemnly.
+
+"On your knees, wretch!" added Harry Girdwood.
+
+"Hah!"
+
+The two boys pointed together to the feet of Harkaway senior.
+
+The condemned man caught at their meaning at once.
+
+A wild cry of hope came from his lips, and he burst from the sailors
+who held him and threw himself at Harkaway's feet.
+
+"Mercy, mercy, Harkaway!" he cried, piteously. "Have mercy, for the
+love of Heaven, as you hope for mercy yourself hereafter."
+
+Harkaway gazed on him in silence.
+
+"Look there," cried Hunston, wildly, pointing to where the two boys
+stood still in contemplation of the scene, "Look there; see, they are
+begging for mercy for me."
+
+"Who? Where?" demanded Harkaway, in considerable astonishment
+
+"Your own son, your own boy; don't you see him?" pursued Hunston,
+wildly.
+
+"Look. No--It is my own fancy, my fear-stricken mind, which conjures up
+these horrible visions. Ugh!"
+
+And he cowered down at Harkaway's feet with averted glance,
+endeavouring to shut out the fearsome sight.
+
+"Take him away," said Harkaway to the men.
+
+They advanced and laid hands upon him, but Hunston fought madly with
+them and clung to Harkaway's knees in desperation.
+
+It was his last chance, he felt positive.
+
+"Think, Harkaway, think," he cried again and again. "Remember our
+boyhood's days; remember our youth, passed at school together. We were
+college chums, and--"
+
+"No; not quite," interrupted Dick Harvey in disgust. "We were at Oxford
+together, but never chums."
+
+"You were never the sort of man that one would care to chum with,"
+added Harkaway.
+
+"Never!"
+
+"Take him away."
+
+Hunston gave a loud yell of despair, and gazed around him.
+
+Again his glance was riveted by the sight of the two boys standing in
+the same attitude, and then horror-stricken, appalled, he sank upon the
+ground all of a heap and half fainting.
+
+A miserable, a piteous object indeed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Hunston," said Harkaway, after a few minutes' pause, "you bade me
+think. It is my turn to bid you think. If your white-livered fears had
+not blinded your judgment, you would have known that your life is safe
+here."
+
+Hunston raised his head slowly.
+
+He gazed about him with the same vacant look, utterly Unable to realise
+the meaning of Harkaway's words.
+
+"You jest," he faltered.
+
+"We are not butchers," said Jefferson, sternly.
+
+Humbled, degraded, though he was, these words of hope sent the blood
+coursing through his veins wildly.
+
+Saved!
+
+Was it possible?
+
+Young Jack stepped out of the circle and approached the miserable
+wretch.
+
+"When we last stood face to face, and when you ordered the Greek
+brigands to fire on us, Hunston, I told you that this would come
+about."
+
+Hunston shrank affrightedly before the lad.
+
+"I told you, Hunston," continued young Jack, "that the time would come
+when you would grovel in the dirt and beg your life from my father.
+That time has come, you see. Like the miserable cur that you are, you
+grovel and beg and pray in a way that I would never condescend to do to
+you. You have tasted all the horrors of anticipation, and that is worse
+than death itself. Now, perhaps, you know what I and my comrade Harry
+felt when you condemned us to death."
+
+"We told you," added Harry Girdwood quietly, "that it would come home
+to you; it has."
+
+During the foregoing, Hunston began to realise the truth.
+
+They lived.
+
+"Get up," said Jefferson; "it is time to end this sickening scene."
+
+Hunston slowly rose to his feet
+
+"Excuse me," said the captain, stepping forward, "but as captain of
+this ship--under your orders, Mr. Harkaway, of course--I can't see how
+it is possible to allow his offence to go unpunished. You are of course
+at liberty to forgive him for any wrong he may have done you all, but
+with all due deference I must set my face against winking at such
+offences as he has committed on board this ship."
+
+"Listen to the skipper," added another of the crew.
+
+"To let him off scot free would be to encourage insubordination and
+mutiny, in fact."
+
+"Then I leave it to you, captain," said Harkaway; "I shall not
+interfere in your management of the ship."
+
+Hunston's heart sank.
+
+"Get rid of him at once," suggested Harvey.
+
+"How?"
+
+"Lower him in a boat; provision it for a month and set him adrift."
+
+"Good."
+
+"Do that," said Hunston, "and you consign me to a living death, worse
+than any tortures that savages could inflict." He remembered too well
+how he and Toro the Italian had been cast adrift from the "Flowery
+Land."
+
+He had not forgotten the horrors of that cruise.
+
+It was, in truth, as he said, ten times more horrible than death at
+their hands could be.
+
+"My own opinion is," said the captain, "that his crime should be
+punished at once; such a crime should not be allowed to pass on board
+ship."
+
+"What would you do?"
+
+"Tie him up to a grating and give him four dozen lashes."
+
+A wild storm of cheering greeted this proposal.
+
+There was some feeble attempt at opposition upon the part of the
+Harkaway party, but this was overruled by the captain and crew.
+
+"I'm not a cruel man, gentlemen," said the captain, "but I must side
+with the crew in this. Now, we'll give him every chance. I propose to
+let him off if there is a single voice raised in his favour."
+
+Not a word was spoken.
+
+"If any of you think, my men, that he should not be punished, he shall
+escape. Let any man stand forth and it shall settle it. I will allow
+him to escape and not question the motives of whosoever speaks for
+him."
+
+Hunston looked anxiously around him.
+
+Not a voice.
+
+Not so much as a glance of pity did he encounter there.
+
+His only hope was in the man that he had most wronged of all there
+present, and so in despair he turned to Harkaway.
+
+But the latter moved away from the spot in silence.
+
+Despair.
+
+Rough, horny hands were laid upon him, and his coat and shirt were torn
+in shreds from his back until he stood stripped to the waist.
+
+The grating was rigged for punishment, and the culprit was lashed
+securely to it.
+
+"Barclay."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Stand forward."
+
+"Here, sir."
+
+"Take the cat."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+This was the youngest boy in the ship. The lad took the whip and poised
+it in his hand eager to begin operations.
+
+"Joe Basalt."
+
+"Yes, your honour."
+
+"Time the strokes."
+
+"Aye, aye, sir."
+
+The boy Barclay now received his instructions, and noted the same most
+diligently.
+
+"Strike well up, not too low. You understand, well across the
+shoulders."
+
+"Yes, cap'n,"
+
+"And don't be too eager or too quick. Let each stroke tell its own
+tale."
+
+What were the miserable man's feelings when he heard his torture
+prepared thus, with such coolness and deliberation, we leave you to
+imagine.
+
+A momentary pause then occurred, during which every one present looked
+on with mixed sensations of eagerness and dread.
+
+"One!"
+
+A whizzing noise.
+
+Then a dull, heavy thud, as the thongs came in contact with the
+culprit's back and shoulders.
+
+A gasp came from the spectators, a convulsive shudder from the
+suffering wretch himself.
+
+And then his shoulders showed a series of livid ridges of bruised
+flesh.
+
+"Two."
+
+Down came the lash.
+
+The blood shot forth from the right shoulder, where there was more
+flesh to encounter the cruel whip.
+
+"Three."
+
+A moan of utter anguish burst from the victim, whose blood streamed
+down his back.
+
+A sickening, horrible sight to contemplate.
+
+"Four."
+
+"Hah!"
+
+"Come away," exclaimed Harkaway; "come away from this. It makes me sick
+and faint."
+
+"Yes," said Jefferson; "it is not to my taste."
+
+"Nor mine."
+
+"Nor mine," said Dick.
+
+"This may be Justice, my friend," said Jack Harkaway "but it isn't
+English--it is not humanity."
+
+"Five."
+
+A cry came from the prisoner.
+
+"Cast him loose!" cried Harkaway, "No more--no more!"
+
+But the sailors did not appear to hear.
+
+"Six."
+
+"Have done, I say!" thundered Jefferson. "Enough of this!"
+
+"Excuse me, sir," said the captain, "we have a duty to perform. I can
+understand that it is not pleasant to you, but--"
+
+"Seven," sang out Joe Basalt, drowning every voice.
+
+Down came the whip again.
+
+And as the thongs struck the lacerated flesh of the wretched man he
+gave a piercing shriek.
+
+It sounded more like the cry of some wild animal than the utterance of
+a human being.
+
+"Eight."
+
+"Fetch the doctor," exclaimed Harkaway.
+
+Young Jack, who was secretly glad of an excuse to begone, ran off and
+brought the doctor up from below.
+
+"Doctor Anderson," said Harkaway hurriedly, "I believe sincerely that
+this man has earned all he has had and a great deal more."
+
+"Indeed he has," said Doctor Anderson.
+
+"But I can't endure the lash. It is savage, it is unworthy of a
+civilised people--it must not go on. Stop it."
+
+"How many has he had?"
+
+The answer to this came at that identical moment from Joe Basalt's
+lips.
+
+"Twelve."
+
+As the lash came down, the body shook slightly, and then was quite
+still.
+
+"Say that he can bear no more," said Harkaway. "They'll heed your
+report as the doctor."
+
+"I shall only say the truth," said the doctor.
+
+"You think so?"
+
+"Of course. He has fainted. You'll kill him if you go on. Cast him
+loose, carry him to his berth."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+MR. MOLE'S TROUBLES AGAIN--AN ADVENTURE WITH NERO--LAND HO!--THE
+FIRST VIEW OF AUSTRALIA.
+
+
+Let us draw the curtain.
+
+The particulars given in the preceding chapter must be as unpleasant to
+the readers as they were to Harkaway, to Jefferson, to Dick Harvey, and
+beyond all to Harry Girdwood and young Jack.
+
+They are not agreeable matters to relate, and we gladly draw the veil
+upon such a scene.
+
+Once in the care of Doctor Anderson, the prisoner was tended carefully,
+and the doctor's best skill was employed in bringing him back to
+health.
+
+But his convalescence was a long time in being brought about, for not
+only was he cruelly maimed, but, to use the doctor's own expression--
+
+"The scourge had knocked him to bits in health generally."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"What a capital sailor old Nero makes, Harry."
+
+"Splendid."
+
+"He only wants to know how to chew."
+
+"And take grog like old Mole."
+
+"True, and then he'd be an out-and-out sailor."
+
+These words were part of a conversation which our two young comrades
+were indulging in one afternoon towards sun-down as they walked to and
+fro on deck.
+
+They had rigged Nero out in full nautical costume, and taught him
+several sailor tricks of manner.
+
+He hitched up his inexpressibles with a jerk that the late T. P. Cooke
+might have made studies from.
+
+And his bow and scrape, although more like a stage sailor than the real
+thing itself, were ticked off so admirably, that you expected him to
+start off into a rattling hornpipe.
+
+But perhaps the greatest treat of all was to see him pretending to take
+observations through a telescope.
+
+"Nero," cried young Jack.
+
+The monkey ran up at the word.
+
+"Give us your arm, Nero."
+
+And so drawing a paw under each of their arms, they promenaded the
+deck, these three young monkeys together, to the great amusement and
+delight of the sailors generally.
+
+"Why, Joe!" said Sam Mason, "he looks as great a swell as the port
+admiral."
+
+"Port admiral! As the first lord himself."
+
+"Do you know, Joe, that Billy Longbow had a monkey once as would--"
+
+"Now for a yarn."
+
+"No, this is a born fact," persisted Sam Mason, stoutly. "Billy Longbow
+had a monkey on board ship as used to mock the bos'en, and one day when
+he see the bos'en take out his rattan to larrup one of the powder
+monkeys, Jocko went for to give the bos'en one for hisself."
+
+"By way of protecting one of his own species, I s'pose," suggested Joe.
+
+"Perhaps. Well, he felt in all his pockets for a rattan, and he
+happened to get hold of the tip of his tail. Now he seed the bos'en
+lugging hard to get the rattan out of his pocket, for it had got
+entangled with the lanyard of his jack-knife, and so Jocko tugs
+precious hard at his tail, presuming it to be a rattan likewise, I
+s'pose, and, by Jove, if he doesn't pull it right out."
+
+"Come, now," cried Joe Basalt, with a grunt, "I ain't agoing to swaller
+that tale."
+
+"It's a fact. Billy Longbow was the most truthful pal I ever had--out
+came his nether rattan."
+
+"Well, what next?"
+
+"Nothing next," answered Sam Mason, with a sly look. "That was the end
+of Jocko's tail, and it's the end of mine too."
+
+Now while they were engaged in listening to Sam Mason's Billy Longbow
+anecdote, they saw Mr. Mole come out of the deck saloon, where he had
+been dozing.
+
+He walked up the deck with a certain apparent unsteadiness of gait.
+
+"Old Mole is half seas over," said Harry Girdwood.
+
+"I'll tell you what. Wouldn't it be a lark if we could get him to strut
+up and down with Nero, without knowing it?"
+
+"That's more easily said than done, I imagine."
+
+"Wait and see."
+
+They crept back out of sight as Mr. Mole passed along. Then, having
+made a hurried whispered consultation, young Jack stepped forth alone
+and tackled Mr. Mole.
+
+"Taking the air, sir?"
+
+"Yes, Jack--hiccup--yes, my dear boy, and I have come to look out for
+land."
+
+"Land?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Are we near?"
+
+"Sho--sho--I mean so--I shpose--s'pose--"
+
+Mr. Mole was conscious of his speech being a little bit thick, and he
+hastened to add that he was suffering from toothache.
+
+"My mouth ish sho shwollen--swollen, I mean--that I can hardly
+sp--speak plainly," he said.
+
+"Dear me! how shocking!" exclaimed young Jack.
+
+Slipping his arm under Mr. Mole's they walked up and down talking.
+
+Meanwhile, young Jack tipped the wink to Harry Girdwood, who slipped
+out of his hiding-place with Nero, and followed Mole and Jack along the
+deck.
+
+Young Jack chose his opportunity well, and drawing his arm out of Mr.
+Mole's he pushed Nero's in its place.
+
+Mr. Mole, all unconscious of the change in his companion, strutted
+along, chattering away, secretly pleased at having such an excellent
+listener by his side.
+
+"It'sh really pleasure to talk to you, my dear boy," he said.
+
+"You un--stand with half a word--and I enjoy--a
+conservation--conserva--singular thing--I can't say conservashun. I
+enjoy--a talk--an intellectshul chat more with you than sitting down
+to wine with Jeffershon and Harvey, and your dear father. Good
+fellarsh--jolly good fellarsh--only too fond of sitting over wine.
+Shocking habit--shpending hours in getting tipshy--hiccup!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, while Mr. Mole poured out his philosophical reflections into
+Nero's ear, Harry Gridwood went and fetched Harvey; old Jack and
+Jefferson.
+
+Young Jack stepped back to the door of the deck saloon, and sat down
+while Mole turned round and hobbled up the deck again, with Nero still
+leaning upon his arm.
+
+As the old gentleman came up to where they all stood, they could hear
+him still laying down the law to Nero.
+
+"Yesh, Jack, my dear boy," he was saying, "wine'sh a jolly good
+thing--to be ushed and not abushed. Blow my toothache--toothache--so
+very dericulous--don't know what I'm shaying."
+
+Mr. Mole winked and blinked like an owl in daylight.
+
+"Jack."
+
+"Sir."
+
+"Whash the devil--Jack!"
+
+He started in utter amazement.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Why, Mr. Mole," said Harvey, suddenly popping out of the cabin,
+followed by Jefferson and old Jack, "what on earth are you walking up
+and down with him for?"
+
+"Who?"
+
+Before another word could be spoken, Nero, on a secret sign from his
+young master, took off his tarpaulin hat, and dabbed it on Mr. Mole's
+head.
+
+Mole turned suddenly round upon his companion.
+
+"Nero--the devil fly away with you, you beast!"
+
+He made a dash at the monkey; but the latter was up in the shrouds and
+out of danger in the twingling of an eye.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Land ho!"
+
+"Which way?"
+
+"Due south."
+
+Harkaway had a glass up in a crack.
+
+"That's right," he said. "Gentlemen all, allow me to introduce you to
+Australia."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+HUNSTON IS DISPOSED OF.
+
+
+Yes, there was the continent of Australia.
+
+The ladies came running up on deck at the news, for the first sight of
+land after a long voyage is a thing to make your heart beat, however
+much you like the sea.
+
+"I can't see anything yet," said little Emily, after peering vainly
+through a telescope for five minutes.
+
+"Because you don't get the proper focus," explained young Jack.
+
+"Then you fix it for me, since you are so clever," retorted the young
+lady.
+
+"That's an Irish remedy," laughed young Jack.
+
+However, he helped her to fix upon the focus, and then she had the
+gratification of seeing the land.
+
+It was a beautiful verdure-clad range of hills that they had first
+perceived from the distance, which were half a mile or more inland.
+
+So that they found themselves presently much nearer land than they had
+supposed.
+
+It was covered with wild luxuriant vegetation, but it was altogether
+uncultivated.
+
+"Harkaway," said Jefferson, as they stood together contemplating the
+scene, "this is where Hunston must be dropped ashore."
+
+Harkaway thought it over for a few moments.
+
+"Yes, Jefferson," he said, presently, "I think you are right, this will
+do. He can't well starve here, and it will be better than dropping him
+amongst the civilised people."
+
+A boat was manned, and provisioned, and lowered.
+
+Then Hunston was brought up from below.
+
+His face had never changed since the first moment that he had recovered
+from the great shock of the flogging he had received.
+
+Apparently there was some fixed purpose in his mind now that it would
+take much to uproot.
+
+He never said a word when they came to fetch him.
+
+He was not a little anxious to know all about it, but such was his
+pride that he would have perished sooner than breathe a word.
+
+As he was lowered into the boat, Harkaway just gave him to understand
+what he was going to do in a few hurriedly-chosen words.
+
+"We are going to put you ashore here, Hunston; not that you have any
+right to expect the least consideration at our hands, but we do not
+wish to have it on our consciences that you have been badly treated by
+us. You will be left here, far away from any human habitation, where
+you can do no harm, at least, for some time to come. We shall leave you
+these provisions, but we have no arms or ammunition to give you."
+
+Hunston listened silently--impassively to these words.
+
+Not the slightest change in the expression of his countenance indicated
+that he heard the words which been addressed to him.
+
+"You are going, and our ways through the rest of our lives may be
+widely separated. We may never meet again. It will be some
+gratification to you to know that you have once more most keenly
+disappointed me--that I would have given much to see the least signs of
+repentance in you--that the greatest delight would have been for me to
+say to myself 'At least I have conquered the evil in that man's nature
+by showing him a good return for his vicious acts, and turned a bitter
+enemy into a friend,' but that was a forlorn hope. May you live to
+repent your evil courses."
+
+Hunston turned.
+
+Not a word escaped him.
+
+The boat pulled off from the vessel, and in the same sullen silence he
+was landed with his rations.
+
+There were forty pounds of hard biscuits, a good twenty pounds of salt
+beef, besides rice, flour, a jar of water, and other matters which
+might be necessary, should he fail to fall in with the means of getting
+food and drink for some considerable time.
+
+But when that was gone he might starve.
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jack Harkaway and His Son's Escape
+From the Brigand's of Greece, by Bracebridge Hemyng
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