Part 19 (1/2)
”Here, friend, are muskets and pistols. Load them while I pa.s.s them out.
We shall see how hungry for our blood these wolves are.”
She showed him the store of arms, in a small cave next to the powder store, and musket powder and bullets were also there. As he loaded the weapons, she pa.s.sed them out in armfuls, then gave Stumpy a flask of powder for priming, and told him to hold out until Milo could bring up other resources as yet unknown.
”And,” she said, leading Stumpy inside for a moment, ”here you see a powder-train. There, on the floor. Now hear me, my faithful one, should thy foes still beat thee back, bring all thy men along this pa.s.sage, but before ye come, touch a fire to this train. I shall await thee at the end, Stumpy, and together we shall see these dogs destroyed.”
She called Milo, gave him a command, and then took Pea.r.s.e with her into the great chamber. Here she answered his questioning glance with a soft smile, and seated him in the great chair.
”Thy sword has done n.o.bly, good John,” she said, laying her hand on his head. ”The peril is over now. Rest. In a little while Milo will have that which will fill these hungry dogs to the gullet. Rest here. I'll soon be with thee.” She leaned down, laid her lips lightly on his face, and whispered: ”And be of good cheer; the end is in sight for thee and me.”
She left him sitting there, wrapped in his confused thoughts. Then she flew to help Milo with his new engine of war which was to decide the day. From a corner of the apartment the giant dragged a bra.s.s culverin, mounted on a swivel, stolen from the p.o.o.p-rail of some tall Indiaman in years gone by. This was charged with powder, and Milo searched for effective missiles for it. He brought a handful of musket b.a.l.l.s to Dolores; she shook her head decidedly after a moment's thought and objected: ”Those round pellets are too merciful for such cattle. What do they want? Treasure! Give them treasure, good Milo--their fill of it.”
As she spoke she ran swiftly into the treasure chamber and seized handfuls of gold chains, while at her command Milo followed her with great gold coins in his huge hands. These they rammed into the cannon, until links of gold fell from the muzzle; then Dolores regarded the terrible thing with a mirthless laugh and bade Milo get to work with it.
”Bid thy men fall back into the gallery as if beaten,” she said. ”And when the vile bodies of those howling wolves fill the opening, deliver the treasure to them, and may their souls be shattered with their bodies! And that none may remain to repeat this day's mischief, when they break and fly loose, Stumpy and his dogs shall harry them and pursue them into the depths of the forest. Let the maroons finish what we so well begin. See thy gun does not harm the-- Wait,” she cried, ”hold thy artillery until ye see me across the Grove! I shall give thee a sign, then loose thy h.e.l.l-blast.”
Leaving Milo, she ran again through the great chamber and out by the rock door, which was rolled aside and standing open. Then around the ma.s.s of the mountain and skirting the grove, past the prostrate Pascherette she sped, casting a glance of bitter hate at the sorely wounded octoroon, but never halting until she reached a point of the underbrush immediately behind the spot where Venner and Tomlin still ranged back and forth uneasily watching the fight.
She rustled the foliage noisily, and the two men swung around in alarm.
She thrust her head through the leafy screen, and showed them her face full of tender solicitude. Her great dark eyes were very soft; her scarlet lips were parted in a rosy smile. Venner glared at her, then flashed a glance of reawakening distrust at Tomlin, who returned it tenfold.
”Peace, good friends,” she said, softly, laying a finger on her lips and nodding toward the raging battle. ”Come with me. Both of ye. The day goes badly with me, and I would undo much that I have done toward ye.
Come quickly, and with caution.”
A momentary distrust for her made them hesitate; then she whispered intensely: ”Haste. This is your opportunity.”
Venner first shook off his moodiness and followed her into the brush; and Tomlin was close behind him. When she had them in covert, she stepped out once more, waited to catch Milo's eye at the ledge, then gave him the sign. And the defenders fell back as if suddenly broken and beaten. She waited still, until the attackers swarmed over their own dead, stamping over her altar, and gained the entrance, where they crowded in a milling, roaring ma.s.s. Then she glided back to the underbrush and said tersely:
”Come!”
Venner and Tomlin walked on either side of her, not caring to meet each other's eye, for their subjection to Dolores's spell was complete whenever in close proximity to her. Hurriedly she led them around the cliff to the great entrance, beyond which they had never stepped. And they went full of tremendous hopes and suspicions, in which the hope predominated; they failed even to cast a look at their schooner, then lying free at anchor, with a few men visible on her decks. Three of the pirates' long boats lay on the sh.o.r.e abreast of her.
They stood in the entrance to the great chamber, sensing some of the awe that filled the mysterious place, peering into the gloom where the ruby lights now failed to cast their glow in the broader light of day entering the open aperture. Dolores led them in with a gesture and a smile, and they reached the ma.s.sive plated sliding door and stood beneath the yellow lantern, gazing in speechless wonder at the richness of that barrier. And while they waited, mystified and uneasy, from beyond the mountain came the crash of Milo's gun, and the tremendous discharge reverberated through and through the rock, making the pa.s.sage where they stood rumble and quake as if the mountain were about to fall.
Their faces went white, and Dolores gave them a rea.s.suring clasp of the hand while she pressed the side-post of the door and started the pulley and weight mechanism that would give them entry.
”Welcome, friends. Enter,” she smiled, standing aside to permit them to pa.s.s. And Rupert Vernier and Craik Tomlin, forgetting their gloomy thoughts regarding each other, entered the great chamber, and were brought to a sudden halt at the sight of John Pea.r.s.e sitting at his ease through the strife in the high chair of state.
TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK. Don't forget this magazine is issued weekly, and that you will get the continuation of this story without waiting a month.
The Pirate Woman
by Captain Dingle
Author of ”The Coolie s.h.i.+p,” ”Steward of the Westward,” etc.