The Boy Soldier; Or, Garibaldi's Young Captain — page 276: what you’re looking at

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270 _—S—$$—$—$— ——— — ——— THE BOY SOLDIER; OR, GARIBALDI’'S YOUNG CAPTAIN. count might have been forced.to linger and die in a state of captivity, instead of being,,as he 1s now, well and hearty among us. “ But this I will explain presently. “To return to the trapper’s unexpected and hasty flight. ‘ , “The shot which. he fired ultimately killed, the girl, who, at first, had been only slightly wounded. “ But her death arose more from the surgeon’s want of skill than otherwise, for, from all 1 can learn, the danger was not at first very great; so little indeed did any one apprehend death would ensue, that even her friends and father made light of it, | | “This girl, strange to, say, was the. youngest daughter of a rich gentleman of'the town, who, seized with a wild mania.to serve the French, had gone forth and amused herself with/acting the part of a female spy upon the Republicans. | “She was young, beautiful, and accomplished; and when her death became known, the whole town, or most'part of it, at least,;:;~went.into mourning for “A coroner’s inquest) was held over her;.and the jury was made up of the most wealthy and influen- tial of, the townspeople, who,. after . brief, consulta- tion (but opposed tothe evidence) returned a verdict of wilful murder against the trapper. , “The poor, girl was laid. out before the: jury in a very becoming manner, and, attired.in, white. “But the most impressive part of the whole pro-, ceedings »was when her only. sister threw, herself upon the dead body, and wept bitterly ; while the, aged father advanced towards his, young daughter, and, laying his hand upon her cold forehead, swore that,‘he would never rest until he had slain with his own hand the American spy who had shot his daughter.’ (See cut in Number 33.) _ “All these particulars of our doings, dear Tom, I know will interest you, and all our boy friends in England ; but, for the present; I must postpone writing to you of our several hard-fought battles here, and of the extraordinary doings of our gal- lant young English Volunteers under my command. “In my\next letter, or through the newspaper, you will learn all particulars, of our exploits, ‘Caspar, Tracy, Buttons, Fatty,,and the count, have covered themselves with glory. “I hear, the drums now beating, . We. expect another attack, from the French every moment ; so I must hastily conelude this letter, and remain, “ Your loving Brother, “ WRANK, “Pp. S.—If you are in England, I hope you will lose no time’ in unravelling the mystery of our Uncle Ford’s murder. “T have faint hopes that you will ever meet with old Jonathan Flint, or that young scoundrel Joel ; but if you do, let us hear all particulars from you at’ the earliest moment, ‘The drums are still beatine, » Our Boy Soldiers are now falling in to repela ‘second assault of the French and renegade Mexicans, Gro ‘* In haste, “PRANK,” CHAPTER CIV. LIFEBOATMEN SEARCH THE WRECK FOR JonL BLINT, THE very first thing which the two Nnglish detec- tives did, when they reached the shore from the shipwrecked “Dolphin,” was to see if Master Joel would come on shore, for all along they had shrewd suspicions that he was the very youth they were in search of, although they had not, for a moment, giyen him any ground for supposing so... But finding that he did not come ashore as he might have done, they felt doubly certain that he was the person they wanted. al They, therefore, at the earliest possible moment aroused the coastguard and Jifeboatmen on _the shore, and told the chiefs, what their suspicions were, Hearing that there was, and had been, a very | large reward offered for: the capture of the young culprit who was still on board, two picked crews volunteered to. man their boats and go out to the wreck ; but this could not be done till long after nightfall, is ae With this object they got two boats and Jaunched | them inthe, little harbour, and they could plainly seein the distance the smoke on, the wreck, which arose from the half-cxtinguished and now smoul- dering fire which Joel had made to warm himself, and serve as a signal of distress. Within the harbour all was. comparatively smooth, _but,the,gale outside was so strong that the boats _made headway with great difficulty, the wind some- _ times driving the. oars out.of the rowlocks up over ' | ' t - periment. _the men’s heads in spite of their utmost efforts to keep them,down, ; Slow progress was thus made ontside. ye” Here the sea was running mountains high, and it became evident that. no.boat of any description could live long under it, errrer One of the detectives, however, being still deter- mined to try the boats even under these circum- stances, made his final arrangement for a bold ex- - i i i+ , * " qréey! ia He directed the boat which accompanied him to lie in comparative, shelter. under a small grassy _island.78 feet high, oyer which.the sea was making a full breach, so that. she. might watch the fate of _her consort, and render assistance if possible, Then, with his own coastguard crew, he dashed out into the bay, watching each tremendous roller, and’rounding her to meet it, _ . bye! About a quarter of an hour passed in this struggle, when a great tidal wave was obseryed by the spec- ener on shore gathering itself about a mile to sea- ward. . Distinguishable by lookers-on far inland, like a mighty Andes towering above the lesser mountains, this Atlantic giant swept in, extending right across _ the bay, and leaping far up the cliffs on either side. In the opinion of experienced seamen who ob- served it, this sea would have swept the decks of the stoutest vessel, As it neared the devoted boat, its appearance became more terrific, The water,.shoaled therefrom. ten to, seven fathoms, and, changing its shape with the conform- ation of the ground below, that, which had been a rolling mountain rose into a rushing cliff of water, Aocere Hn ri Never were six men in more, desperate. cireum- stances, af het tnt hiv dp theres aay A es men could do, was done boldly and s8tea “ N45 ’ \ Thain if Je ; _ The rule laid down. for meeting. a, desperate sea 18 to pull against it with the utmost, speed, . But for meeting such a sea as this no rule was ever made, sal Cheering his men boat right at it, at a right angle, e by Steadily, as if spurting ina race, the men strained forward, the steersman put his calculating nicely to meet, the sea <SiCO) GComicboo ne