The Skeleton Crew; Or, Wildfire Ned — page 69: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE SKELETON CREW; OR, WILDFIRE NED. 63 Next instant, with a mighty blow of the axe, he smashed in the magazine door, With a cry offoy, Ned saw before him the stolen bride |! She was tied unto several powder barrels ! This was Death-wing’s especial order ! Ned cut the cords which bound her, and let in a torrent of sea-water into the powder and swamped the magazine, The bride was insensible, He took her in his arms and hurried to the hatchway. Then a fearful cry was heard from above. “ I defy you |’ roared the terrible voice of Death- | wing. “ In one moment more the ship will be blown in the air, Ha! ha! the powder magazine is open! the fusee is burning, Away, my men, away to your rendezyous on shore! One moment more and Lord Walton’s sister will be a black and charred mass— vengeance against Wildfire Ned ! eternal enmity is between us !” “ The ship is on fire |’? Ned heard Garnet shout- ing. ‘‘ Where is young Warbeck?—the ship is on fire in two places |” ‘“‘ Help ! help!” cried Ned, from the bottom of the lower hold. His voice was heard from above. “ Help! help !” Ina moment, Garnet and Bob Bertram, with a few others, threw down the end of a longrope to Ned. Young Warbeck tied it round his body. Clasping the unconscious maiden in his arms, he was being drawn out of the hold, when the flames burst out all around him. “ Quick ! quick ! or we shall perish,” said Ned, “Those Skeleton fiends have fired their vessel in several places,” ‘Pall away, lads, pullaway !”’ shouted Garnet, The flames increased every second. _ And yet with all the efforts of the seamen, Ned could not get higher than the lower hold. The rope had caught in some bolt or block below |! Here was a perilous position. The flames were now almost all around him, He hung suspended between life and death. In a second more the forked flames would catch the maiden’s dress. _ Bob Bertram, without a word, slipped down the rope, and disentangled it, A loud shout from above rewarded his valor and daring. “ Quick ! quick !” faintly cried Ned, now almost suffocated with smoke. choking ! Quick, Bob, or allis lost |” With the energy of despair the sailors pulled away at the rope. : Yet all the time they had to fight against the vile Skeleton Crew, who every ee were trying to cut the rope. Some were up the rigging, firing down on the brave men, Others plunged overboard, and swam away to- wards the shore. All was a scene of intense excitement. Yet, with a tremendous effort, Wildfire Ned kept himself alive amid the dense smoke and flames around him, ‘ Quick, quick ! I amy ——————————————————— With a ringing cheer he reached the deck, “ Saved ! saved!” said Ned, and almost fell from sheer weakness | But at that moment alow, rumbling noise like distant thunder caught the ears of all | It was the sound of a mighty torrent of water rushing into the ship’s hold, “The ship is scuttled |! many voices. In a moment more the ship trembled from stem to stern, In a second she broke into halves | Away! away!” cried CHAPTER XXIV. IN WHICH PHILLIP REDGILL IS FORCED TO RAISE THE WIND TO PAY HIS DEBTS TO CAPT. JACK, AND IN WHICH THE READER BEHOLDS THE PHANTOM LEGS, AND IS INTRODUCED TO THE SKELETON BARBER, NOTWITHSTANDING his robbery of Charley War- beck, Phillip Redgill had not near enoug!: of money wherewith to pay the heavy debt Capt. Jack had against him. Which way to turn he knew not. “T must do ‘something,’ or I shall swing on a gibbet in less than a month’s time, “ Oh, there’s no earthly hope of raising the wind ‘out of him,” thought Phillip, in regard to his father, “ and I know not how to manage the matter. Let me see!” and he went on with his calculations very rapidly, ‘‘ How strange it is that those who borrow will seldom /end in return! Among all my acquaintance I know of none who at all seem 1n- clined to accommodate me. ‘They entertain no doubt of my honesty, so they say; but as to /end- ing a feilow a thousand or two, that is out of the question. Well, I must either post up the money or swing and loose the four hundred already gained. I have three clear days yet, I'll have a glass of brandy and think awhile.” The brandy and a good French dinner wonder- fully enlightened Mr. Phillip’s faculties, for he had but just pulled off his coat for a comfortable snooze ere a bright thought flashed across his mind. “ Why didn’t I think of it before? Why, there’s old Sir Andrew, the money-lender and insurance broker! Just the man, by Jupiter! If he fails, why then I’m done, I’ ll go to him at once.” Old Sir Andrew was one of those ‘very smart” men, an insuranze office president, who had sprung from nothing, but had become possessed of very large means, acquired rapidly, and none could imagine hor. A constant church attendant, and economical in his donations to “ charities,” he was generally con- sidered to be one of the pillars of his church, and a particular strong man on ’Change, whenever he deigned to visit that extensive gambling salon. From the number of persons who had constantly visited his offices in times past, it was shrewdly imagined he had done a considerable amount of very close “shaving” in bill discounting, and, perhaps, was not over scrupulous, or troubled with many qualms of conscience in financial trans- actions, — -CAN— — comichooks.com