Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates — 19 - The Ruby of Kishmoor Part 3

V

_The Unexpected Encounter with the Sea Captain with the Broken Nose_ If our hero had been distracted and bedazed by the first catastrophe that had befallen, this second and even more dreadful and violent occurrence appeared to take away from him, for the moment, every power of thought and of sensation.

All that perturbation of emotion that had before convulsed him he discovered to have disappeared, and in its stead a benumbed and blinded intelligence alone remained to him.

As he stood in the presence of this second death, of which he had been as innocent and as unwilling an instrument as he had of the first, he could observe no signs either of remorse or of horror within him.

He picked up his hat, which had fallen upon the floor in the first encounter, and, brushing away the dust with the cuff of his coat sleeve with extraordinary care, adjusted the beaver upon his head with the utmost nicety.

Then turning, still stupefied as with the fumes of some powerful drug, he prepared to quit the scene of tragic terrors that had thus unexpectedly accumulated upon him.

But ere he could put his design into execution his ears were startled by the sound of loud and hurried footsteps which, coming from below, ascended the stairs with a prodigious clatter and bustle of speed.

At the landing these footsteps paused for a while, and then approached, more cautious and deliberate, toward the room where the double tragedy had been enacted, and where our hero yet stood silent and inert.

All this while Jonathan made no endeavor to escape, but stood passive and submissive to what might occur.

He felt himself the victim of circumstances over which he himself had no control.

Gazing at the partly opened door, he waited for whatever adventure might next befall him.

Once again the footsteps paused, this time at the very threshold, and then the door was slowly pushed open from without.

As our hero gazed at the aperture there presently became disclosed to his view the strong and robust figure of one who was evidently of a seafaring habit.

From the gold braid upon his hat, the seals dangling from the ribbon at his fob, and a certain particularity of custom, he was evidently one of no small consideration in his profession.

He was of a strong and powerful build, with a head set close to his shoulders, and upon a round, short bull neck.

He wore a black cravat, loosely tied into a knot, and a red waistcoat elaborately trimmed with gold braid; a leather belt with a brass buckle and hanger, and huge sea boots completed a costume singularly suggestive of his occupation in life.

His face was round and broad, like that of a cat, and a complexion stained, by constant exposure to the sun and wind, to a color of newly polished mahogany.

But a countenance which otherwise might have been humorous, in this case was rendered singularly repulsive by the fact that his nose had been broken so flat to his face that all that remained to distinguish that feature were two circular orifices where the nostrils should have been.

His eyes were by no means so sinister as the rest of his visage, being of a light-gray color and exceedingly vivacious--even good-natured in the merry restlessness of their glance--albeit they were well-nigh hidden beneath a black bush of overhanging eyebrows.

When he spoke, his voice was so deep and resonant that it was as though it issued from a barrel rather than from the breast of a human being.

"How now, my hearty!"

cried he, in stentorian tones, so loud that they seemed to stun the tensely drawn drums of our hero's ears.

"How now, my hearty!

What's to do here?

Who is shooting pistols at this hour of the night?"

Then, catching sight of the figures lying in a huddle upon the floor, his great, thick lips parted into a gape of wonder and his gray eyes rolled in his head like two balls, so that what with his flat face and the round holes of his nostrils he presented an appearance which, under other circumstances, would have been at once ludicrous and grotesque.

"By the blood!"

cried he, "to be sure it is murder that has happened here."

"Not murder!"

cried Jonathan, in a shrill and panting voice.

"Not murder!

It was all an accident, and I am as innocent as a baby."

The newcomer looked at him and then at the two figures upon the floor, and then back at him again with eyes at once quizzical and cunning.

Then his face broke into a grin that might hardly be called of drollery.

"Accident!"

quoth he.

"By the blood!

d'ye see 'tis a strange accident, indeed, that lays two men by the heels and lets the third go without a scratch!"

Delivering himself thus, he came forward into the room, and, taking the last victim of Jonathan's adventure by the arm, with as little compunction as he would have handled a sack of grain he dragged the limp and helpless figure from where it lay to the floor beside the first victim.

Then, lifting the lighted candle, he bent over the two prostrate bodies, holding the illumination close to the lineaments first of one and then of the other.

He looked at them very carefully for a long while, with the closest and most intent scrutiny, and in perfect silence.

"They are both as dead," says he, "as Davy Jones, and, whoever you be, I protest that you have done your business the most completest that I ever saw in all of my life."

"Indeed," cried Jonathan, in the same shrill and panting voice, "it was themselves who did it.

First one of them attacked me and then the other, and I did but try to keep them from murdering me.

This one fell on his knife, and that one shot himself in his efforts to destroy me."

"That," says the seaman, "you may very well tell to a dry-lander, and maybe he will believe you; but you cannot so easily pull the wool over the eyes of Captain Benny Willitts.

And what, if I may be so bold as for to ask you, was the reason for their attacking so harmless a man as you proclaim yourself to be?"

[Illustration: The Burning Ship _Originally published in_ COLLIER'S WEEKLY, _1898_]

"That I know not," cried Jonathan; "but I am entirely willing to tell thee all the circumstances.

Thou must know that I am a member of the Society of Friends.

This day I landed here in Kingston, and met a young woman of very comely appearance, who intrusted me with this little ivory ball, which she requested me to keep for her a few days.

The sight of this ball--in which I can detect nothing that could be likely to arouse any feelings of violence--appears to have driven these two men entirely mad, so that they instantly made the most ferocious and murderous assault upon me.

See!

wouldst thou have believed that so small a thing as this would have caused so much trouble?"

And as he spoke he held up to the gaze of the other the cause of the double tragedy that had befallen.

But no sooner had Captain Willitts's eyes lighted upon the ball than the most singular change passed over his countenance.

The color appeared to grow dull and yellow in his ruddy cheeks, his fat lips dropped apart, and his eyes stared with a fixed and glassy glare.

He arose to his feet and, still with the expression of astonishment and wonder upon his face, gazed first at our hero and then at the ivory ball in his hands, as though he were deprived both of reason and of speech.

At last, as our hero slipped the trifle back in his pocket again, the mariner slowly recovered himself, though with a prodigious effort, and drew a deep and profound breath as to the very bottom of his lungs.

He wiped, with the corner of his black-silk cravat, his brow, upon which the sweat appeared to have gathered.

"Well, messmate," says he, at last, with a sudden change of voice, "you have, indeed, had a most wonderful adventure."

Then with another deep breath: "Well, by the blood!

I may tell you plainly that I am no poor hand at the reading of faces.

Well, I think you to be honest, and I am inclined to believe every word you tell me.

By the blood!

I am prodigiously sorry for you, and am inclined to help you out of your scrape.

"The first thing to do," he continued, "is to get rid of these two dead men, and that is an affair I believe we shall have no trouble in handling.

One of them we will wrap up in the carpet here, and t'other we can roll into yonder bed curtain.

You shall carry the one and I the other, and, the harbor being at no great distance, we can easily bring them thither and tumble them overboard, and no one will be the wiser of what has happened.

For your own safety, as you may easily see, you can hardly go away and leave these objects here to be found by the first comer, and to rise up in evidence against you."

This reasoning, in our hero's present bewildered state, appeared to him to be so extremely just that he raised not the least objection to it.

Accordingly, each of the two silent, voiceless victims of the evening's occurrences was wrapped into a bundle that from without appeared to be neither portentous nor terrible in appearance.

Thereupon, Jonathan shouldering the rug containing the little gentleman in black, and the sea captain doing the like for the other, they presently made their way down the stairs through the darkness, and so out into the street.

Here the sea captain became the conductor of the expedition, and leading the way down several alleys and along certain by-streets--now and then stopping to rest, for the burdens were both heavy and clumsy to carry--they both came out at last to the harbor front, without anyone having questioned them or having appeared to suspect them of anything wrong.

At the waterside was an open wharf extending a pretty good distance out into the harbor.

Thither the captain led the way and Jonathan followed.

So they made their way out along the wharf or pier, stumbling now and then over loose boards, until they came at last to where the water was of a sufficient depth for their purpose.

Here the captain, bending his shoulders, shot his burden out into the dark, mysterious waters, and Jonathan, following his example, did the same.

Each body sank with a sullen and leaden splash into the element, where, the casings which swathed them becoming loosened, the rug and the curtain rose to the surface and drifted slowly away with the tide.

As Jonathan stood gazing dully at the disappearance of these last evidences of his two inadvertent murders, he was suddenly and vehemently aroused by feeling a pair of arms of enormous strength flung about him from behind.

In their embrace his elbows were instantly pinned tight to his side, and he stood for a moment helpless and astounded, while the voice of the sea captain, rumbling in his very ear, exclaimed, "Ye bloody, murthering Quaker, I'll have that ivory ball, or I'll have your life!"

[Illustration] These words produced the same effect upon Jonathan as though a douche of cold water had suddenly been flung over him.

He began instantly to struggle to free himself, and that with a frantic and vehement violence begotten at once of terror and despair.

So prodigious were his efforts that more than once he had nearly torn himself free, but still the powerful arms of his captor held him as in a vise of iron.

Meantime, our hero's assailant made frequent though ineffectual attempts to thrust a hand into the breeches' pocket where the ivory ball was hidden, swearing the while under his breath with a terrifying and monstrous string of oaths.

At last, finding himself foiled in every such attempt, and losing all patience at the struggles of his victim, he endeavored to lift Jonathan off of his feet, as though to dash him bodily upon the ground.

In this he would doubtless have succeeded had he not caught his heel in the crack of a loose board of the wharf.

Instantly they both fell, violently prostrate, the captain beneath and Jonathan above him, though still encircled in his iron embrace.

Our hero felt the back of his head strike violently upon the flat face of the other, and he heard the captain's skull sound with a terrific crack like that of a breaking egg upon some post or billet of wood, against which he must have struck.

In their frantic struggles they had approached extremely near the edge of the wharf, so that the next instant, with an enormous and thunderous splash, Jonathan found himself plunged into the waters of the harbor, and the arms of his assailant loosened from about his body.

The shock of the water brought him instantly to his senses, and, being a fairly good swimmer, he had not the least difficulty in reaching and clutching the crosspiece of a wooden ladder that, coated with slimy sea moss, led from the water level to the wharf above.

After reaching the safety of the dry land once more, Jonathan gazed about him as though to discern whence the next attack might be delivered upon him.

But he stood entirely alone upon the dock--not another living soul was in sight.

The surface of the water exhibited some commotion, as though disturbed by something struggling beneath;

but the sea captain, who had doubtless been stunned by the tremendous crack upon his head, never arose again out of the element that had engulfed him.

* * * * * The moonlight shone with a peaceful and resplendent illumination, and, excepting certain remote noises from the distant town, not a sound broke the silence and the peacefulness of the balmy, tropical night.

The limpid water, illuminated by the resplendent moonlight, lapped against the wharf.

All the world was calm, serene, and enveloped in a profound and entire repose.

[Illustration: Dead Men Tell No Tales _Originally published in_ COLLIER'S WEEKLY, _December 17, 1899_] Jonathan looked up at the round and brilliant globe of light floating in the sky above his head, and wondered whether it were, indeed, possible that all that had befallen him was a reality and not some tremendous hallucination.

Then suddenly arousing himself to a renewed realization of that which had occurred, he turned and ran like one possessed, up along the wharf, and so into the moonlit town once more.

VI

_The Conclusion of the Adventure with the Lady with the Silver Veil_ Nor did he check his precipitous flight until suddenly, being led perhaps by some strange influence of which he was not at all the master, he discovered himself to be standing before the garden gate where not more than an hour before he had first entered upon the series of monstrous adventures that had led to such tremendous conclusions.

People were still passing and repassing, and one of these groups--a party of young ladies and gentlemen--paused upon the opposite side of the street to observe, with no small curiosity and amusement, his dripping and bedraggled aspect.

But only one thought and one intention possessed our hero--to relieve himself as quickly as possible of that trust which he had taken up so thoughtlessly, and with such monstrous results to himself and to his victims.

He ran to the gate of the garden and began beating and kicking upon it with a vehemence that he could neither master nor control.

He was aware that the entire neighborhood was becoming aroused, for he beheld lights moving and loud voices of inquiry; yet he gave not the least thought to the disturbance he was creating, but continued without intermission his uproarious pounding upon the gate.

At length, in answer to the sound of his vehement blows, the little wicket was opened and a pair of eyes appeared thereat.

The next instant the gate was cast ajar very hastily, and the pock-pitted negress appeared.

She caught him by the sleeve of his coat and drew him quickly into the garden.

"Buckra, Buckra!"

she cried.

"What you doing?

You wake de whole town!"

Then, observing his dripping garments: "You been in de water.

You catch de fever and shake till you die."

"Thy mistress!"

cried Jonathan, almost sobbing in the excess of his emotion; "take me to her upon the instant, or I cannot answer for my not going entirely mad!"

When our hero was again introduced to the lady he found her clad in a loose and elegant negligee, infinitely becoming to her graceful figure, and still covered with the veil of silver gauze that had before enveloped her.

"Friend," he cried, vehemently, approaching her and holding out toward her the little ivory ball, "take again this which thou gavest me!

It has brought death to three men, and I know not what terrible fate may befall me if I keep it longer in my possession."

"What is it you say?"

cried she, in a piercing voice.

"Did you say it hath caused the death of three men?

Quick!

Tell me what has happened, for I feel somehow a presage that you bring me news of safety and release from all my dangers."

"I know not what thou meanest!"

cried Jonathan, still panting with agitation.

"But this I do know: that when I went away from thee I departed an innocent man, and now I come back to thee burdened with the weight of three lives, which, though innocent, I have been instrumental in taking."

"Explain!"

exclaimed the lady, tapping the floor with her foot.

"Explain!

explain!

explain!"

"That I will," cried Jonathan, "and as soon as I am able!

When I left thee and went out into the street I was accosted by a little gentleman clad in black."

"Indeed!"

cried the lady.

"And had he but one eye, and did he carry a gold-headed cane?"

"Exactly," said Jonathan; "and he claimed acquaintance with friend Jeremiah Doolittle."

"He never knew him!"

cried the lady, vehemently; "and I must tell you that he was a villain named Hunt, who at one time was the intimate consort of the pirate Keitt.

He it was who plunged a deadly knife into his captain's bosom, and so murdered him in this very house.

He himself, or his agents, must have been watching my gate when you went forth."

"I know not how that may be," said Jonathan, "but he took me to his apartment, and there, obtaining a knowledge of the trust thou didst burden me with, he demanded it of me, and upon my refusing to deliver it to him he presently fell to attacking me with a dagger.

In my efforts to protect my life I inadvertently caused him to plunge the knife into his own bosom and to kill himself."

"And what then?"

cried the lady, who appeared well-nigh distracted with her emotions.

"Then," said Jonathan, "there came a strange man--a foreigner--who upon his part assaulted me with a pistol, with every intention of murdering me and thus obtaining possession of that same little trifle."

"And did he," exclaimed the lady, "have long, black mustachios, and did he have silver earrings in his ears?"

"Yes," said Jonathan, "he did."

"That," cried the lady, "could have been none other than Captain Keitt's Portuguese sailing master, who must have been spying upon Hunt!

Tell me what happened next!"

"He would have taken my life," said Jonathan, "but in the struggle that followed he shot himself accidentally with his own pistol, and died at my very feet.

I do not know what would have happened to me if a sea captain had not come and proffered his assistance."

"A sea captain!"

she exclaimed; "and had he a flat face and a broken nose?"

"Indeed he had," replied Jonathan.

"That," said the lady, "must have been Captain Keitt's pirate partner--Captain Willitts, of _The Bloody Hand_.

He was doubtless spying upon the Portuguese."

"He induced me," said Jonathan, "to carry the two bodies down to the wharf.

Having inveigled me there--where, I suppose, he thought no one could interfere--he assaulted me, and endeavored to take the ivory ball away from me.

In my efforts to escape we both fell into the water, and he, striking his head upon the edge of the wharf, was first stunned and then drowned."

"Thank God!"

cried the lady, with a transport of fervor, and clasping her jeweled hands together.

"At last I am free of those who have heretofore persecuted me and threatened my very life itself!

You have asked to behold my face; I will now show it to you!

Heretofore I have been obliged to keep it concealed lest, recognizing me, my enemies should have slain me."

As she spoke she drew aside her veil, and disclosed to the vision of our hero a countenance of the most extraordinary and striking beauty.

Her luminous eyes were like those of a Jawa, and set beneath exquisitely arched and penciled brows.

Her forehead was like lustrous ivory and her lips like rose leaves.

Her hair, which was as soft as the finest silk, was fastened up in masses of ravishing abundance.

"I am," said she, "the daughter of that unfortunate Captain Keitt, who, though weak and a pirate, was not so wicked, I would have you know, as he has been painted.

He would, doubtless, have been an honest man had he not been led astray by the villain Hunt, who so nearly compassed your destruction.

He returned to this island before his death, and made me the sole heir of all that great fortune which he had gathered--perhaps not by the most honest means--in the waters of the Indian Ocean.

But the greatest treasure of all that fortune bequeathed to me was a single jewel which you yourself have just now defended with a courage and a fidelity that I cannot sufficiently extol.

It is that priceless gem known as the Ruby of Kishmoor.

I will show it to you."

[Illustration: "I AM THE DAUGHTER OF THAT UNFORTUNATE CAPTAIN KEITT"] Hereupon she took the little ivory ball in her hand, and, with a turn of her beautiful wrists, unscrewed a lid so nicely and cunningly adjusted that no eye could have detected where it was joined to the parent globe.

Within was a fleece of raw silk containing an object which she presently displayed before the astonished gaze of our hero.

It was a red stone of about the bigness of a plover's egg, and which glowed and flamed with such an exquisite and ruddy brilliancy as to dazzle even Jonathan's inexperienced eyes.

Indeed, he did not need to be informed of the priceless value of the treasure, which he beheld in the rosy palm extended toward him.

How long he gazed at this extraordinary jewel he knew not, but he was aroused from his contemplation by the sound of the lady's voice addressing him.

"The three villains," said she, "who have this day met their deserts in a violent and bloody death, had by an accident obtained knowledge that this jewel was in my possession.

Since then my life has hung upon a thread, and every step that I have taken has been watched by these enemies, the most cruel and relentless that it was ever the lot of any unfortunate to possess.

From the mortal dangers of their machinations you have saved me, exhibiting a courage and a determination that cannot be sufficiently applauded.

In this you have earned my deepest admiration and regard.

I would rather," she cried, "intrust my life and my happiness to you than into the keeping of any man whom I have ever known!

I cannot hope to reward you in such a way as to recompense you for the perils into which my necessities have thrust you; but yet"--and here she hesitated, as though seeking for words in which to express herself--"but yet if you are willing to accept of this jewel, and all of the fortune that belongs to me, together with the person of poor Evaline Keitt herself, not only the stone and the wealth, but the woman also, are yours to dispose of as you see fit!"

Our hero was so struck aback at this unexpected turn that he knew not upon the instant what reply to make.

"Friend," said he, at last, "I thank thee extremely for thy offer, and, though I would not be ungracious, it is yet borne in upon me to testify to thee that as to the stone itself and the fortune--of which thou speakest, and of which I very well know the history--I have no inclination to receive either the one or the other, both the fruits of theft, rapine, and murder.

The jewel I have myself beheld three times stained, as it were, with the blood of my fellow man, so that it now has so little value in my sight that I would not give a peppercorn to possess it.

Indeed, there is no inducement in the world that could persuade me to accept it, or even to take it again into my hand.

As to the rest of thy generous offer, I have only to say that I am, four months hence, to be married to a very comely young woman of Kensington, in Pennsylvania, by name Martha Dobbs, and therefore I am not at all at liberty to consider my inclinations in any other direction."

Having so delivered himself, Jonathan bowed with such ease as his stiff and awkward joints might command, and thereupon withdrew from the presence of the charmer, who, with cheeks suffused with blushes and with eyes averted, made no endeavor to detain him.

So ended the only adventure of moment that ever happened him in all his life.

For thereafter he contented himself with such excitement as his mercantile profession and his extremely peaceful existence might afford.

_Epilogue_ In conclusion it may be said that when the worthy Jonathan Rugg was married to Martha Dobbs, upon the following June, some mysterious friend presented to the bride a rope of pearls of such considerable value that when they were realized into money our hero was enabled to enter into partnership with his former patron the worthy Jeremiah Doolittle, and that, having made such a beginning, he by and by arose to become, in his day, one of the leading merchants of his native town of Philadelphia.

[Illustration] The End * * * * * BOOKS BY

HOWARD PYLE

HOWARD PYLE'S BOOK OF PIRATES

MEN OF IRON

A MODERN ALADDIN

PEPPER AND SALT

THE RUBY OF KISHMOOR

STOLEN TREASURE

THE WONDER CLOCK

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS

ESTABLISHED 1817

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