Fire Cloud; Or, The Mysterious Cave. A Story of Indians and Pirates.

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  FIRE CLOUDBY SAMUEL FLETCHERNo. 86 Beadle's Frontier Series]

  (Printed in the United States of America)

  FIRE CLOUD;

  OR

  The Mysterious Cave.

  A Story of Indians and Pirates.

  _Copyright, 1909, by James Sullivan.__All Rights Reserved._

  Published byTHE ARTHUR WESTBROOK COMPANYCleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.

  FIRE CLOUD.

  CHAPTER I.

  Whether or not, the story which we are about to relate is absolutelytrue in every particular, we are not prepared to say. All we knowabout it is, that old Ben Miller who told it to our uncle Zeph,believed it to be true, as did uncle Zeph himself. And from all we canlearn, uncle Zeph was a man of good judgment, and one not easilyimposed upon.

  And uncle Zeph said that he had known old people in his younger days,who stated that they had actually seen the cave where many of thescenes which we are about to relate occurred, although of late years,no traces of any kind could be discovered in the locality where it issupposed to have been situated.

  His opinion was, that as great rocks were continually rolling down theside of the mountain at the foot of which the entrance to the cavewas, some one or more of these huge boulders had fallen into theopening and completely closed it up.

  But that such a cave did exist, he was perfectly satisfied, and thatit would in all probability be again discovered at some future day, bypersons making excavations in the side of the mountain. And lucky hethought would be the man who should make the discovery, for unheard oftreasures he had no doubt would be found stowed away in the chinks andcrevices of the rocks.

  So much by way of introduction; as we have no intention to describethe cave until the proper time comes, we shall leave that part of thesubject for the present, while we introduce the reader to a few of theprincipal personages of our narrative.

  At a distance of some fifteen or twenty miles from the City of NewYork, on the Hudson river in the shadow of the rocks known as thePalisades, something near two hundred years ago, lay a small vessel atanchor.

  The vessel as we have said was small. Not more than fifty or sixtytons burden, and what would be considered a lumbering craft now a dayswith our improved knowledge of ship building, would at that time becalled a very fast sailor.

  This vessel was schooner rigged, and every thing about her deck trimand in good order.

  On the forecastle sat two men, evidently sailors, belonging to thevessel.

  We say sailors, but in saying so we do not mean to imply that theyresembled your genuine old _salt_, but something between a sailorand a landsman. They could hardly be called land lubbers, for I doubtif a couple of old salts could have managed their little craft betterthan they, while they, when occasion required, could work on land aswell as water.

  In fact they belonged to the class known as river boatmen, though theyhad no hesitation to venturing out to sea on an emergency.

  The elder of these men, who might have seen some fifty years or more,was a short, thick set man with dark complexion, and small grey eyesovershadowed by thick, shaggy brows as black as night.

  His mouth was large when he chose to open it, but his lips were thinand generally compressed.

  He looked at you from under his eyebrows like one looking at you froma place of concealment, and as if he was afraid he would be seen byyou.

  His name was David Rider, but was better known among his associatesunder the title of Old Ropes.

  The other was a man of about twenty-five or thirty, and was a tallerand much better-looking man, but without anything very marked in hiscountenance. His name was Jones Bradley.

  "I tell you what, Joe," said his companion, "I don't like thecaptain's bringin' of this gal; there can't no good come of it, and itmay bring us into trouble."

  "Bring us into trouble! everything that's done out of the commontrack, accordin' to you's a goin' to bring us into trouble. I'd liketo know how bringing a pretty girl among us, is goin' to git us intotrouble?"

  "A pretty face is well enough in its way," said Old Ropes, "but apretty face won't save a man from the gallows, especially if that faceis the face of an enemy."

  "By the 'tarnal, Ropes, if I hadn't see you fight like the very devilwhen your blood was up, I should think you was giten' to be a coward.How in thunder is that little baby of a girl goin' to git us intotrouble?"

  "Let me tell you," said Ropes, "that one pretty gal, if she's sominded, can do you more harm than half a dozen stout men that you canmeet and fight face to face, and if you want to know the harm that'sgoin' to come to us in this case I'll show you."

  "The gal, you know's the only daughter of old Rosenthrall. Why thecaptain stole her away, I don't know. Out of revenge for some slightor insult or other, I s'pose. Now the old man, as you're aware, knowsmore about our business than is altogether safe for us. As I saidbefore, the gal's his only daughter, and he'll raise Heaven and earthbut he'll have her again, and when he finds who's got her, do yousuppose there'll be any safety for us here? No! no! if I was in thecaptain's place, I'd either send her back again, or make her walk theplank, as he did, you know who, and so get rid of her at once."

  "As for walking the plank," said the young man, laying his hand on hiscompanion's shoulder, danger or no danger, the man who makes that girlwalk the plank, shall walk after, though it should be Captain Flinthimself, or my name is not Jones Bradley."

  "You talk like a boy that had fallen dead in love," said the other;"but anyhow, I don't like the captain's bringing the young woman amongus, and so I mean to tell him the first chance I have."

  "Well, now's your time," said Bradley, "for here comes the captain."

  As he spoke, a man coming up from the cabin joined them. His figure,though slight, was firm and compact. He was of medium height; hiscomplexion naturally fair, was somewhat bronzed by the weather, hishair was light, his eyes grey, and his face as a whole, one which manywould at first sight call handsome. Yet it was one that you could notlook on with pleasure for any length of time. There was something inhis cold grey eye that sent a chill into your blood, and you could nothelp thinking that there was deceit, and falsehood in his perpetualsmile.

  Although his age was forty-five, there was scarcely a wrinkle on hisface, and you would not take him to be over thirty.

  Such was Captain Flint, the commander and owner of the little schooner_Sea Gull_.

  "Captain," said Rider, when the other had joined the group; "Joe and Iwas talking about that gal just afore you came up, and I was a sayin'to him that I was afeard that she would git us into trouble, and Iwould speak to you about it."

  "Well," said Captain Flint, after a moment's pause, "if this thing wasan affair of mine entirely, I should tell you to mind your ownbusiness, and there the matter would end, but as it concerns you aswell as me, I suppose you ought to know why it was done.

  "The girl's father, as you know, has all along been one of our bestcustomers. And we suppose that he was too much interested in oursuccess to render it likely that he would expose any of our secrets,but since he's been made a magistrate, he has all at once taken itinto his head to set up for an honest man, and the other day he notonly told me that it was time I had changed my course and become afair trader, but hinted that he had reason to suspect that we wereengaged in something worse than mere smuggling, and that if we did notwalk pretty straight in future, he might be compelled in his capacityof magistrate to make an example of us.

  "I don't believe that he
has got any evidence against us in regard tothat last affair of ours, but I believe that he suspects us, andshould he even make his suspicions public, it would work us a greatdeal of mischief, to say the least of it.

  "I said nothing, but thinks I, old boy, I'll see if I can't get theupper hand of you. For this purpose I employed some of our Indianfriends to entrap, and carry off the girl for me. I took care that itshould be done in such a manner as to make her father believe that shewas carried off by them for purposes of their own.

  "Now, he knows my extensive acquaintance with all the tribes along theriver, and that there is no one who can be of as much service to himin his efforts to recover his daughter, as I, so that he will not bevery likely to interfere with us for some time to come.

  "I have seen him since the affair happened, and condoled with him, ofcourse.

  "He believes that the Indian who stole his daughter was the chiefFire Cloud, in revenge for some insult received a number of years ago.

  "This opinion I encouraged, as it answered my purpose exactly, and Ipromised to render all the assistance I could in his efforts torecover his child.

  "This part of the country, as we all know, is getting too hot for us;we can't stand it much longer; if we can only stave off the dangeruntil the arrival of that East Indiaman that's expected in shortlythere'll be a chance for us that don't come more than once or twice ina lifetime.

  "Let us once get the pick out of her cargo, and we shall have enoughto make the fortunes of all of us, and we can retire to some countrywhere we can enjoy our good luck without the danger of beinginterfered with. And then old Rosenthrall can have his daughter againand welcome provided he can find her.

  "So you see that to let this girl escape will be as much as your necksare worth."

  So saying, Captain Flint left his companions and returned to thecabin.

  "Just as I thought," said Old Ropes, when the captain had gone, "if wedon't look well to it this unlucky affair will be the ruin of us all."