Fire Cloud.

by Samuel Fletcher.

CHAPTER I.

Whether or not, the story which we are about to relate is absolutely true in every particular, we are not prepared to say. All we know about 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 can learn, uncle Zeph was a man of good judgment, and one not easily imposed 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 the scenes which we are about to relate occurred, although of late years, no traces of any kind could be discovered in the locality where it is supposed to have been situated.

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

But that such a cave did exist, he was perfectly satisfied, and that it would in all probability be again discovered at some future day, by persons making excavations in the side of the mountain. And lucky he thought would be the man who should make the discovery, for unheard of treasures he had no doubt would be found stowed away in the c.h.i.n.ks and crevices of the rocks.

So much by way of introduction; as we have no intention to describe the cave until the proper time comes, we shall leave that part of the subject for the present, while we introduce the reader to a few of the princ.i.p.al personages of our narrative.

At a distance of some fifteen or twenty miles from the City of New York, on the Hudson river in the shadow of the rocks known as the Palisades, something near two hundred years ago, lay a small vessel at anchor.

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

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

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

We say sailors, but in saying so we do not mean to imply that they resembled your genuine old _salt_, but something between a sailor and a landsman. They could hardly be called land lubbers, for I doubt if a couple of old salts could have managed their little craft better than they, while they, when occasion required, could work on land as well as water.

In fact they belonged to the cla.s.s known as river boatmen, though they had 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 eyes overshadowed by thick, s.h.a.ggy brows as black as night.

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

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

His name was David Rider, but was better known among his a.s.sociates under the t.i.tle of Old Ropes.

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

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

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

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

"By the 'tarnal, Ropes, if I hadn't see you fight like the very devil when 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 into trouble?"

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

"The gal, you know's the only daughter of old Rosenthrall. Why the captain stole her away, I don't know. Out of revenge for some slight or insult or other, I s'pose. Now the old man, as you're aware, knows more about our business than is altogether safe for us. As I said before, the gal's his only daughter, and he'll raise Heaven and earth but he'll have her again, and when he finds who's got her, do you suppose there'll be any safety for us here? No! no! if I was in the captain's place, I'd either send her back again, or make her walk the plank, 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 his companion's shoulder, danger or no danger, the man who makes that girl walk the plank, shall walk after, though it should be Captain Flint himself, 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 among us, 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; his complexion naturally fair, was somewhat bronzed by the weather, his hair was light, his eyes grey, and his face as a whole, one which many would at first sight call handsome. Yet it was one that you could not look on with pleasure for any length of time. There was something in his cold grey eye that sent a chill into your blood, and you could not help thinking that there was deceit, and falsehood in his perpetual smile.

Although his age was forty-five, there was scarcely a wrinkle on his face, 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 I was 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 I would speak to you about it."

"Well," said Captain Flint, after a moment's pause, "if this thing was an affair of mine entirely, I should tell you to mind your own business, and there the matter would end, but as it concerns you as well 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 best customers. And we suppose that he was too much interested in our success 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 it into his head to set up for an honest man, and the other day he not only told me that it was time I had changed my course and become a fair trader, but hinted that he had reason to suspect that we were engaged in something worse than mere smuggling, and that if we did not walk pretty straight in future, he might be compelled in his capacity of magistrate to make an example of us.

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

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

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

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

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

"This opinion I encouraged, as it answered my purpose exactly, and I promised to render all the a.s.sistance I could in his efforts to recover 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 danger until the arrival of that East Indiaman that's expected in shortly there'll be a chance for us that don't come more than once or twice in a lifetime.

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER II.