University of Virginia Library

10. CHAPTER X.
The Beacon.

The long-wished for moon at length rose, without
a cloud far to the north of east, for it was in its third
quarter. The clouds had been driven before a northwesterly
wind, beyond the horizon of the ocean, and
it had become gradually bright star-light above them.

As soon as the moon sent her red beams across the
sea, which yet rolled its heavy billows landward, but
without that wildness which had characterized their
motion in the storm that had gone over, as soon as her
light would enable him to move with safety upon the
rocks, Forrestal ascended an elevated portion of the
reef and looked around him. At a glance, he saw that
the round swell of the Island, from which the reef shot
out, was `the back of Abaco,' and that he had been
wrecked on Abaco reef. He therefore was satisfied
that the light which had misled him was that false
`Light of the Reef,' which had been sworn to in Havana
and Nassau, by the captains who had been
wrecked as having existence, though many questioned
it. He now looked along the jutting bastions of the
reef for something that resembled a light-house. He
could see nothing. Harry and Rogers were by his
side. Harry was looking for `his man,' — Rogers, for
the beacon! Suddenly the latter, with an exclamation

pointed Forrestal to a glittering object on the top of
the needle-like rock, a cable's length, or eight hundred
feet, to the north of them, which our readers know as
the `Tower Rock.'

`It is a reflection of the moonlight upon mica!'
said Forrestal. `No — it is globular! and see, as the
moon rises, another and another object catches its light;
and now there is a circle of bright globes shining like
a crown of silver stars in the bright glance of the
moonbeams!'

`What can it be?' exclaimed Rogers, who, with
Harry and Forrestal, had been watching its gradual
advance from a single spot to a circle of them.

`I can tell!' answered Forrestal. `The secret is
out! It is a ring of glass-lamps, hung there towards
the sea. It is the very place where the light was when
we struck, and, though they were put out, the friendly
moon has betrayed their secret covert!'

`This is true. I can count the lamps. What an
extraordinary discovery!'

`Now,' said Forrestal, `to catch the rogues!'

`And to catch him, also, dear Forrestal!'

`Never fear, Harry! He must be one of them, I
imagine, if not their head one! Now I will bless
the moonlight after this! But for it we should not
have discovered it, for the rock looks inaccessible and
as naked as a needle. I should have looked for a
beacon or a wood-work affair, — never for a circle of
lights hung on the face of a rock. Doubtless, it is
taken care of in the day and hid away in some of
these caves!'

`What will you do now, first, Mr. Forrestal?' asked
Carneil.

`The wreck can now be boarded by swimming. I
will have some of the men go aboard and pass a rope
to the reef, and by means of it we will get some boarding
pikes and cutlasses, if no pistols or powder, which
is doubtless all wet. We will then explore and try and
get a footing farther on the Island till morning.'

The stern portion of the schooner, abaft the companion-way,
which had hung unsupported while the rest
of the keel lay upon the reef, had broken off, as has
been narrated; but, as full three-quarters of the schooner
lay wedged in the rocks, though surrounded by the
water, they were enabled to obtain a few cutlasses and
pikes, though into the hold of the vessel the sea flowed
freely.

Arming his men, and placing himself in advance,
Forrestal began to move along the reef. The moonlight
enabled them to step with safety; but as some
parts of the reef were detached from the rest, they had
to swim from rock to rock; but as the sea was now
comparatively smooth, they were enabled to get on
without the loss of any life.

Forrestal's object was to reach the base of that
columnar portion of the chain of rocks on which he
had so singularly discovered the circle of lamps gleaming
in the moonbeams. After arduous exertions, on
the part of all, they at length got to the foot of this
rock. It rose more than forty feet into the air above
their heads. He began to examine its base, and at
length discovered that it contained fissures and projections
that would aid one who should attempt to ascend.

He resolved to make the trial, for he knew that the
lamps — if lamps they were — could not get there
without human means. He found, as he got higher

and higher, that the facilities for ascending were greater,
until he could mount with celerity, as if up a flight
of stairs. These projections, which he found as he
advanced, were not apparent from below; so that, to
one at the base, the rock appeared inaccessible. This
deception had, probably, prevented other shipwrecked
men from the attempt now made by Forrestal, and
which he would not have made unless he had seen the
moon reflected from objects upon the summit, that he
believed were lamps composing a beacon.

He was followed by Harry and Rogers, whose profession
as well as his own, had taught them how to
climb. On reaching the shelf, near the top, and walking
round to the sea-face of the rock, Forrestal discovered
the cavity, with its hoop of lights, its reflector, and
all the other apparatus of the spot. He uttered an
exclamation that sounded very like an oath, which
drew his two officers to the place.

For a few moments they stood gazing on the lamps
and then on each other, in silent astonishment.

`Well, this is a discovery worth the schooner,' said
Forrestal, at length. `I don't regret her. Here is the
beacon that has played me false, and others before me.
I never saw any thing quite up to this!'

`I don't wonder the Spanish gun-brig that was sent
up here didn't find any thing,' said Rogers. I never
should have supposed there was a place up here large
enough for a gull to perch on. See what a nice nook
is all hollowed out to keep all under cover. The government
couldn't ask for a better lighthouse than this,
if it was only honestly kept.'

`We should see the real light from here,' said Forrestal,
looking south.

`It is invisible, though the horizon is clear in that
direction,' said Harry.

`It is very strange. Well, I shall sift this matter to
the bottom, all round. We are forty-one, in all, and
armed, after a fashion, and we can hold head against
these fellows; for there can't be more than this number
here, if a dozen. Doubtless, they all about here
have a share in the profits of the wrecker, and have
a keeper of the light. I hope he nor none of the rest
will escape off the Island before day; for the wrecker
who got ashore will give the alarm, and let them know
they have caught a Tartar, instead of a peaceable
merchantman. The sloop-of-war will be along to-morrow,
if she has safely weathered the storm, for she
was to sail direct for Abaco first, and then cruise up
and down the channel. Till she heaves in sight, we
must hold together for defence. At daylight, we can
judge how it is best to act.'

After having carefully examined the ingenious apparatus
of the false beacon, the party descended; with
more difficulty, however, than the ascent was made.
Forrestal let it remain, in order to remove it complete
by day. From the top he had discovered that the reef
on which he was, and of which the beacon-rock formed
a part, was about fifty yards from the end of the
cliff, and that `The-Hole-in-the-Wall' was in this cliff
about a furlong farther in towards the Island. The
gap he could discern, though, from his position, he
could not see through the cliff. The sides of it seemed
to sink perpendicularly beneath the water, and to
afford no path to reach the main even should they
reach it. He therefore resolved to remain quietly on

the reef till morning with his men; and, each one seeking
such shelter as he could, the weary seamen soon
fell asleep on their cutlasses. Harry, also, shortly sunk
down, overcome with fatigue; but Rogers and Forrestal
remained awake to watch; for they knew they
were upon a spot where dangerous enemies, doubtless,
had their eyes upon them.

Forrestal walked up and down a narrow space on
the reef, at quarter-deck pace, revolving in his mind
the events of the night, — till all that had occurred passed
in calm review before his mind. He could not but
give vent again and again to his astonishment in audible
exclamations, as he thought upon the wonderful
discovery he had made at the top of the rock, and
upon the singular instrumentality by which the reflector
had been revealed. His thoughts then dwelt upon
the extraordinary man he had taken prisoner, and upon
his mysterious connection with Carneil; and as he
revolved the whole subject in his thoughts, he came to
the conclusion, in connection with the wrecker's knowledge
of the beacon, that the man was one of the piratical
beacon-wreckers who were concerned in this false
`Light of the Reef;' and that, in pursuing Harry's villain,
he had been pursuing, also, one of the pirates of
the Keys, against whom the schooner and sloop had
been ordered to cruise.

`If,' said he, turning to Rogers, and speaking aloud
his thoughts, `if this fellow who got ashore is one of
this “Hole-in-the-Wall” gang, then he must have a
dwelling somewhere on the Island; and there it is we
must look for that poor girl.'

`What poor girl, sir?' asked Rogers.

`O, ah! I forgot. You don't know Harry's story.
Well, to beguile the time, I'll relate it to you; for you
ought to know a twofold motive we have in getting
this man into our possession again.'

Taking the arm of the midshipman, Forrestal then
began to relate the story, as he walked up and down
the rock,—the waves, the while, breaking at their feet,—
the moonlight silvering the heaving ocean in a long,
bright path, — the dark rocks towering above them,
and the groups of men sleeping around.

`Now, Mr. Rogers,' he said, as he ended the long
recital, now you can account for poor Harry's anxiety
to save the man alive; for in his wicked breast was
locked up the secret of his sister's fate, — nay, of his
own parentage and birthplace!'

`And also, now the cause of his springing into the
harbor when he recognized the man. We thought him
crazy.'

`It is enough, this uncertainty, to make him so. Do
you know that I begin to suspect that fellow, Vique,
who escaped when we were off Double-Headed Shot
Keys, at night, belonged to these wreckers? His face
always wore, I noticed, a peculiar expression, when he
heard me speak of capturing them; and then he boasted
their skill in avoiding cruisers, as if he knew more
of them than he cared I should guess. Now, I believe
that fellow was as bad as any of them, and got away
from the schooner because he was afraid of being
found out.'

`He would not have left her where he did, sir, if he
had not been sure of meeting friends, I think.'

`That is my opinion. List! Do you not see an object

moving on the cliff? Stand perfectly quiet, and
direct your eye where my finger points.'

`It is a man, stooping.'

`So I thought. It is a wrecker, watching us. Let
us be quiet. We are in shadow and unseen, while
the moon reveals him. Let us observe his motions.
He is creeping low. Now he is stationary.'

In a few moments the individual disappeared, and
they saw no more of him, or any other moving
object, for at least twenty minutes, when Forrestal
detected a small boat emerge from `The-Hole-in-the-Wall,'
and pull towards the reef, keeping close under
the cliff. It moved with noiscless progress, but came
steadily on. As it approached, they could discern one
person in her only, who was rowing with two oars.

`That must be the man who was on the cliff. He
was watching if he could discover us; and as the men
are all sleeping in sheltered nooks, and we have a
rock between us and the moon, he has seen no one,
and is doubtless coming to destroy or preserve from
our discovery his reflector and lamps. He can have
no other motive in thus stealing along and coming so
near.'

The boat now left the cliff and began to cross the
narrow space of water between it and the reef, the
moonlight shining clearly upon it. It now pulled on
swiftly, but still with a noiseless dip of the oars.

`Whoever he is, or whatever his purpose, he is cautious
enough,' said Rogers, in a whisper, for the boat
was within ten fathom of them. `See, how low he
crouches in the bottom!'

`He has turned his face. He is a negro. Let us
be as cautious as he, and we shall yet have him in our

power. Doubtless, he supposes we are all down by
the wreck, or else are asleep. Keep close, and be
ready to aid me, if he lands.'

The next moment, the boat touched the reef just
above where the men were sleeping, and where they
were concealed, and instead of a man, to their astonishment
out sprung a monster! It was Lobo. He
had placed his hands upon the rock and thrown his
body out by turning a summerset and lighting upon
the stumps, that should have been legs. Acting as if
secure from observation, he then began to go over the
rocks towards the base of the beacon, throwing himself
forward on his hands after a fashion that excited
the astonishment both of Forrestal and his companion.

`It is the devil himself,' said Rogers, with emphasis.

`Then let us take him prisoner,' answered Forrestal,
laughing. `It will be doing mankind incalculable
service. Look at him now. He is listening. You
see he is a deformed African. Now he moves again
dexterously, using his arms for legs. He is making
for the foot of the beacon-rock. His object is either
to destroy or secrete the apparatus. The fellow has
masters over him. He is not the prime mover. It
must have been this monster whose yells we heard.'

`How can he get up that rock?'

`Let us watch him. See that! He goes up hand
over hand, like a sailor up a rope. He must have the
strength of a giant in his arms to lift his body in the
air in that style. Now, come and let us take him,
before he can injure what I wish to preserve as a curiosity
as well as a trophy.'

The two officers sprung forward, each with his cutlass
drawn, and Forrestal reaching the foot of the rock,

called out to him. Lobo stopped mid air, and looking
down, gave expression to his surprise and alarm
in a deep Spanish execration.

`Come down, Muchacho,' commanded Forrestal in
Spanish, `or I will come after you and cut you down
by the wrists!'

The only reply he got was something like a growl,
and the savage rapidly ascended till he reached the
top. Forrestal sprung after him, holding his cutlass
between his teeth. When he had got up ten feet, a
fragment of the rock, torn off by the negro from the
mass, came bounding down, and leaping over Forrestal's
head within an inch of it, plunged into the sea.
Forrestal, exasperated at this attack, redoubled his
exertions, and soon stood upon the top. Lobo threw
himself over, at the same instant, into the cavity that
held the lamps. Forrestal followed him and presented
his cutlass at his throat, as he crouched in a corner of
the nook, grinding his teeth like a wolf in his lair.

`Monster, will you yield, or shall I kill you?'

`I be massa's slave, massa no kill,' answered Lobo,
covering his face at the sight of the weapon.

`Then go down, and I will follow you. Try to
escape, and the officer below will slice your huge head
from its shoulders!'

`I no try get 'way, massa,' answered the African,
who, finding escape no longer possible, had, all at
once, changed animal ferocity into slavish submission.

Lobo descended the same way he had gone up, by
the aid of his hands, and not a little to the amazement
of Harry, the boatswain, and two or three of the seamen,
whom the noise of the falling fragment had

awakened. Rogers, in a few words, explained how
he came there, and that he was, probably, an agent of
the pirate-wreckers.

On reaching the bottom of the tower, Forrestal said
to the slave, laying the flat of his cutlass upon his
shoulder,

`Now, Muchacho, your life depends on your speaking
the truth. Deceive me, and you die!'

`I speak true, massa,' growled Lobo, trying to look
very virtuous and innocent, — but making, in the effort,
grimaces so diabolical that the sailors were confirmed
in their original opinion, formed when they saw him
coming down the rock, that he was the prince of evil;
and that he was without legs because he had a pair
of black wings folded up under his arms. This was
both the gunner's and boatswain's opinion, in which
they were sustained by that of nearly every one of the
men.

`What have you to do with that beacon?'

`Me fill de lamp, me burnish him, me light him, me
take car' ob him.'

`You do, do you? And who is your master?'

`Massa Capitan Ingles.'

`Is that his name — Ingles?'

`Him name, massa.'

`He put the light there, and you take care of it?'

`Yes, me and Dory.'

`Who is Dory?'

`Massa's Dory.'

`Where does this precious master of yours live?'

`I nebber tell, if you cut nigger head orf!'

`Then your head shall go off quickly; for, you rascal,

you confess you lighted the false beacon which
wrecked us.'

`Yah, yah! Yes, massa.'

`The black devil laughs at his mischief,' exclaimed
the gunner with a burst of indignation, in which all
the crew joined, — for by this time they were all gathered
round Forrestal and the negro.

`You see these men. They will tear you in pieces,
if I say the word.'

`Massa Ingles kill me, if me tell. You kill me, me
no tell,' said Lobo, trembling at the angry faces around
him.

`If you will show me where the habitation is of the
man or men, or rather, fiends, who light this beacon,
you shall be protected, not only from your master, but
the vengeance of these shipwrecked seamen.'

`Will you swear massa Ingles no hurt me?'

`Yes. How many has he with him? Is he captain
of the gang?'

`He hab in de cave livin wid him no more dan
Lobo, Jover, and Dory.'

`Who is Lobo?'

`Me, Lobo.'

`Who is Jover?'

`De big dog, what watch Dory.'

`And who is Dory, — a monkey, I dare say?'

`No, a woman, — a litty young woman. She got
eye blue, like de sky.

`Be patient, dear Harry! There is nothing here yet
to raise hope. His master may not be our wrecker.'

`Had your master gray hair?' asked Harry, eagerly.

`Yes, young massa.'

`Had he lost any one of his fingers?' asked Harry,
with singular discretion, so as not to put a leading
question, by asking that he meant this should lead to.

`No, not on he hand; but he hab loss one orf he
right foot. I wish he lose em all, and he leg, too, and
den he be like Lobo!'

`It is our man! You are right, Harry. Providence
is in this, be assured, and so take courage. Has your
master been off the Island?'

`Yes, massa, more den week.'

`And he came back to-night?'

`Yah. You know dat! He in you schooner,
and cuss you coz you wreck him, too! Yah, yah,
yah! I larf, coz massa get wreck too. He mos drown.
But he no so drown he no mos killee me, coz I glad,
too, I see de schooner on de reef. He come catch me
larfin, and beatee me like de debbel, till me yell.'

`Where is he?' asked Forrestal, intensely interested,
and hardly able to command that patience necessary to
enable him to get the information he sought. Poor
Harry was almost wild with expectation.

`In de cave, massa.'

`Where is this cave?'

`Ober dere in de cliff,' he answered, pointing.

`Will you take me there in your boat?'

`Massa Ingles kill me.'

`I will protect you. I and these young officers shall
go with me, and these two stout men here, my gunner
and boatswain. We will protect you from the man
you dread, only show us the cave where your master,
the wrecker, has his habitation.'

`But he will set Jover on me!' `Into the boat, and
pull me to the place. If you deceive me, you shall be
slain.' `If you will kill massa, me be you slave?'
`It is your master we want. We are his enemy, but
your friend.' `Den me go show you,' replied Lobo,
with a leer of animal delight that was truly ferocious.

The negro swayed his body to the slender oars, and
pulled the heavily laden boat across the space to the
cliff, and then skirting it, suddenly passed from the
sight of the men on the reef, as it turned into the
passage of `The-Hole-in-the-Wall.'

We briefly conclude our Tale. The young girl was
found, recognized by her brother, and restored to civilized
society. She was educated, and became the
bride of Forrestal. The old man refused to divulge
the names of his victims, and, making an attempt on
Harry's life, was killed by Forrestal. Lobo, terrified,
threw himself into the sea. An advertisement in the
English papers brought the mystery to light. `Ingles'
proved to be the natural brother of the Earl of Taverston,
the father of Harry and his sister; and revenge, so
far as could be ascertained, alone dictated his conduct
towards his nephew and niece.