Fire Cloud; Or, The Mysterious Cave. A Story of Indians and Pirates.Fletcher, Samuel
History
Fire Cloud; Or, The Mysterious Cave. A Story of Indians and Pirates.
Fletcher, Samuel
Indians of North America -- Fiction; New York (State) -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Fiction; Pirates -- Fiction
No-No was the name by which the Indian was known to the child, having
learned it from hearing the Indian make use of the name no, no, so
often when trading with her father.
The Indian took the proffered cake with a smile, and as he did so
lifted the child up in his arms and gazed at her steadily for a few
moments, as if he wished to impress every feature upon his memory, and
then sat her down again.
He was just in the act of doing this when the child's father came out
of the dining-room.
Rosenthrall, imagining that the Indian was about to kidnap his
daughter, or do her some violence, rushed out ordering him to put the
child down, and be off about his business.
It was the recollection of this circumstance, taken in connection with
the fact that Fire Cloud had been seen in the city on the day on which
his daughter had disappeared, which led Rosenthrall to fix upon the
old chief as the person who had carried off Hellena.
This opinion, as we have seen, was encouraged by Captain Flint for
reasons of his own.
The facts in the case were these.
Rosenthrall, as Captain Flint had said, although for a long time one
of his best customers, knowing to, and winking at his unlawful doings,
having been elected a magistrate took it in to his head to be honest.
He had made money out of his connection with the smuggler and pirate,
and he probably thought it best to break off the connection before it
should be too late, and he should be involved in the ruin which he
foresaw Captain Flint was certain to bring upon himself if he
continued much longer in the reckless course he was now pursuing.
All this was understood by Captain Flint, and it was as he explained
to his men, in order to get the upper hand of Rosenthrall, and thus
prevent the danger which threatened him from that quarter, he had
caused Hellena to be kidnapped, and conveyed to their grand hiding
place, the cave in the side of the mountain.
Rosenthrall at this time resided in a cottage on the banks of the
river, a short distance from his place of business, the grounds
sloping down to the water.
These grounds were laid out into a flower garden where there was an
arbor in which Hellena spent the greater part of her time during the
warm summer evenings.
It was while lingering in this arbor rather later than usual that she
was suddenly pounced upon by the two Indians employed by Captain Flint
for the purpose, and conveyed to his vessel, which lay at anchor a
short distance further up the river.
Captain Flint immediately set sail with his unwilling passenger, and
in a few hours afterwards she was placed in the cave under the safe
keeping of the squaw who presided over that establishment.
If the reader would like to know what kind of a looking girl Hellena
Rosenthrall was at this time, I would say that a merrier, more
animated, if not a handsomer face he never looked upon. She was the
very picture of health and fine spirits.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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