Jack Harkaway

“ I, Jack Harkaway, proclaim war to the knife against the murderers of my boys. The villains Hunston and Toro will tell you all that I never threatened in vain. One of your number shall die daily until I have exterminated you root and branch. No amount of precaution upon your part can avert your doom. You claimed a ransom of five hundred pounds for my son. I have paid the sum demanded, and you have played me false; therefore, you die. To the last man you shall perish. You shall learn to look forward to your fate in fear and trembling ”

“ Poor Jack Harkaway! If ever in his young life he had felt grief, it was now, when he saw one who had so hopelessly loved him, dying through that very love.
"I am not afraid to die," said Thyra, in her low, faint voice, "and to die in this way is the best of all; for my future life might have made both you and myself unhappy."
"Unhappy! How could that be, Thyra?" asked Jack, as he knelt beside her, his hand clasped in hers, her dying eyes looking upwards into his face.
"Because your love is given to another," she sighed, "and, therefore, mine is hopeless ”

“ Then the following conversation took place between young Jack Harkaway and his comrade Harry Girdwood.
"I say, old fellow, are you fond of music?"
"Well, it all depends what sort of music it is," Jack replied.
"What do you think of Figgins' instrumental performance?"
"Well, I think it's an awful row."
"So do I; but he doesn't seem to think so."
"No; he's always at it; all day long and half through the night; he'll blow himself inside his flute if he goes on at this rate. I consider it comes under the head of a nuisance." ”

“ Mole to the place Jack and Harry were stopping at.
"Meanwhile my only recommendation is, young gentlemen, that you don't get yourselves embroiled in any way with the native folks here any more. The Mussulmen are fierce and fanatical, and the least provocation may make them burst out into wildness."
The speaker was Captain Deering, and the occasion of it was the eve of another projected trip by Jack Harkaway and Harry Girdwood.
"We shall be careful, captain," said the latter.
"Of course," said Deering, with a merry twinkling in his eye; "you always are." ”

“ But her soul was in a state of great agitation; dark, melancholy thoughts, which would not be chased away, continually oppressed it.
This interfered with the blissful visions, the roseate castles in the air which she was so prone to build, and of which Jack Harkaway ever formed the central figure.
If she could win his love, and accompany him to England—a grand and mysterious region which she had all her life longed to see—Thyra thought the climax of happiness would be reached. ”

“ At that moment Kara-al-Zariel's horse received a mortal wound, and sank beneath the chief.
He fell heavily, and narrowly escaped being trampled to death by his own advancing men.
But procuring another steed, he again led the van.
Jack Harkaway had already had two horses killed under him.
He was disfigured by blood and smoke, and dizzy with weariness and excitement, but he still fought like a lion, for it was for life.
The task of breaking through the Turkish ranks was a terrible one. ”

“ Harkaway," said the captain.
"Captain Willis," said impetuous Jack, "if you call me Mr. Harkaway, I shall think that you are stiff-backed and bear malice."
"What a wild fellow you are," said the captain. "Why, what on earth shall I call you?"
"Jack, sir," returned our hero. "John on Sunday and holidays, if you prefer it, just as a proof that you don't bear any ill feeling to a madman, who has the good luck to have a lucid interval, and to apologise heartily as I do now." ”

“ And then he communicated his own convictions to old Jack.
"I scarcely believe it possible, doctor," said Jack.
But the doctor was positive.
"Nothing will do him any good but to get on the move; I'm as sure of that as I am that he has no physical ailment."
"What's to be done then?" demanded Harkaway. "He can't travel alone."
"I don't know that," said the doctor; "he's hale and wiry enough. The only difficulty that I can see, is Mrs. Mole." ”

“ Strange dreads and doubts filled Hunston's mind, dread of the future, dread of a lingering illness through his arm, which daily grew worse, dread of death, which he felt convinced must be the end, and doubts whether eventually his enemy Harkaway would not triumph.
For Hunston's hatred of Harkaway knew no abatement; living or dying, the same fierce, unquenchable thirst after vengeance would fill his soul. ”

“ Reclining on his divan in the old Turkish style, and smoking his hookah, Ibrahim listened to Murray's communication.
"It may already be known to your excellency that there is in your dominions a young scapegrace of an Englishman, named Jack Harkaway. He has surrounded himself with many doers of evil, worse even than himself, amongst whom is an old scoundrel, formerly a schoolmaster, who, though he has lost both his legs, still continues to go about, and get into mischief." ”

“ Mole.
"It will be warmer still when they capture us," said Harkaway.
"Oh, gracious, gracious! how shall we ever get out of this? Oh, dear! oh, dear! I wish I was in London once more," cried the orphan, wringing his hands.
His distress contrasted strongly with the calm, self-possessed demeanour of the beautiful Thyra at this time of supreme peril.
"There is but one thing we can do," said Jack.
"What is that?" asked Harry, anxiously.
"Break through that wall and get into the mosque; that's the only side of the building which isn't surrounded." ”

“ Jack, Harvey, Emily, that Yankee braggart—curse him!"
And Hunston sat brooding in the black and evil-smelling hold day after day.
The only companion of his solitude being his own dark thoughts, his vicious resolves for vengeance.
"It is my own cursed ill-luck," he would say to himself again and again, "to be beholden to this Harkaway for my life. Why, even now, he has saved me again, saved me in spite of himself. That's the merry side of the question." ”

“ Poor boys! poor boys!"
"But you must," insisted Harvey. "I don't mean to leave them in the lurch."
"What do you mean?"
"What I say. We must not give up the search."
"Ah, Dick, you would persuade me, if you can't persuade yourself."
"You are wrong," replied Harvey. "I have the deepest conviction on the point."
"To what effect?"
"That they live—both live."
Jack Harkaway looked positively frightened at this reply.
"Dick, Dick," he exclaimed, mournfully, "what are you saying, old friend?"
"What I mean. They yet live," returned Harvey boldly. ”

“ The man was Lord Maltravers who had come there to breakfast.
"Harkaway," said his lordship.
"Yes, and your enemy," was the reply.
"I know it, my good fellow, and I'm proud of it."
"Don't call me your 'good fellow,'" said Jack, while the blood rushed to his face.
"I shall call you what I please," exclaimed Lord Maltravers, with cool insolence.
Jack controlled himself, and the two men stood glaring at one another. Under no circumstances can men hate so intensely as when they are rivals for the affections of a woman.
"Isn't it about time, Mr. Harkaway, that you returned to England?" ”

“ Smith," began the gentleman. "Why! It's Jack Harkaway!—Mr. Harkaway, I mean, pardon the familiarity. How the deuce did you come to ride my horse, sir?"
"You're Alfred Van Hoosen?" said Jack, in a faint voice.
"Certainly, I am."
"Did I win the race?"
"Did you win it? Why, man alive! It was the finest race on record, they tell me. Every one is perfectly wild about it, and—"
"Excuse me," interrupted Jack. "I know I ought not to have ridden your horse, but I wanted your sister to have the cup, and if you'll accept my apology—"
It was now Van Hoosen's turn to interrupt Jack. ”

“ Jack looked round and saw that they were surrounded.
"What shall we do?" he asked of Foss.
"Got to weaken," replied Foss.
Mr. Mole appeared very indignant and drew a pistol, which he discharged at Nappa Bill.
The bullet missed the mark, and Bill laughed loudly.
"Put up your iron, you old fool," he said; "we only want Jack Harkaway out of your crowd, and if we don't have him step down and out, right away, there'll be a circus here, with some dead bodies in it, mighty quick."
"Look at here," replied Foss. "I don't want people to think that I'm in this thing. ”

“ Well, the doctor did not communicate with the consul after this, and Jack Harkaway waited with his companions, Mole and the "wet blanket," Harry Girdwood, and the two faithful darkeys, and waited in vain.
Waited until they grew heart-sick with hope deferred.
CHAPTER XCVIII.
JOE DEERING AT HOME AGAIN—ON THE LOOKOUT—NEWS AT LAST—JOVIAL CAPTAIN ROBINSON IN DANGER.
We must cross the Channel to England again.
But not for long.
One character in our drama of real life has not appeared upon the scene for some time.
We allude to the skipper of the "Albatross," Joe Deering. ”

“ Once he's here, we shall be all right."
"Hurrah!" cried Jack Harkaway; "that's the notion. We shall yet defeat the schemes of that incarnate fiend, Murray."
"That is a capital idea," said Mr. Mole. "You have suggested quite a new idea."
"Now stop; the next thing for us to think of is who is to be the sham invalid," said Jack.
"I would suggest Tinker," said Harry.
"Or Bogey," observed Mr. Mole. ”

“ Mole?" said Harry Girdwood, slyly.
"Not if it flies too high," said young Jack.
This chaff goaded poor old Mole to fury, coming as it did from the boys.
"Really," he said, with a lofty sneer, "I don't see what you have to laugh at in the idle nonsense of these children."
This made them grin more than ever.
"The wit of the rising generation," sneered Mole.
"Mr. Mole would like the young generation never to rise, I think," said Harry Girdwood.
"That's it," laughed Harkaway; "Mr. Mole was always so conservative in his ideas." ”

“ It is a bold stroke we are playing for. Lenoir is a desperate ruffian, and the least mistake in the business would be something which I for one don't care to contemplate."
"Lenoir be blowed," replied the man in the blouse; "the only people I care about if we should go and make a mess of the job is, firstly—Jack Harkaway, and secondly, his pal Harry Girdwood, which a harder fist than his I have seldom received on my unlucky snuffer-tray." ”

“ At these words Harkaway slipped back into his room, and reappeared armed with a pair of pistols.
"Now, what is it you require, my girl?" he demanded of Theodora.
"A few words with you."
"Don't trust her," shrieked the servant; "I saw a knife in her girdle. Don't trust her."
Theodora smiled faintly.
"I am alone, unarmed," she said; "the great Mr. Harkaway, the hero of the day here, is surely not afraid of me."
"I am afraid of no one," returned Jack; "but I warn you, my girl, that if any treachery be meditated, each of these pistols carries a man's life." ”

“ Instantly the horses were untethered, and the riders mounted; armed men assembled on foot, and every warrior appeared in readiness.
Jack Harkaway and his friend Harry, by this time familiar as old soldiers with these sudden calls to arms, soon answered the summons; and the rest of their party, on hearing the danger, were not backward in preparing for it.
There were in the encampment a large number of fleet Arab steeds, more than were actually required by the tribe, but the chief, like many of his race, dealt largely in horseflesh. ”

“ Silently, in mute horror, the orphan was about to submit to the least of the two evils, and choose a wife.
Then he awoke suddenly.
What an immense relief it was to find it only a dream after all.
"I don't quite believe that young Harkaway," said the orphan, dubiously; "he is such a dreadful practical joker. But I won't go on shore, nevertheless. It's not very interesting to see these savages, after all; they really are nothing more than savages." ”

“ The shark resumed its natural position, and held Mole's stump above water, puzzled to know what to do with it.
"This is my fault," said young Jack, and seizing a cutlass, he leaped overboard.
"Lower away the boat," shouted Dick Harvey, who had just come on deck.
He and Jefferson had also armed themselves, and were about to leap in to young Jack's assistance, when Harkaway senior appeared.
"Hold, let no man here risk his life," he said. ”

“ Young Jack Harkaway
FIGHTING THE PIRATES
OF THE RED SEA. By BRACEBRIDGE HEMYNG.
The cavernous jaws opened wide. There was a hissing sound like a locomotive blowing off steam. Now Harry saw his chance. He was not slow in taking it. Extracting two dynamite shells from his coat pocket, he cast them one after the other into the snake’s mouth.
Inset: Young Jack a prisoner on the Pirate Ship
[2]
The Subscription Price of the Five Cent Wide Awake Library by the year is $2.50 ”

“ The girl passed before each of the unhappy victims and shook them by the hand one after the other. "Courage," she said, in a low but firm voice, "courage, brave hearts."
"Bandage their eyes," said Hunston.
"No; let us look upon our fate," said young Jack.
"The old Harkaway brag to the very last," said Hunston, with a sneer.
"You don't like to look a Harkaway in the face, assassin!" retorted the boy.
"Fool!" exclaimed Hunston, "since you want it, you shall have it. Fire at the middle first. They can have an opportunity of seeing a real man die before their eyes. ”

“ He, with fiend-like satisfaction, noticed the sickly pallor of the two boys' faces, and it gladdened his black heart.
"They aren't quite so happy now," he muttered. "Now it is they suffer. Oh, if Harkaway were here too. It would make me drunk with joy."
The girl turned to young Jack.
"Courage," she whispered, "courage; be bold."
And then turning to the firing party, she said—
"Come, do not delay. It is needless to prolong the sufferings which these poor boys feel already."
"Silence, and begone!" exclaimed Hunston fiercely. "You have no right to speak to the men." ”