The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1865-10-26

With a yell and a bound the Red Dwarf

~ w 1AlNAAe ~ VI ~
Withay yell and bound the Red Dwarf
was ut his throat.
Manfully then did Albert's stout 81
news, toughened in manga wrestle with
his burly comrades, second his struggles.
The dwarf was a giant in strength, and
as active as IL panther. He howled,
snapped his sharp teeth and tried to sink
them into Albert's throat, who used his
strength alone, disdaining the weapons
in his belt, and having cast aside his cut
lass. For fully half an hour the contest
was doubtful, but at length Vandeemer,
exerting all his proves, hurled his foe
headlong down the trap, just as the head
and face of Hugh Garrbolt, pale and
death-like, was peering from below.
The weight and impetus of the vanquish
ed dwarf bore Garrbolt down with him
against one of the iron spikes used as
means of ascent, and there, hanging by
the great jagged nail, piercing fully four
inches under his right ear, Hugh Carr
bolt, shrieking with agony, was for a
moment suspened, until a desperate
plunge and struggle cast him headlong
to the hard earthen floor below, as dead
as if a knife had cut his throat from ear
to ear-tit ending to his long UNPUBLISHED
career of atrocious villiany. The dwarf,
senseless and bleeding, for the spikes
had dreadfully lacerated his breast and
shoulders, lay gasping under the corpse
of his father-~fOr such was the relation
borne to him by Hugh Garrbolt. Not
pausing to await the recovery of the
dwarf, Albert safely descended with the
joyous but trembling girl, and instead of
spending the night in '"rhe house of the
Skeleton" he slept in his own snug bed,
after hearing the brief story Of the res
cued one, who gave her name as Ella
Avail, and was warmly welcomed to the
home of the kind-heartetl widow Van
deemer.
Ella Avail was the niece of Hugh Carr
bolt, who had for many years led a life
of infanly all along the colonial coasts,
and she had been kidnapped by him
three months before her rescue, and hid
den i'm that secluded house so eagerly
stunned by all; and there the miserable
offspring Of her step-uncle, for her own
mother was dead many years, kept
vigilant guard over the helpless girl !;
though the CHASTITY thing in the chair in
the lower room, left there by Hugh to
terrify her and such as might venture
too nearly, would have been to her timid
mind Il guard as fearful as Il thousand
savage men.
When Hugh Garrbolt first visited the
spot, its adaptibility as a place of con-
cealment struck him at once; for even
then he had it in mind to abduct the
only child of Leonice Avail, his sisters
husband, a wealthy and noble gentleman
of Virginia, who had often filled the
purse Of the ungrateful Garrbolt.
When his life was so abruptly ended,
he was just returning from Virginia with
the solemn agreement on the part of the
half-crazed father, to sacrifice every dol
lar he had, in search of his lost and be-
loved child. The treasure of the dead
buccaneer he had squandered within six
months after his departure from New
York.
When Albert, with some dozen or
mora astonished burghers, returned to
"Thc Skeletons House" the next day,
they found the place smoking ruin,
and whether the Red Dwarf persisted in
the flames or escaped with the body OF
his father, remains n mystery to this
day.
The very spot where the dwelling stood
is unknown, though have often fancied
l saw the hideous scarlet visage of the
unhappy dwarf peering from ragged
rocks at the noisy skaters as they Whirl
and dart around his ancient home.
The father of Ella soon reached New
York, and in the following year all the
burghers and groOt vroWs within mile
of widow landowners house were seen
one evening slowly rolling arm in arm,
and putting with placid joy, rs the frisky
lads and giggling frauleins rejoiced at
the wedding of Albert Vandemeer and
Ella Avall.-N. Y. Ledger.