Minton
Clearly still frightened Carlatina had never looked more alluring. Her face was very pale and her disheveled tresses rippled over her graceful shoulders. The Yankee’s ardour had been much encouraged by the champagne and perversely by the recent bloodlust that took pious Torty’s life. Cautiously he seated himself on the bed beside the willowy girl and pretended to comfort her with feigned graciousness. Plying her with brandy from a flask fortified with drops of laudanum he seized the innocent girl’s hand as she went on chattering seemingly oblivious to his impertinent intentions. His muscular arms suddenly enveloped her in a bold embrace and sneering at her indignant protests the brute bent over and roughly kissed the liberally endowed woman. Twilight shadows were oozing into the room as Deane slipped quickly out of his place of concealment in the armoire. As a knock on the door announced Nithsdale and a couple of guards with shotguns the dandy struck the Colonel on the back of the head with the butt of his revolver rendering him unconscious. Dandy Deane managed to pass a note to Carlatina before being caught.
If Nithdale was excited by the capture of his nemesis he didn’t show it any more than he showed concern over his daughter’s close call with dishonor. He looked suspiciously at the stationary Colonel Mervyn lying face down on the floor. One of the dogs sniffed at the flask.
Lock him in the potato cellar said the demented old slaver relieving the dandy of his pistol and his mask. Why does it smell so of Eau-de-Cologne?
Carlatina was quite surprised by her first glimpse of Deane’s tattooed visage which was far worse than the descriptions had led her to believe. Every inch was embedded with words in large capital letters tattooed with black ink by an expert following her father’s mysterious commands. [As recounted in Dandy Deane and the Minotaur from the Moon —ed.] Now crestfallen he consented to imprisonment without a struggle. The guards brought the subdued man to the potato cellar and gave him a vicious drubbing in the moonlight it took his mind off of spry Torty’s fate. Left to himself in the stuffy enclosure he was overcome by melancholy and despair. No doubt Nithsdale would have him tortured and executed. After many destitute years of exile the revenge that he and Torty had worked and suffered for would finally destroy them and Nithsdale would win. It was dreadful to think that all of their sacrifices had been in vain but it was even worse to know that no one else could prevent the monster from enslaving mankind.
When the sun rose the next morning the floating villa reposed under a twinkling shroud of snow. Dandy Deane had to be lifted out of the potatoes and carried into the breakfast room where the distinguished visitors were gathered around a fire place sipping steaming bowls of coffee and politely enduring their jagged hangovers. Colonel Mervyn in his usual loud voice was regaling the virtues of Nithsdale’s grand work to the wincing gentlemen and ladies and he received the rustic dandy’s appearance among them with flashing eyes.
Have some breakfast said the rich Yankee with a hollow chuckle. I dare say you’ll need all your strength when you get to where you’re going! I wonder replied Deane if these fine people here would still fund your filthy plans if they knew about your part in the murder of the president?
There was a general laugh.
Fiddlesticks! answered the ill shaved Colonel gleefully. Who do you think furnished the greenbacks so I could hire Booth? He looked smug.
The dandy squared his shoulders snatched a pistol from an inattentive guard and fired it at Colonel Mervyn just as Nithsdale and his daughter entered the room.
