FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151  
152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   >>   >|  
y would curl about his throat and choke the breath of life from his body. It was a fearful fate--a terrible death. And there seemed no possible way of escaping. Higher and higher climbed the vine, swaying and squirming, the blood-red flowers opening and closing like lips of a vampire that thirsted for his blood. A look of horror was frozen on Frank's face. His eyes bulged from his head, and his lips were drawn back from his teeth. He did not cry out, he did not seem to breathe, but he appeared to be turned to stone in the grasp of the deadly plant. It was a dreadful sight, and the two sailors, rough and wicked men though they were, were overcome by the spectacle. Shuddering and gasping, they turned away. For the first time, Gage seemed to fully realize what he had done. He covered his eyes with his hand and staggered backward, uttering a low, groaning sound. Merriwell's staring eyes seemed fastened straight upon him with that fearful stare, and the thought flashed through the mind of the wretched boy that he should never forget those eyes. "They will haunt me as long as I live!" he panted. "Why did I do it? Why did I do it?" Already he was seized by the pangs of remorse. Once more he looked at Frank, and once more those staring eyes turned his blood to ice water. Then, uttering shriek after shriek, Gage turned and fled through the swamp, plunging through marshy places and jungles, falling, scrambling up, leaping, staggering, gasping for breath, feeling those staring eyes at his back, feeling that they would pursue him to his doom. Scarcely less agitated and overcome, Bowsprit and the negro followed, and Frank Merriwell was abandoned to his fate. Frank longed for the use of his hands to tear away those fiendish vines. It was a horrible thing to stand and let them creep up, up, up, till they encircled his throat and strangled him to death. Through his mind flashed a picture of himself as he would stand there with the vines drawing tighter and tighter about his throat and his face growing blacker and blacker, his tongue hanging out, his eyes starting from their sockets. He came near shrieking for help, but the thought that the cry must reach the ears of Leslie Gage kept it back, enabled him to choke it down. He had declared that Gage should not hear him beg for mercy or aid. Not even the serpent vine and all its horrors could make him forget that vow. The little red flowers were gettin
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151  
152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
turned
 

throat

 

staring

 

feeling

 

breath

 
shriek
 
blacker
 

Merriwell

 
gasping
 

thought


uttering

 

overcome

 
tighter
 

forget

 
flowers
 

fearful

 
flashed
 
jungles
 

places

 

falling


abandoned

 

marshy

 

longed

 

staggering

 

Bowsprit

 

scrambling

 

pursue

 

leaping

 

plunging

 

agitated


Scarcely

 
tongue
 

declared

 

Leslie

 

enabled

 
gettin
 

serpent

 
horrors
 

encircled

 
strangled

Through
 

fiendish

 
horrible
 
picture
 

shrieking

 

sockets

 
drawing
 

growing

 
hanging
 

starting