The ship was reached, and when the next morning came the news of the daring rescue of the prisoners became known, but no one placed the daring deed where it belonged, and that the call of the captured men was a close one was proven by the deliberate and cruel execution, as the murder was called, of scores of gallant men who had volunteered to aid the patriot cause of Cuba, and were doomed to death by the butcher, Buriel.
Soon after the Frolic steamed away from the shores of the ever faithful isle, and no one ever dreamed the real truth of that midnight rescue of Americans led by Mark Merrill.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
CONCLUSION.
After her West Indian cruise the Frolic dropped anchor in New York harbor, and, to his surprise, Mark Merrill found a leave of absence granted him from active duty.
A letter from his mother partly explained the situation. She had begged the leniency of a leave for him.
Upon his arrival in B—— his mother met him, and upon the drive home he learned the story, which I will now let the reader know.
Mark’s father had been a wild, but not wicked, lad, and his mother had married a second time.
The stepfather, Vance Vanloo, had treated the youth so cruelly, wishing to get rid of him so that his own son could get possession of his wife’s valuable estates, that the lad had run away to sea.
He had the proper spirit in him, and had worked his way up from the forecastle to the command of a fine vessel, when he had fallen in love with a young girl who was crossing the ocean with her invalid father.