In Search of an Unknown Race — page 31: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

VAN. 22 CHAPTER IIL. VANS FLIGHT FROM THE RATTLER, Now Van’s athletic training had made him a proficient in those exercises where thought, eye, and hand must move ait one and the same time. There was no opportunity for hesitation or deliberating on the right and wrong of his action. As the new master of the Rattler leveled Captain Peterson’s revolver at the negro’s head, Van, wheeling like lightning, drew the weapon given him by Tom, threw it forward and pulled the trigger. The two reports were almost simultaneous, but with very different effect. The ball from the revolver in Bates’s hand flew wide of its mark, and the weapon itself dropped to the deck. The ball from the clumsy bulldog had passed through the fleshy part of the mutineer’s arm and diverted his aim. Uttering asuppressed cry, hestepped back, a little too far. His heel caught against a ring bolt, and he fell heavily from the break of the quarter to the main deck. Before he recovered his feet, or those on deck could overcome their utter astonishment, the quick-witted negro saw a possible chance of escape. Striding over Gomicbook