José — page 265: what you’re looking at

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

258 JOSE, CHAPTER XIX, THEIR JOURNEY’S END. On first discovering the Indians, McGregor had | well-founded reasons for hoping to escape them. He knew that for speed his horses were equal to those of the Indians, that the savages would only in vastly superior numbers venture to engage with a band of men familiar with the use of fire-arms, and furthermore, he felt confident that they would not trust themselves near the fort For some minutes their horses flew on at arate as to leave the Indians, just crossing the stream, far in their rear; but it soon became evident that Mary’s short-legged pony was not equal to the requirement of speed. Asif he were cognizant of the danger, the animal strained every effort to keep pace with the other horses, but nevertheless McGregor was soon compelled to check his own steed in order not to lose Mary from his side. Hesawa portion of the Indians steadily gaining ground on the other shore of the stream, without daring to entertain a thought of halting and making different arrangements. Soon he recog- nized a shallow point in the stream before him that was familiar, toward which the Indians were evi- dently aiming—observed that they readily effected a crossing and knew that that cut off his last hope of escape. His eye swept the surroundings. Turn- ing his head he indicated a perpendicular ridge to his followers, the majority of whom had already conceived the state of. affairs, and within ten min- utes a double and narrow semicircle had been formed Eomichooks co