Paddling under Palmettos — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

Paddling Under Palmettos. 65 CHAPTER VI. DRAGGING ANCHORS. The situation was plain enough. Even at that moment of excitement he could grasp it. Urged on by hunger and seeing no human being about the camp, the bear had been nosing around until his keen scent had carried him to one of the two canoes. Here he had clambered over the side and had been busily engaged trying to devour the edible con- “tents, when Archie’s shout had struck alarm to his cuilty heart. Like all other thieves he was a coward, and his first motion had been toward escape, a feat that he found some trouble in accomplishing, having neg- lected to mark the spot where he entered the tented boat, the flap serving as a door being down. Archie reached for his gun. He forgot that it held charges of No. 6 shot. The bear had by this time scrambled to the shore and offered a beautiful shot as he climbed the little bluff. - Both barrels were let fly, Bruin growled and GOmichboo CS) (E() m