Paddling under Palmettos — page 80: what you’re looking at

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

Paddling Under Palmettos. 73 bow, paying out that cable and fastening it to the mainmast. Still his progress was unchecked—the anchors would not take hold. He could see the palm trees apparently gliding past. It was raining now, and Archie thought the deuce was to pay. Ah! what was that? His keel grated on the sand. This was a chance to draw ashore—no tell- ing what might happen if he passed beyond the point near which he now found himself. Without another thought than of saving his boat as well as himself, he immediately sprang overboard. The water was only to his knees, but already the waves were sweeping along in rapid succession, and each one arose nearly to his hips. Through the darkness and rain he dragged his ca- noe in to shore. Here fortune favored him, for he found a tree that had fallen into the water, and behind this he moored his boat. _ Then he crept in to put on his vest, and begun to shiver in the chilly blast, wet with spray as he found himself. The tent was flapping so wildly from his tearing the fastenings loose, that he Gomichbooks (E(0)