Rocky Mountain Sam — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

12 ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAM. another in his turn, as he, too, was whirled from his foot- hold, and soit continued until there was a string of seven of them, with the last one just scraping the ground with his toes, and all of them clinging to each other like grim death. ‘‘Heave it out! heave out the sand, or they'll have us at their mercy!” cried the aeronaut. Under the excitement of the moment, Sam seized a huge sack weighing about two hundred pounds, and heaved it overboard as easily as a boy’s foot-ball. It landed on the top of Rube Tenyck’s head, flattening him out, for the time being, like a pancake; and ai the same time the balloon shot aloft like a meteor. ‘The chain of Indians below, as they were carried aloft with incredible rapidity, sang out to each other like mon- keys in a show, but still hung on with surprising tenacity; while their companions below set upa loud lament and wrung their hands in impotent rage and bewilderment. “By hooky, professor!” said Sam, looking over the car when it had attained a height of several thousand feet; “they re still danglin’ on to one another like sassages on a string. No! there goes one of them!” he added, as the low- ermost savage lossened his grip and plunged head downward with an unearthly shriek. ““Yes, and the others will have to follow suit pretty soon,” observed the aeronaut, who was also looking over the side with philosophical composure. ‘‘There! I told you so!” Another yell, and another body falling down. Lhey watched the falling bodies, one by one, until they - became tiny specks and finally struck the earth. ‘‘They’re goin’ fast,” said Sam, as still another savage lost his hold and went rushing down. There were now only four left, and Sam observed ‘‘that that string of sassages” was growing beautifully less, as one after one they released their hold and fell, until only one remained. At last, as the fastening of the grapnel gave way, he, too, fell, turning over and over like a cannon ball, and finaily disappeared in the tree tops of a stunted grove about a mile away, where the body was afterward found by his former comrades—crushed, mashed, broken and bruised out of all semblance of even aboriginal humanity—a hideous pulp hanging in and dripping through the trees; a terrible exam- cS comicboo (E(0) at