Rocky Mountain Sam — page 98: what you’re looking at

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

i Fh pete ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAM. 89 were setting right down among the horsemen, who num- bered about thirty-five men, led by Lieutenant Dutton and the redoubtable Big Horn. 3 | Before the balloon was fairly anchored, Sam leaped from the car at the imminent risk of breaking his neck, to grasp thelatter by the hand, while the rest of the hunters crowded around with smiling faces and words of welcome, for Khocky Mountain Sam was a universal favorite. “What, old fellow, isit really you?” he cried, shaking the brawny hand again and again, ‘‘I can scarcely believe it after what I’ve passed through.” 7 Big Horn was less demonstrative in his manner, but was equally well pleased at the reunion, as was evident by the snapping of his eyes and the flushing of his rugged face. He drew Sam to one side, and there, surrounded by a knot of eager listeners, the latter began to spin his yarn of mid- air adventure, which, ungarnished as it was, it was plain to see, however, that many of them accepted with unusual grains of allowance. : ‘I'he professor was at the same time performing a like duty in satisfying the curiosity of Lieutenant Dutton and others, which, of course, he was enabled to doin choicer though scarcely more graphic language than his friend, while little Fayaway rescued herself from oblivion by cooking fresh bear meat as fast as she could and handing it out to whomsoever chanced to be hungry. : The haggard and generally unkempt appearance of the young lieutenant spoke eloquently of the anxiety and sus- pense which had preyed upon him so long, and he was especially excited by the description of the fight of the pre- ceding day, when the balloonists had so nearly succeeded in - rescuing Mollie from her cruel captors. “How fortunate you have been to have but looked upon her gentle face—to have fought and bled so dearly in her behalf,” said Lieutenant Dutton, when the old man had concluded; ‘‘while we, with the exception of a trifling skirmish on the lower side of the lake there, have hardly - smelt gunpowder.” ‘The colonel did not accompany you I perceive.” ‘“No, we prevailed upon him to remain atthe ranch, where, I trust and believe, adetaclhment of troops must have arrived ere this for the protection of his property. We have made rather poor progress, on account of the broken nature cS (ele) GComichboo m