The Prairie Detective: Secret Service Series No. 24 — page 128: what you’re looking at

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

126 THE PRAIRIE DETECTIVE. fered intensely from the thongs which bound them. The slender strips of hide cut into their flesh cruelly, -and every moment caused their wrists and ankles to swell more and more, so that the pain grew in- tense to a fearful extent. But I shall not attempt to describe the horrors of that day—they may be imagined, but not put upon paper. It is impossible to conjure up language fitting to the occasion. It was long after noon when Vixen trotted in be- tween the two. She stood for a moment, looking at one and then the other in a knowing way, and after satisfying herself of the condition of affairs, she sat down and gazed calmly at her master. ‘‘She’s a-laffin’ at me, I b’leve,” reflected Ryan. ‘‘Consarn her! why didn’t she come hyar in time to post us, so’s we’d hev got away from the devils?’ But his thoughts did not trouble Vixen. After gazing fixedly at him for an hour or more, she trotted to his feet and curled herself up to sleep ; : and there she lay all the atternoon, not Be or showing any signs of life. At length, after what seemed an Ht bTe space of weariness, darkness fell. The two friends had been tied to their posts for fourteen hours! How much longer must they wait for deliverance, either at the hands of friends, or by death? It was awful to think of another day like the past one. Heavens! ‘The future was unendurable. Wrapped in somber thoughts—with the manhood almost crushed out of them by the terrible weight of suffering—they stood, or rather hung there in the night, waiting, waiting, waiting. Without warning, as suddenly as a thunderbolt from out the skies, they heard the snapping of twigs! co * comicbooks , ell wt ——_ ee (a ° ‘See 4