The Prairie Detective: Secret Service Series No. 24 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

THE PRAIRIE DETECTIVE. 11 The quill has refused its work. Well and good. There are beauties which no pen can portray, no tongue describe. And with this vague hint at the surpassing loveliness of ‘‘Doc’’ Harper’s daughters, I must retire from the unequal contest, and leave the poet’s domain for the broad fields of the historian. As her father ceased speaking, Esther’s brows contracted, and out of her eyes darted a flash which told the passion of her nature—a fire that burned deep and strong, either to cheer with warmth or con- sume with its fierce flames. ‘Like him?’’ she exclaimed, her handsome lip curling with scorn; “‘like him? I would as soon have liked a rattlesnake. ”’ ‘But why this great aversion? Surely he was good looking enough.’’ “Yes, he was a handsome fellow, ordinarily; but did you never see him without his hat?’’ “Not that I remember. What was the peculiarity exhibited then?’’ ‘‘A livid scar upon his forehead; a sinister glance in his eyes. When the light, unobstructed, falls upon his face, it loses its only charms. You have seen him thus, have you not, Marian?’’ continued Esther, turning to her sister. “Ves, often.’’ ‘And one night when he was here I perceived some object, as I thought, protruding from the upper part of his boot-leg. You remember his elegant. cavalry boots?’’ “Distinctly, but what was this object?”’ “That is what I asked him. He laughed in that uneasy way of his, passed his hand down, caught hold of the article firmly, and drew it forth. It was— a bowie-knife, and the largest one lever saw. The e Eomicbooks (ele)