The Prairie Detective: Secret Service Series No. 24 — page 130: what you’re looking at

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

X 128 THE PRAIRIE DETECTIVE. tle inclosure, between her captive friends, fairly weeping with joy. ———— CHAPTER XIV. GETTING TO WORK. Esther did not waste a particle of time in setting her friends free. She found a knife in Ryan’s belt, and with its keen edge she instantly severed the ~ bonds which held them. , Their timely release had as great a pleasing effect upon them as their long captivity had exerted in the direction of depression. As soon as the cords were removed from Ryan’s limbs he gave a loud cheer, and began to do a double shuffle in defiance of the fact that his joints were almost as stiff as crowbars. The influence of the deliverance was fully as ex- hilarating to Sycamore Dan, but he was more sub- dued in his expressions of delight. Both men stopped only to thank Esther as briefly as possible for her opportune arrival, and then rushed headlong to the creek, where they laved their parched and swollen lips in the cooling water. Havy- ing partaken sufficiently of the liquid—sweeter than nectar to them—they bathed the parts which had been bound, and then went back to camp. Ryan sat down upon the ground and fell into: con- versation with Esther, while Dan gathered fagots for a fire. “Look a-hyar!” ejaculated the scout, as his part- ner was about to apply a match to the heap of twigs. ‘What in thunder are ye a-doin’?”’ “Why, I’m lighting a fire so as to broil this bacon I have in my pocket,’’ responded Dan. cComicbooks (elo)