A Silver Brand — page 186: what you’re looking at

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

178. A SILVER BRAND. Nat no loger hesitated, but raised his rifle, took deliberate aim, and pulled the ‘trigger. His rage and chagrin were beyond bounds when the weapon” upon which he had al- ways prided himself missed fire. I think it would have cooled the fierce passions which seized him, even in that moment of intense excitement, to have known what he afterward discovered, that the rifle had been tampered - with, and the caps removed. As it was, with a hoarse cry of rage he tore on. The fugitive also had his mishap. He had turned his head to see if his pursuer had leaped the rock, and thus tearing forward his foot tripped or caught in some sprawling brier, and he fell to the ground. He was up in an instant, but the desk had tumbled from his shoulder, and picking that up and replacing it, wasted the time, whose seconds were every one of consequence. He seemed aware that Nat was gaining on him, and adopted another stratagem. He turned sharply, rushed up the high, craggy point, and prepared to leap from it, _ thus gaining the clear beach, where probably some refuge awaited him. But Nat was alert, and stimulated by the change of fortune. He also had his foot on the crag when the leap was taken, and came down upon the prostrate figure before the other had extricated himself and gained his feet. | Nat’s gun had fallen, and the writing-desk lay tumbled in the sand. Heeding neither the two men grappled, and rolled to and fro on the ground, panting, struggling, writh- ing, and twisting. It was an even match, for what Nat gained in dexterity and suppleness the other made up with his more powerful muscle and brute strength. But presently the unknown man, who had preserved an obsti- nate silencee had his knee upon Nat’s chest, and holding it there with all his strength, he managed to extricate one hand and thrust it into his pocket. : Nat knew full well that the movement meant the dead- liest issue. In one thrilling instant there flashed before him the full consciousness of all the interests, the moment- ous secrets that would perish with his life. The review was maddening. He seemed endowed with new strength by the passion which filled him. "With one sudden Herculean effort he threw off the knee that pinned him down, writhed desperately around, and clutched with furious hands at the throat of his antagonist. The long, cruel blade had already sprung from its sheath, but was broken short off by the change of posi. Eomicbooks: co