The Yankee Champion — page 164: what you’re looking at

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

THE YANKEE CHAMPION, 157 this place alive. Now we must lay a plan to destroy him.’’ ‘Head, we’ll shoot him.’’ “Yes, but where?’’ ‘‘Right here—when he comes back.”’ | “No, Dow,’’ returned Silas, with a shudder. “I want no more blood spilled in this house. Every drop spilt here will come upon our own heads. We must dispatch him out of doors.’’ | ‘‘He seems like a sharp one,’’ suggested Dow. ‘‘And so he is,”’ said Ryan. ‘“‘If we would shoot him easily, we must be careful how we operate. You saw how stubbornly he persisted in holding a loaded pistol in his hand. Now, my plan isthis. I will go out doors and hide myself behind the corner of the shed, and when he comes down he will natu- rally inquire where I have gone. You must tell him we have a boat down the river, and that I have gone down after some things we left in it. Then tell him that since he has been gone there was a girl came to the door and went away again around the shed. Be sure and tell him she hasn’t been gone more than two minutes, and of course he’ll start at once after her. Then as soon as he comes around the corner I’ll clap a pistol to his head and fire—and he isa dead man. Now, do you expect you can do that without a blunder?’’ ‘‘Of course I can,’’ returned Dow, who seemed to be highly pleased at the idea of not having any shooting to do. Silas Ryan examined the priming of his pistol by feeling of it with his finger, and having assured himself that the pan was full, he shut the steel down, and turned from the room. Once he stopped, but in a moment he went on again, and could one have cs co comicboo