The Yankee Champion — page 53: what you’re looking at

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

46 _ ‘.YHE YANKEE CHAMPION. The agony was but for a moment, for the young man started toa sense of the duty that devolved upon him. He raised his musket carefully, and si- lently cocked it, and took a deliberate aim. Its re- port rang out upon the breeze, and a sharp, piercing shriek echoed it. Quicker than thought Walter dropped the smoking gun and sprang forward. The girl had started up and stood trembling like an as- ‘pen, and an ashy pallor had overspread her fir features. She had dropped her half-woven wreath, and it lay upon the mangled form of the writhing snake. In a moment our hero saw that the maiden had not been harmed, and clasping his hands to- gether, he fervently uttered: “Thank God! You are safe!’’ And as he spoke, his almost powerless hand fell upon the maiden’s shoulder. ‘Safe?’ she tromblinely murmured, starting, and shrinking away from the touch of the intruder. “Yes, yes, safe! I have shot him. See where his ~ mangled body lays. Oh, great God! in another mo- ment he would have fastened his poisonous, deadly fangs into your flesh. ”’ The girl uttered a low cry and sank down upon the mossy shelf of the rock. “What is it, sir?’’ she asked, in a half hushed, fearful whisper. ‘‘Who would have harmed poor Helen Ryan?”’ Walter was startled with a new intelligence. He saw now the likeness between the beautiful creature before him and his boy-friend, and he at once com- prehended the meaning of some strange words that the boy had dropped. ‘‘Look here, at my feet, fair maiden,’’ returned Walter, as he pointed to where the snake lay. ‘‘That Eomicboo 7 . er a : si a Ok AA haa