Beadle's Dime Novels No. 138: Tim, the Scout — page 42: what you’re looking at

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

44 TIM, THE SCOUT. depended upon making « sure shot. Jn his after life; in the many dangers and vicissitudes of the campaign, Tim had no such miserable minutes to pass as those in the tree, with that fierce brute lving on his breast. Jt was a situation calculated to try the stoutest nerves. Ile had to keep. painfully quiet, lest he should do something to invite an attack on the part of the ferocious creature, which he did not care to do... For more than half an hour he lay there, and then the morning came. The movements of his arm were hidden by the body of the panther, which was one of gigantic growth. He passed one of the pistols under the limb on which We lay, so that be held one in each hand, The click of the triggers, as he cocked the pieces, caused an angry movement on the part 6f the panther.- He began to growl again, and approached his fierce head within afew inches of the face of Tim, showing his glittering teeth., The life of the man depended on the pis- tols, If they missed fire all hope was gone. But he had faith in the weapons. He had tried them often; and they never had failed -him, He Jay quiet, after cocking them, wailing for the animal to become at ease, which it did afler'a while, and the green eyes closed under the steady gaze of the man. Cooper says that “there is something in the front of the image. of his Creator, which daunts the hearts of the inferior beings of creation; and some such power, in the present in- stance, suspended the threatened blow.” The great novelist understood whereof he wrote. His education was of tlie for- est and plain, and, he read nature as a printed book. | Tle panther closed his eyes. sleepily before thefixed gaze of the man. , That was-the time waited for by Tim. He had placed the muzzle of one pistol against the left shoulder of the brute, just behind the shoulder blade, and the other at his ear. Just as the panther opened his eyes again both pistols exploded. By the wonderful muscular power with which thé aninnil is singularly gifted, the body of the panther rose six feet into the air, with the lightness of a bird springing from the bough. At the same moment Tim slipped the buckle, and swung hin- self under the limb, just as the body of his foe came crashing down through the limbs, snapping them like matches: Tim commiclooks.con