Beadle's Dime Novels No. 214: The Forest Monster — page 37: what you’re looking at

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

A VALUABLE DISCOVERY. 89 ’ | : » -@o 7 OHAPTER V. IN, THE. CANON. oe we have intimated in another place, old Stebbins and Black Tom were veteran trappers who had been in the “pro- fession ” a’goodly ‘number of years. Both men had families in Independence, Missouri; and, as the incidents we are giving “are supposed to have occurred. fully’ a score of years ago, it will be seen that ‘they were ‘engaged in a most dangerous “business. - But they hadligidwn: so accustomed t6 its i hurdalltpe and perils, thatwlen ‘they lef. home ‘in each autumn, they felt scarcely different from the travéling-agent, who starts upon “his tour of several weeks. Both were'strongly attached to - their wives and children, and ‘were freé from the rough, care- “less habits of dissipation that so often distinguish such men. In the spring preceding the opening of our story, the two trappers and Teddy O'Doherty were returning “homeward with a plentiful supply of peltries, having three horses, be- sides those they’ rode, laden down with them, and they Were in the highest spirits at the suecess of their’ winter's Work. “Reaching a point’ a short’ Gistance from where we saw them “encamped, they halted for the night. i Nothing unusual occurred during the night; but tn the “morning, when old Stebbins went to a small’ rivulet near’by to drink, he discovered a& number of shining particles” in the sand, which he instantly” recognized as gold. * He insti- tuted an examination, and found that in several places it was quite abendant, showing that it would amply repzy working. He returned to the camp witli the infortiation, when Black ©Tom ame in‘ with ¢onfirmatory’ evidence. Near the spot where his comrade had leaned down. to’drink, he liad acci- dentally Joosened ‘a large; flat stone, which he ‘overturnéd and ‘found atiy quantity of the auriferotts particles. ~ Putting this “and that together, the trio. ‘eame to the conclusion that they had accidewtally struck a “gold mine,” aid that with cate and ‘industry they could easily make their fortune, | commicloooks.corn