Beadle's Dime Novels No. 215: The White Hermit — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

Be THE WHITE HERMIT. to him, the young man obeyed, and disappeared from he view of the savages in the calm, blue water. At the same moment Hungry Bill whirled the head of the canoe the other way, and waited anxiously. A moment passed and the young man did not appear. Had he sunk forever in the deep water, never to rise until the deep gave up its dead? Another half minute, and with a shout of joy, the guide saw the dark hair of the captain rise from the water, far in front. He had put into practice an old schoolboy trick of swimmingwander water, in which he had always excelled, and put a good dis- tance between the shore and himself. The moment his head appeared the canoe was put in motion, shooting through the water, not in a direct line, but with a zigzag and erratic course, calculated to disconcert the aim of the savages. But, as good luck would have it, they left their firearms on the bank, tak- ing only their knives and .hatchets into the water. Two or three who had rifles commenced firing at the white-headed _ guide, but with poor success, for at each shot a wild laugh ame back over the water. - With a magnanimity worthy of a man of higher rank, the RS guide kept his canoe in a Jine with the head of the captain, _ who was swimming rapidly outward, and thus shielded him ¥ _ from the shots of the enemy. _“ Ha, yip !” he screamed, as a rifle. ball cut the air close to his face, almost razing the skin. “ That made my face burn. The rascal meant it for me, I do declare! Never mind; a miss is as good as a mile. Swim on, capt’in; the more dis- tance we put between us and the shore afore I take you in, | i , the better for us.” Hungry Bill, standing upright in the stern of the canoe, the long paddle gripped in his nervous hands, and his white heir - floating back in the afternoon wind, roused the anger df the Indians even more than the escape of the captain. As seon as they could reach their weapons,a volley came skipping over the water toward the tall figure of the guide. Most of them flew wide and some fell short, but a rattling sound was - heard, and the long clay pipe which was stuck in the mouth of the guide fel] broken to the ground, and for the first time, he stopped, and roared back a defiance at the enemy, while _ the captain climbed in over the bow of the canoe, somighooks. com , ba 7 a +. > > a = = *- on — a - , a i » _ ———ae a’