Red Belt, the Tuscarora — page 77: what you’re looking at

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

i. 3 THE BATTLE-ORY. 79 _ bebind him to remain quiet, he slung his rifle into the hollow s of his arm, and stooping down crept cautiously onward, bend- ing his steps as he went toward the thick underbrush away from the bank. At the old man’s heels trod the faithful dog. Then he was out of sight. Several moments passed—then a half-hour. Still the young men stood there, and awaited in silence for future developments, Suddenly a rifle rung sharp and clear above the silence, and almost in immediate response came another report; but the latter was dull and heavy compared to the former. Then a wild battle-cry echoed over the woods. Red Belt and Roydon Howe knew that cry, and without hesitating a moment, they sprung forward at a run. , ~ CHAPTER XY. : . THE WILD HAWK’S PARTING ORY. We will follow the hunter. The old man had seen the marks of a trail on the shore; the tracks were made by an Indian’s moccasin, and they led up the river in the direction which he and his party were | going. This was the most serious of all feared trouble, for the old hunter’s canoe was concealed just ahead. Should that be discovered, nothing short of a miracle could save them. = Old Sampson Lowe trod cautiously along until he had en- | tered the edge of the forest—all the time quickly, but closely following the trail which was so plainly imbedded in the loamy clay of the river-bank. He paused, as at last he stood in the dense forest itself, and peered cautiously around him, for now the trail was lost, Then all at once the bushes just ahead of him were shaken violently, and in the twinkling of an eye, a rifle-barrel glowed dimly in the uncertain light. A brief second, and a bright flash spitted out in the gloom, = and a ringing report echoed and reéchoed in the woods, = _ But the vengeful bullet had sped over the old hunter, and - Ecomichooks.com “ae