Beadle's Dime Novels No. 300: The Crested Serpent — page 53: what you’re looking at

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

A KNOCK AT THE DOOR. 7 } e i “entered my body; but it will not kill Arnaud Bouséatar s Btrip off this false coat that should have saved my body.” _ . The coat was taken off, and the wound looked for. Only re a round, dark bruise immediately over the heart was visible on the pody—no other wound. Steager aimed at one of % the shining plates. The bullet struck it fair, and Arnaud. 4 - Boussard still lived. But on the ground, in the cold sleep of og death, were two Austrians, their pale faces upturned” to the a “White fog that floated above them as a funeral shrow Throwing out skirmishers, they awaited the pas , f the fog, while Boussard was fast recovering frum. the Shock his body had received—an ounce bullet driven from a : ‘Mille, at short range. Son the sun lifted the fog, and objects in the distance _ became detined in ghostly characters, and Vega motte, which | Tested on a swell of ground, showed itself within short pis- Net e ‘ol range. The skirmishers, on foot, slowly advanced, and took position on the margin of the motte, and there they » Temained until the eye could see everything under cover of. ty the wees. Fires smoldered in the center of the timber, but s ho enemy could be seen, when Boussard, fully recovered, at i the head of his men rode to the lake where Uie Liberals had Mf Steamped. _. Leaving twenty-five men to hold Vega, he pushed on with ~ ‘he remainder of his force to hacienda Santa Luzia, Dis- - | - Mounting, he strode inside the hedge inclosure and advanced a ‘tO the house, and with his gauutleted hand knocked upon the et Closed" ‘door, No answer came to his summons, only a. MO. << a cho, Knocking - louder, a Mexican woman fr nn Ny thade her appearancé. | pa aes: “Who lives here ?” said Boussard. ria Oe 2 _“ Senor Jose ‘Vallejo did live here; but he is dead.” VS eee ber’ is his beautiful daughter ?” oe * Gone.” “Where ?” 3 oe S “No one knows. After the death of her father she dis- _;, Peared from the hacienda, and from that day until now we : “4 uot see her,” a Bi ts the enemy near the hacienda ?” Be CORNICEDOO<S CON