Beadle's Dime Novels No. 310: Foghorn Phil — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

20 FOGHORN PHIL, plished niece of the commandant of Fort Union, he had met what threatened to be his fate, for either good or ii. He had first met Miss Afton at the fort, where both had been spending the summer, Pauline visiting with her uncle’s family. A mutual friendship had at first sprung up between them; this wag cultivated daily in each other’s society, and finally ripened into love. Aylesworth laid bare the emotions of his beart to her, and found that they were fully recipro- cated by the lovely Pauline; and,so they became engaged. - The young colonel had no interest in the fur business with the Big Horn party, but had accompanied them from a pure love of adventure. He was a capital shot and a fine horse- man, and on the buffalo chase few could excel him. The other young man, Frank Bassett by name, was a friend of the colonel’s. He bad come West to spend the summer and recuperate his health in the cool mountain air; but now the summer had passed, and still Frank Bassett remained in the West to the neglect of his business at home. . None but the colonel knew why he did so—that a woman was at the bottom of it all. The flat-boat was loaded with furs and buffalo-skins pur- chased from the Indians far up the river, and as it approached the mouth of the Milk river, the traders began to observe greater caution than usual, for the vicinity was at this time infested by hostile Indians. Besides, they:were afraid the Milk River Traders had got wind of their approach, and might endeavor to plunder them of their cargo. To guard against such a surprise, a scout had been placed on each shore and sent on inadvance of the boat to feel the way with cau- tion ; and so this relieved the crew of all fears of an ambush and they were enabled to pass the time “spinning yarns,”, playing eucher and having a “jolly” time in general, © As the day wore away, however, Captain Rhymm became thoughtful and silent in his demeanor, and betrayed a reti- cence quite at variance with his usual demeanor. This final- ly cast a spell of silence over his companions, and in little groups they gathered here and there and conversed in low tones on the probable cause of the captain’s evident dejec- tion. Colonel Aylesworth approached the captain, and throwing himself on a pile of furs before him, remarked : connicloooks.com