Beadle's Dime Novels No. 310: Foghorn Phil — page 30: what you’re looking at

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

82 FOGHORN PHI. as well as possible, and made ready to place the captain i the canoe and carry him to the flatboat. " In the mean time, Foghorn Phil had turned aside and w examining the thicket in which both the captain and the In dian must have been, and that, too, close to each other, at the time the shots were fired by the traders into the thicket Whether each one had been aware of the other’s presence i the bushes at that time, was a matter Foghorn could nob solve. From what he could ascertain, however, from obser vation, he was satisfied that not over five feet of var te fatervened between them at the time the ambush was fired into. It may have been possible, and to Phil seemed alto- gether probable, that the captain had entered the thicket first, and concealed himself there to watch the movements of the Indian, or to await the descent of the boat, and while thus engaged, the Indian crept into the thicket also, with the murderous intention of shooting one of the boat’s crew. - ! Of course, in his opinion there could be no doubt as to who fired the almost fatal shot; yet Phil seemed unwilling to trust altogether to his own judgment in the matter, and turning, he picked up Captain Rbymm’s rifle, examined the nipple, then drew out the ramrod and inserted it into the— barrel. A smile of satisfaction passed over his bronzed face, and withdrawing the rod, he returned it to its guards. Then — he proceeded to where the savage’s rifle lay, and taking it up, made a similar examination, Blessed fact !? he exclaimed, in a tone intended for Da- Busk’s. ears, though apparently to himself, “the empty rijle tells who fired the shot at Colonel Aylesworth 1”. Du Busk started up, and with a terrible expression upon his face, exclaimed: “Which rifle is empty, Foghorn ?—-though in course it's the Injin’s.” . Foghorn Phil made no response, but turning, he entered the thicket where, he was concealed from his companion’s view, and tien taking up his own rifle, fired it into the air. Then he remained in the bushes awhile, wailing for the smoke to clear out of the muzzle of the piece, A a strange smile swept over his fuce. “Tl test him now,’ he mused, with a merry twinkle in his commiclooks.conn