Beadle's Dime Novels No. 35: East and West — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

52 THE BEAUTY OF WILLARD’S MILL. creature. “Come, go over there now, like a sensible horse as you are !” But Comanche would not be either coaxed or threatened into compliance ; and Frank got off, to see if the horse would follow him over, which he did, at last, very reluctantly. Frank was about returning, when the cry, “ Look out there ! —the bridge is going!” stayed his feet on the very threshold. Here was a calamity to begin with. So insidious had been the working of the water under the surface of the ground, that the timbers on which the bridge rested, themselves rested on a mere crust at either end. Timbers and planks went down once, then rose with a whirl, and floated off toward the dam, already in too much danger. “Hurrah, there, boys, with the pikes!” was now the cry; and every man seized something with which to stave off the blow of the heavy timbers against the flood-gate above the dam. “Into the water there, some of you, and get hold of ’em !” It was a perilous undertaking, as the planks, floating loosely, rose and fell with the hurry of the flood. The men hesitated. Mr. Willard, seeing their doubts, hastily threw off coat and boots and plunged in among the maelstrom before them. Frank, who had seen at a glance the work to be dohe, and had fled to the mill for the log-chains, put one over his shoulders, and rushed to the assistance of his father. “ Keep the planks off us !” shouted Mr. Willard; and the two worked desperately together, getting the chain fastened around one of the timbers, in order to draw it out of the water. This done without accident, they gave the chain to one of the men to haul it up the creek a little ways, and on to the bank, to be made fast there, while they endeavored to secure the other in like manner. But the work was a terribly ardu- ous struggle, which was fast eMMausting the strength of the older Willard, as it was trying that of the younger. At this moment: “ Will no one help my father ?” cried Minnie, in a voice of unnatural energy. “See! he can do nothing more.” And in truth he was sinking. “ Nat! give me your pike, and save my father !” / s com/{clbooks.com