Beadle's Dime Novels No. 38: The Wrong Man — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

12 THE WRONG MAN. and you'll hear of a great shot pretty soon. As I observed, I was walking behind the old man, and his coat-tails were lapping in the wind like a sail, when, by Jerusalem! what do you suppose did happen ?” demanded the peddler, now thoroughly excited at the remembrance of some occurrence. “ How many times are you going to ask me that question »” said the hunter, impatiently ; “ I dont know nothin’ about you nor don’t want to.” F “Waal sir, what did happen was this: I was holding my head down, when something struck me on the back. I heard & mighty rushing sound, and the next minute I was sailing through the air.” “ Sailing through the air!” repeated the hunter, betraying his curiosity, ‘“ What the devil do you mean?” “ Why, sir, nothing more nor less than that an eagle had carried me away, and was sailing afar off through the azure depths of the illimitable firmament. Yes, sir, an eagle had carried me off !” “T spose he brought you back, or you wouldn’t be here.” “No he didn’t. He was sailing through the limbs of a big tree, when he struck his head against a limb, and knocked his brains out. Yes, sir.” “What happened then? I s’pose you fell too.” . “ No, my clothes catched on a limb and held me there, and I yelled like murder for dad to come and help me down. Bime-by I heard him call out,‘ Sonny are you fast ? ‘ Yes,’ says I. .‘ Can’t you untie yourself,and come down? I tried hard to. do it, but couldn’t and told him so. All this time it snowed so hard that I couldn’t see a foot. ‘Hold on, sonny, he called out, ‘and I will try and climb up and help you down.’ So he tried and tried to climb, and after an hour or 80 got up about three feet, when he happened to think of what I had said some time before about the snow, and com- menced laughing and slid back agin. So he give thaé up, and called out for me to keep up (no need of telling me to do that, ‘cause I couldn't help it,) and he would try to shoot me loose. Of course he couldn’t see me, and had to guess at the aim, but he took aim and fired, and what do you s'pose he did ?” _ “He didn’t hit me, but he struck the band by which I was conmicloooks.con ~