Beadle's Dime Novels No. 38: The Wrong Man — page 54: what you’re looking at

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

56 THE WRONG MAN. east ; but the tall black trees threw t»0 deep a gloom over the road to allow of their recognizing, scarcely of their distin- guishing each other. The wagoner drew up his horse, cleared his voice, and seemed disposed to enter into conversation. But the old man-dashed by him without an instant’s pause, unmindful of the “I say, neighbor !—hem !—friend, hello !” with which the other saluted him. “Well, now, I guess that’s going it,” said the nasal voice of Nathan Dodge, as he cheruped to his Rosinante, and re- sumed his descent toward the village. “I wonder who it can be, and where he’s streaking it off to at that mad rate. Well, he didn’t show much bringing up, any how. . He might have stopped long enough to give a body the time of day: it wouldn’t a-cost nothing.” And so saying, Nathan resumed the mellifluous tune of Old Hundred, which he had* been piously “ whistling as he went;” not exactly, like Dryden’s swain, “for want of thought,’ but as one mode of letting off his inexhaustible flow of animal spirits. The circumstance of meeting a traveler in the ridge road at that time in the evening» was unusual, and had also proved a greater hinderance to the ravisher than to his pursuer. The restive animal which the hunter bestrode had previously shown symptoms of impatience at being obliged to carry two riders instead of one, of which fact he was probably made aware more by the strugglings of Lucy than her weight. The fretting and curveting of his horse had delayed Overton’s pro- gress to a degree that excited his irritable temper; and when, soon afterward, the noise of Nathan Dodge's wagon was heard approaching, his vexation found vent in ‘a deep-muttered curse. ; Fearful of continuing along the road, however, lest his person should be recognized, and his plans defeated, he struck into the wood, and making a long circuit round the side of the bluff, did not ascend into the path again until the wagon had passed so far that the sound of its wheels was no longer audible. . But a more serious cause of alarm now reached his ears. The delay occasioned by these different interruptiuns had enabled Sedley to gain upon the hunter; and he had now a comiclooolks.comn _— = ~~ —— ae