The Land Claim — page 101: what you’re looking at

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

SUCCESSFUL STRATAGEM. 97 break another arm, yet. Curse that dog of a Squire—I wil! - kill him as soon as this one is well—I will, sure !” “Do you hear that ?” whispered Flag, hOarsely. “ Boys, that’s the man I told you about. [ll risk my life to take him whether you help me or not—but I hope you will help me. There’s three of them, and four of us. They have arms, and we haye not; but we may be able to take them all, if we can frighten them first. I'll be captain, and you keep still till I give my orders. Hark ” There was one of the gang trying to undo the latch, which being a wooden one, and swollen with the rain, did not read- ily yield to his touch. : A low, hollow, sepulchral groan came from within, which had the effect to arrest the man’s hand. In the pause the groan was repeated, more heart-breaking, blood-chilling and horrible than before. ‘The man hesitated, and on the repeti- tion of the sounds hastily retreated. There was a parley out- side between the wounded man and his cowardly confederate, in which the former used more blasphemy than argument. At length Flag heard one of the men say : “ Waal, Joe, ef you ain’t afeard, go in there by yourself ; that’s all I got ter say !” Joe, however, was not so forward in making an entrance as he desired his men to be; and insisted on the second of his confederates procuring the Jantern before he advanced any further. Something followed in a whisper which Flag could not hear; and then some one made a successful attempt to open the door in spite of Flag’s most appalling groans, and the surveyors heard a pistol discharged several times over their - heads. But as the pistol-shots did not silence the ghostly noises, the man proved no more venturesome than his pre decessor, and retired without entering the hut. “Lie low.” whispered Flag, when he was gone ; “ don’t ex- pose yourselves to be shot. * ‘The next one that comes will be the man I want.” — He was right in his conjecture. Cursing his associates for cowards, Joe Carnes advanced to the open door, pausing an instant to listen for the noises which had so frightened his comrades; but not hearing them repeated, he cautiously stepped inside, when he felt himself suddenly hooded and comicloooks.corn *