Beadle's Dime Novels No. 87: On the Deep — page 41: what you’re looking at

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

A SUDDEN DISAPPEARANCE. 43 The cutter was soon more than a league distant, off the schooner’s quarter, and only one of the topsails of the launch was now Visible to the naked eye, apparenily about a mile whead of the pursuing vessel. Suddenly, the report of a gun was again heard, and the little speck of canvas immediately disappeared. The captain looked through his glass, but he saw no vestige of the boat. An expression of pain passed over his face; he whispered to his mate, and the latter breathed a heavy sigh. The schooner continued running along on the same course for ten minutes longer, when she braced her yards to starboard, and came round in chase of the cutter. By this time, however, the boat was partially shroud- ed by the fog; a few moments later, this became so dense that Capstan felt satisfied that he was screened from the view of his pursuers, He trimmed his sails anew; then veering, came up to the wind on the starboard tack, and stood away, with the water breaking over both gunwales. He continued upon this course until a sufficient time had elapsed for the schooner to pass to leeward of him, when he again put the cutter before the wind. “TY think we are in a fair way to give that rascal the slip now,” said he, “I should feel cheerful, almost ,happy, Block, if it were not for the sad fate of Loring and his crew. I am pretty sartain that the boat was stove by that last shot.” “ Ay, ay, and we may feel sartain that the schooner didn’t pick up our poor fellows that were left struggling in the water. There was only two of ’em that could swim, Loring and Tom Pool, the bow oarsman.” Grace started and sprung to her feet. “Who knows?” she exclaimed, eagerly. ‘“ Perhaps these two men are even now clinging to oars, or to a piece of the shattered boat. J implore you, Captain Capstan, to steer your boat, so that, if such is the cage, they may be picked up.” “Tt would be a hard matter, my dear girl,’ Capstan an- swered sadly, “to find the particular spot where the craft was Stove. But, Providence may reward our s’arch.” “ And if it does,’ cried the professor of languages, “ there Will be another important item for my journal! Dear me! he was a good scholar, and [ hope we may find him.” The captain arranged his sails so that he might keep off a comiclbooks.con