Beadle's Dime Novels No. 87: On the Deep — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

54 ON THE DEEP. ment, she heard the voice of the mate outside of the cen- vas screen which had been fitted over the entrance of the hut. “ Will you be so good, my dear lass, as to participate with the rude fare that I've previded? <A little mastication of this combustible material will do you good!” So saying, he pushed into the apartment a small pan, con- taining some roasted salt beef, a few pieces of cocoanut, and four sea-biscuits. A tin cup, filled with smoking hot coffee, was next introduced, and the mate then withdrew. By this time the shadows of night had begun to mingle with the fog, and the sailors were gathered near a small fire, eating their supper and talking over their late adventures. Capstan was fast asleep in the large hut, having finished his meal before his crew begun theirs. He had left orders with Block to sta- tion a guard of two men near the huts, to give warning in case of the appearance of savages, and the mate had chosen Professor Quill and Tom Rocket to stand the first watch. Accordingly, after their shipmates had retired, the two lookouts took their places upon a small hillock, just beyond the lower edge of the valley. At the expiration of two hours they were relieved, but, at four o’clock, A.M., it was again their turn to watch. The day was beginning to break when the distant noise of a chorus of wild voices was borne to their ears. The fog hay- ing by this time cleared, they run to the headland and looked around them. There was soon light enough to enable them to make a discovery which the darkness had hitherto pre- vented. Looming up on their right, they saw a large island, green with groves of cocoanut and bread-fruit trees and minia- ture forests of banana plants. Ridges of high land rose above the tops of the trees, crowned with luxuriant verdure and partially vailed by their clouds of floating mist. Far below lay the long, winding beach, curving round a number of little bays and covered with sand as white as the foam by which it was washed. On one side, the beach sloped down to a small strait, about a quarter of a mile in width, and which separated the small island occupied by the party from the larger one upon which the two men now gazed. seid compared with its neighbor, was a perfect paradise. “My eyes! who would have thought exclaimed Tom connmicloooks.comn