Beadle's Dime Novels, No. 91: The Lost Cache — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

16 : THE LOST CACHE. persons and families who accompanied it did so for the pure pose of securing company and protection. | Among these was a family named Brainard, consisting of a father and two children. Morris Brainard had passed the middle age, but was a healthy, hearty man, strong in mind and body. ~ He had commenced business in the far West as a land- surveyor, but had been a captive among the Indians during several years. After his escape, he applied himself to farm- ing, trading and land-speculations, and in the course of time amassed a competence. Having buried his wife’on the Pacific coast, and having, as he thought, sufficient wealth to satisfy the desires of a reasonable man, he was turning his steps toward the East, for the purpose of settling down where his children could enjoy the benefits of civilization, and of bringing his large tracts of Oregon lands into market. For this purpose, he had sold his personal property, and had turned his money into drafts on St. Louis, as being safer and more portable. John Brainard, his son, was a tall, active and intelligent youth of nineteen, hardy, accustomed to frontier life, and gift- ed with courage and good common sense. His sister Kate, a year younger, was a slender, handsome, bright-eyed brunette, who had already made considerable havoc among the hearts of the frontiersmen, but who loved only her father and her brother, in whom she believed implicitly. The family was accompanied by two other persons, one of whom was an Englishman, who acted in the capacity of a servant, and who was inclined to be fat and timorous, quali- ties that are undesirable in the wilderness, ‘The other was a Canadian half-breed, and an old vyageur, whose immense size and strength were only equaled by his great good nature. A\l- though apparently powerful enough to crush an ox, he wotild not have hurt a fly, unless upon sufficient provocation. He may have had a Christian name, or half a dozen of them, but ‘he was never known by any other designation than Zéte Bois, He was to accompany the Brainard family as far as the fron- tier settlements, and the Englishman—named Thomas—ex- pected to continue in their service when they reached “ the States.’ The party had two covered wagons, well loaded, and a few pack-mules. They were to travel the whole distance on horseback, with the exception of Kate Brainard, who. was comicbooks.com