Beadle's Dime Novels, No. 91: The Lost Cache — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

= 96 THE LOST CACHE. to.rule, you must never camp on the side of the river whar’ you find yourself at night.” “That is true; I had forgotten. We must lose.no time in crossing, for it is getting late, and I am both hungry and tired.” | The scene was a glorious one. The party, with their little train, had wound their way over the broad and rolling prairie, -iotted here and there with islands or groves of timber, until they had reached a river, the banks of which were lined with cottonwoods and willows. Before them, on the opposite side of the river, stretched out the same rolling prairie, gradually breaking into gullies and ridges, which soon became more _ rugged and mountainous, until they blended with the immense masses of the Rocky range. Behind that vast and seemingly impassable barrier between the Atlantic and Pacific slopes, the sun was setting, tinting the clouds with rose-red and gold, and shedding over the prairie a strange luster, that added. bril- liancy to the many-hued flowers sparkling among the green and luxuriant grass. It added, too, a deeper color to the yel- low surface of the river, which was swollen by a recent freshet, and rushed on its way to the far distant ocean with a rapid and muddy current. The party consisted of Harry Chenault, Sam Myers, and two'experienced hunters, named Ben Farrar and Pete Green. They were mounted, and were accompanied by two loaded wagons, drawn by horses. It was near dusk when they reached the river, and found that it presented quite a formid- able obstacle to their further progress, for it was fully ten rods wide, and more than ten feet deep_at that time. It was the difficulty of making the crossing that had caused Myers to sug- gest that the camp should be struck where they were. “Tt is very easy to talk about camping on the other side of the river,” said Harry, “but I would like to know how you propose to get over there.” “Tt will take time,” arfswered Farrar, “ but it is not a very hard thing’ to do, and we will have a moon. Horses. can swim by natur’, and I reckon one of us can swim well enough to carry a line across.” “Tam the man for that job, ” said Myers; “TI sonia swim as soon as J eould talk plain.” Comiclookxs.conn