Beadle's Dime Novels No. 96: Little Moccasin — page 56: what you’re looking at

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

58 LITTLE -MOCCASIN. the fading light no longer enabled him to trace the distant line as before, and was no help to him, if he stopped to ex- amine a sign by itself. What was to be done? It grew darker—so dark that he began to feel unsafe and a little nervous; and so, at last, he determined to look about for some hollow tree, or some quiet hole in the rocks, where he could not be taken by surprise, and there rest awhile, and take a bite of the pork and beans he had brought with him, and wait for the moon: to rise. He soon found just what he wanted—an opening in the ledge, completely protected on both sides and arched overhead, so that he could only be approached in front; and there he threw himself down, with his rifle over his knees, and helped himself, and waited, until he felt as if he we to follow that trail to the ends of the if” light on it once more. But how would it be possible, now that all traces were lost, and be = ikely: to be recovered at the morrow ? a At the end of another he p rolled the moon through a sky that seemed all alive with coruscations and flashes, while the earth below flung back the yellowish light, and the glit- tering crust, and the dancing sprays, and the cloudy branches of hemlocks and cedars and. pines, answered flash with flash ; and the deep shadows were projected athwart the openings, so that the siightest motion might be seen at. a en distance. FS But moonlight was hardly more favorable than twilight for Gage; and while he was easting about with himself, undeter- mined what to do; and neither willing to pursue the search all night nor to lie by without proper covering, lest he should fall asleep, he caught a glimpse of somebody moving through the distant wood, just where it opened upon a new Clearing. It was evidently a man, however, and not a boy, nor any wild creature of the aboriginal solitude. Snatching up his gun, he started off in pursuit of the shape, careful not to show himself near the edge of the wood, nor in the clearing, and determined, if possible, to head it off. Obliged to be exceed- ingly cautious, and to lose no little time in maneuvering, he found it no easy matter, for the first hour, to keep the stranger - connicloooks. com