Beadle's Dime Novels No. 96: Little Moccasin — page 69: what you’re looking at

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

A SHADOW. 71 of driftwood—but, somehow, it did not seem to be running in the right direction. While wandering up and down the verge to satisfy himself, his attention. was suddenly attracted by. a huge, towering shadow in the sky—a great aboriginal phantom—stretching away off into the gathering dinmess—a floating mystery, coming and going with the whirls of snow. What could it be? ‘ He went nearer—and yet nearer—wondering more and more as it seemed to drift away from him, till he was just ready to give up, and wait for the explanation of daylight, and a clear sky, when it suddenly took the form of that huge, thunder-blasted tree he was in search of, and then, after a short, swift, laborious tramp, in the direction. he had been told to take, the great cloud vanished—the clump of young birches appeared, and the worst of his journey was over. Altogether astonished that he should have come upon them, so much sooner than he expected, and with so little trouble, he stood with folded arms, and head lifted in thank- fulness and trust, fecling as if he had been led by the hand, along that perilous way, and acknowledging to himself, for the first time, that he had been in great danger, and that, notwith- standing all his experience, he might haye perished in the snow, as others had, or been lost in the woods forever, like a friend of his, and a capital hunter, only two or three years before. While musing over such considerations, and almost ready to fall upon his knees where he stood, so abrupt and over- powering was the sudden sense of danger he had escaped, he saw—or thought he saw—something in motion a long way off. It was only a shadow, and was gone before he could trace the outlines—again it appeared, moving toward him through tlfe mist—and then there was a wild cry, like noth- ing human, followed by a dismal shriek far down the gorge —and the next moment, there stood before him, and almost within striking distance, a magnificent figure, in the garb of an Indian chief, with war eagle-feathers towering above his head, a richly decorated robe, and a large, gisiacing knife in his hand, “Go way! go in Wane man! he. etied, in a voice bd . comicbooks. conn