Beadle's Dime Novels No. 97: The Doomed Hunter — page 75: what you’re looking at

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

SURPRISED. 77 “Let us hope for the best, dearest. I am-well used to these forests, and ifthey do not get a glimpse of us J have no doubt we can elude them, even if they should get upon our trail.” They rose to go, Ralph supporting the weary form of the dear girl as they moved through a mass of bushes and under- growth, where their progress was very slow and difficult. At every step her garments caught and tore. “Oh, how provoking !” she exclaimed, as her dress caught upon a smal] unseen thorn-bush, from which it was no easy task to extricate it. Stepping back to loosen the grasp of the sharp spurs, something in the forest beyond caught her attention, and with a low cry of horror and despair she sunk low among the bushes. Ralph looked quickly up for the cause of her alarm, and his own emotions were none of the pleasantest, on beholding a stealthy Indian gliding through the forest, scarcely a hun- dred yards away! Fora single moment he stood spell-bound, then threw himself upon the ground beside Nancy. Possibly the savage had not espied them, and would pass without being aware of their presence. He had certainly manifested no knowledge of their proximity, and the bushes were sufficiently high to shelter them from sight, unless he came very near. In any case Ralph felt that they could do no better. To flee: or fight—the only resorts. which suggested themselyes—was im- possible. “ We are lost, lost /” groaned Nancy, whose fond yisions of rest and safety were all seattered in a moment, “*Sh ?’ whispered Ralph. “ Hemay notsee us. If we are careful not to attract his attention it is hardly probable that he will take the pains to pass through this bramble. Do you lie close, while I push up through these briers and see. what direction he takes.” Nancy complied implicitly, and Ralph, by cautiously rais- ing his head, was soon enabled to see the ground where the Indian had stood. As he expected, the savage was not there ; neither was he at any point between. Satisfied that he had moved away in some other direction, Ralph, strangely enough, forgot a portion of his habitual cunning, and raised his head still higher, in the hope of posit, the red-man. Naturally he comicloooks. conn