Beadle's Frontier Series #25: Indian Jim—A Tale of the Minnesota Massacre — page 82: what you’re looking at

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

INDIAN JIM, overhead, or the soft rustle of the wind. . In this manner, — he penetrated several hundred yards, and occupying full . a half hour in doing so, without siscovering any thing positive or tangible. a i OE te te Be 4 = ein COO 4S te a ee ee «oe eo, lip A g ae ee SO ede ee tee” ee et i ee eT th a Oe a Ss oe a * See iy Sane OP tnd ichenns _— T ’ et =) . = er a Az . ed < oer, fe we y* Sad Pee”. 5 ‘ er P 9 bag ee a Fo s =e ae t= a Se ae : —— aha ee ee a ~~ > , oe “2 Again he paused, and nothing rewarded the acute atten- tion. He moved on, and then halted, for, there, directly before him, stood the wagon! Although, as we have shown, he had progressed a considerable distance, still he _ was but a rod or so from the edge of the wood, so that the wagon could have been easily forced into this position: To convince himself there was no illusion, young | Brainerd reached out his hand and placed it upon the wheel. The cold touch of the tire, was proof positive that he was not mistaken. “Father, father, mother, dear mother, are you there in _ the wagon?” No reply followed this agonizing question, and unable to contain himself, he sprung into the wagon. A dark object, near the front, caught his eye. It felt soft beneath his - touch. It was a bundle merely; there was nothing else _ there—even the seats being gone. Young Brainerd then went over the fore part of the wagon. Both horses were gone. Sick at heart,-~he pressed — his hands to his forehead, as if to prevent the distressing thoughts from setting his brain on fire. What could all this mean? What had become of those loved ones for whom he was seeking f Had the fiendish red-men been | here? His first impulse was to hurry back after Christian Jim; ~ but his impatience would not permit it. No; he must pro- _ secute this hunt, until something definite was ascertained. + He groped around upon the ground, expecting each moment - to encounter some dead body. It was too dark for him to see any thing, but his hands entered the indentations made . by the horses’ hoofs. They were numerous and close to- — gether; and to his overstrained mind, this was certain § -. evidence that they had struggled fariously with some one. § Both were fiery, and high-mettled, and would not have § submitted tamely to the approach of a stranger. | 5 Searching, thus blindly, without learning any thing more, he paused, rose to the upright position, and,. drawing a _ bunch of matches from his pocket, ignited one, in.the hope (EO) Eomichbooks