Beadle's Frontier Series #25: Indian Jim—A Tale of the Minnesota Massacre — page 83: what you’re looking at

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

Sf "TERROR OF YOUNG BRAINERD, : ‘that its feeble glare work reveal eaaetiee to him. Te ~ momentary and feeble blaze served to reveal the towering trees around him, their luxuriant foliage, heavy and still, - and the gloomy recesses beyond; but he saw nothing more. Just as the tiny ember twinkled out in his fingers, he ~ heard a’ sigh—a deep, long-drawn breath, as if the person _ . ‘ x. a making it, was pressed down by an overwhelming weight. ; ; : ‘Young Brainerd was wrought up to that pitch, that he was : ready to imagine anything, and he could not have been ; 7 more frightened, had a whole troop of phantoms gathered | ‘around him; still, the great, shivering terror which pos- E , sessed him entire, was borne down and kept under, by his | ! i agonizing anxiety for his dearest friends. He was just in: that state of mind, when he would have forced himself face to face with the Dark Angel himself. hi The excessive fear of the young man did not prevent. him from noting the direction from which the sigh came. | Be 2 To make assurance doubly sure, he bent his head and | listened agaih, but he could detect nothing. That painful, | deep-drawn sigh, that had sounded so deliberate, and yet i ee so sudden and distinct, was all; there was nothing more, || but it seemed he could still hear that. : ‘Nerving himself, he walked directly toward the point | from which the sound came. Though he moved unhesi- | tatingly, it'was still cautiously. i All at’ once, he struck some object and fell headlong over | it. He heard it struggle to its feet, and then saw it was one of the horses that had been sleeping. Near by, was the other: “Father, mother, dear mother, speak, if you are here.” “Why, I declare, William, is that you? We took you | for some thievish red-skin.” He ee A dark figure approached through the gloom; then an-— other, and another, and still another; until a// stood around | “ Oh, father! are any of you hurt?” He ‘grasped the hand and wrung it, and then fell weeping | upon the heck of his mother; then he embraced his Siat0Fs and Marian dropped almost lifeless: in his arms. ie “Oh; Marian, dearest Marian!” he whispered, as he, pressed her’ fondly to his breast. “ Now I thank God for this! Are you all unharmed?” ce ——- ~~ 4 . eae nth = $ ce te et att te @ ‘ . © be " com a peo ‘S.C com i ner a m/)