Beadle's New Dime Novels: The Specter Chief — page 31: what you’re looking at

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

a o ‘ _ THE PHANTOM CHIEF. 85 the current of a nafrow ehannel which swept around the. northernmost of two sma.. islands lying below the one near which Bild Eagle had first been seen. To attempt to regain the bo:ly was evidently an experiment of too du- bious a nature to be justified by any benefit to be derive from ita possession, now that it had been seen from the ehore. The reader must not be astonished at the perseverance which agaiv urged on their course; the company collected in the large boat. In these days of quiet and security, we cannot readily conceive the temper of the men who faced the dangers of our frontiers before the dominion of the whites was firmly settled. It was not uncommon that a family were massacred in the most revolting manner, and yet, within a few miles, other families continned to reside for weeks afterwards; some of the members keeping guard while the others pursued the usual ocenpations of house or field. To arrest the progress of a band of such as were in the Flat-bottom, would have require! the presence of perils so great as to rendera prosecuiion of their journey Worse than foolhardin-ss, Marie was now conpelle| to submit to the majority. Sammoned from Puilalelphia to meet her uncle, she was acquiring her first prcticu les- sons respecting the Indiap eoun'ry; and thus far tbey had been anything but agreeable. Yet the rapid succes- sion of untoward incidents which had hitherto character- ized her voyage, was producing a submi-sive state of mind, which, if it deserves not the name of fortitude, af- fords at least some of its advantages, Colonel Victor aud Fenton embraced every suitable opportunity to relate anec-~ dotes of successful travel, an’ to dwell on the beautics of the river, The height of the water enabled them ta ®ee many parts of the neighboring country, which, hater in _ the year, when the depth is less by many feet, would have ~ been entirely hidden by the banks, And itmust be a per- -Yerse grief which refuses to yiel in any degree to the in- . _ fluenee of such scenery as is everywhere presented along the Ohio. The very wildness of its solitade—the mijestic - wmeeping of the stream here, overhuns by a dark-beawed * . : comicbooksr¢om