Beadle's New Dime Novels, No. 49 — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

38. THORNPATH, THE TRAILER; OR, .“ And why did you consider it fortunate to get lost from them 2” “ Had it been otherwise, Mabel,” he said, a little more sofily, “T would not have had the pleasure of this meeting and the chance of telling you again, that I still love you, and have come to renew my proposal for your hand.” The color flashed to Mabel’s cheeks jn an instant. An unusual light flashed in her dark-brown eyes. _ Her lips curled slightly, haughtily. “Carl Oakley,” she said, firmly, unflinchingly, “do you mean to insult me by repeating your proposals, when twice I told you I can not, wil not be your wife? So long as you deserve my friendship I will be your friend, nothing more. I am sorry, but your ungallantry has provoked me to speak thus harshly.” “T am sorry, too, Mabel,” he said, in a tone meant to he regretful, ‘“‘ but you know, men, in love-matters, are ungal- lant, exacting. But, another motive besides love prompted me to make this third proposal: the knowledge that you will need a slrong arm to protect you from the dangers that the next hour will bring upon you.” “TI do not understand you,” she said, fixing her eyes npor him. “To be more explicit, then, let me tell you that the terri- ble chief, Red Hand, has dug up the hatchet and declared a war of extermination upon the whites, and at this very mo- ment, the chief, with a band of his followers, is coming down from the north like a whirlwind upon your settlement.” Something in the tohe of the speaker Mabel could not fathom—something that made her heart beat violently. She mechanically turned her head as she spoke, and, to her horror, she descried a large number of horsemen far away on the northern horizon riding swiflly toward them. She knew that Oakley had spoken the truth. Turning to address him, she found fo her surprise that he had gone, and Was some dis- tance awily. © She stood like one ina maze, and watched Lim uutil he had disappeared in the timber ; then she ran with all ber might toward the cabins, taking a different route from that whicb she came. At # spring, a short distance from the cabins, sLe “at ConmiclookxsS.conn ~ : =. + . < ;