The Child of Waterloo, or, The Horrors of the Battle-Field — page 29: what you’re looking at

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

26 THE CHILD OF WATERLOO. ‘* Then beware!” ‘‘ I heed not your threats. Leo, boy, look at him!” The dog advanced close to the swinging gate, and then sat down and stared the man in the face, while he now and then gave a low growl, and licked his immense tongue round his jaws, as if to warn hin that if he attempted to move away, another grip would be the consequence. ‘* Mabel!” at this moment cried a vvice, and a young lad, whose age might be the same as hers, or possibly a year colder, made his appearance, carrying 1n his hand a light fowling-piece. ** Mabel, you here!” - Yes, Charles, yes—yes, I have been frightened by that man.” ‘‘ Indeed! Let him take care of himself.” ‘*‘ ‘Leo has him safe, Charles—Leo has him safe. But J] think I will let him go now.” ‘Gol Nosuch thing. Hallo, you fellow! Oh, look, Mabel!” The man had produced a long glittering knife, and, with a fiendish expression, he suddenly cried,— ‘“Now send your dog on, and I’! soon let out his heart’s blood.” ‘‘Drop that knife,” said the lad, as he presented his gun. ‘‘ Drop that knife, or, as you are aliving man, I'll send a charge of number four in your face.” ! ‘“‘Let him go—oh, let him go!” said Mabel, who felt much ter- rified at the turn affairs had taken. ‘‘Leo—Leo! Here, boy!” The dog came to ber immediately, and she cried out: ‘*Go—go! you are free to go.” ‘* If it’s your wish, Mabel, to let him go,” said Charles, ‘“* he may; but my brother Henry, I know, if he was here, would not.” ** Hark you, Mabel,” said the fellow, as he turned away, ‘the wisest thing you ever said in your life, was ‘let him go.’ You'll live to know that some of these days, and that at no very dis- tant time either.” | So saying. he dashed off among the trees, and ina few mo- ments completely disappeared. Poor Mabel was glad to lean upon the arm of Charles Morton, for that was the youth’s name, and what with the fright, and the tumult of her thoughts, joined to the exhaustion of more exercise than she had been accustomed to, she had only strength sufficient to reach the threshold of the farm-house, and then consciousness deserted her, and she fainted, to the great terror and grief of her young companion, who filled the hall with his lainentations. CHAPTER VII. THE cries of Charles very quickly brought every member of the household to the spot, and from the nature of his lamenta- tions, the excess of his grief, and the frantic manner in which he called aloud for aid, every one feared that some dreadful and serious calamity must have befallen her, who was the beloved of all hearts, from the highest to the lowest, in that pleasant and united household. comicbooks. com