Laura Brayton — page 181: what you’re looking at

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

172 LAURA BRAYTON. look, and looking toward the house, saw that several servants were moving about the grounds, so near thata pistol-shot would instantly attract them, he laid down the pistol which he at first seemed inclined to use, and hastily taking off his coat, wrapped it around his left arm, and then drew with his right a long, murderous, double-edged knife or dagger. Hardly breathing, his teeth close set together, a fierce, savage look in his face, he watched the animal as, the scent freshening, it Fnoredsed its speed. A moment more, and bursting in through the thick branches of cedar and pine, the animal was before him. | A second its fiery eyes glared at the intruder, then, without noise, open-mouthed, it bounded at his throat. Thrusting his left arm with the speed of light in between the open jaws of the fierce beast, Joe, even as he fell back under its weight and onslaught, drove the knife to the hilt in behind the shoulder of the beast, and both came to the earth together, the blood spouting all over him as he withdrew the knife only to bury it again and again in the _ body above him. The repeated blows were unnecessary. The first had done the work. The dog was dead, and getting out from under the bleeding body, the ruffian un- wrapped the coat from his arm, which despite the covering had been punctured by the fangs of the ferocious animal. “*“Twas well for me I thought 0’ that!” Joe mut- tered, as he looked at his arm and the perforated coat. “A chap with them jaws on his throat would never squeak but once!” “-comicbooks com