The Prairie Detective — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

THE PRAIRIE DETECTIVE, . Lie CHAPTER II. SYCAMORE DAN. In order to give a clear understanding of the con- dition of affairs, and explain the presence of the two strangers, it will be necessary to go back a little in my story, and ask my readers to accompany me as far as the national capital at Washington. The morning train from New York had just ar- rived, upon a windy day in midwinter. Among the hundred or more passengers was one with whom we shall deal extensively before this narrative reaches its final chapter. There was nothing in particular about him to ar- — rest attention, but if you had watched him closely you could scarcely have failed to see that he was not in any respect an ordinary man. His soft felt hat, with its broad brim, was pulled well over his fore- head, so as to conceal the restless workings of his watchful gray eyes, which were the most noticeable features about him. They never seemed altogether quiet, but roamed from point to point, taking in all that was going on about him. There was a singular fact connected with this strange faculty, and that was the facility which the gray eyes possessed to take in every point about anything they fell upon in a single fraction of an instant. One sweeping look up the street, and our friend knew every face, every form, every sign, and every building in his range of vision. It was the comprehensive genius of sight, trained and drilled into perfection. Eomicbooks com