The Prairie Detective: Secret Service Series No. 24 — page 147: what you’re looking at

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

THE PRAIRIE DETECTIVE. 145 hardy beasts which had borne them munched upon porain taken from the sacks with which the two or three riderless horses were loaded. For some time Marian was unable to determine why such an uncomfortable- spot had been selected for the camp. but she was not kept in suspense. Several of the Bloodsuckers were soon busy making a kind of rude forge out of stones picked up from the river bottom. They then produced from one of the large sacks a heap of charcoal and some tools. “What are they going to do&’ asked the girl of her father. ‘“‘T’m sure I don’t know, my child. But I should think they were about to open a blacksmith shop.”’ This random surmise proved to be nearly correct, for as soon. as the fire had been lighted the men be- gan to remove the shoes from the feet of their horses, turning them around, and fastening them on in a reversed direction. : “Thunder!’’? exclaimed old Doc Harper, when he fully understood the purport of this design. “They are reversing the shoes so as to leave a backward trail. You see, when we are going west, the tracks will indicate that we are taking a course that is di- rectly opposite. W-h-e-w! Itis a shrewd game.” - The work was finished by three in the afternoon, and after every trace of the halt had been removed from the rock, they prepared to depart. Just as they were about to mount, Hatfield’s men, who had followed with but little rest, came riding down the stream. Marian and her father were over- joyed to observe that the party was unaccompanied by Esther, - They noticed» that Bull and Hatfield, whose arm was in a sling, conferred apart for some > - ‘ & sal : cComicbooks co