The Prairie Detective: Secret Service Series No. 24 — page 95: what you’re looking at

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

THE PRAIRIE DETECTIVE. 93 trying task of cutting the way for himself and chil- dren. But the Bloodsuckers closed in around him rapidly, and he was soon surrounded by ten or a dozen men, against whom his efforts were hopeless. In the encounter which followed the girls were separated, Marian clinging closely to her father, while Esther was thrust rudely to one side by the ruffians, who were, however, too intent upon their task of overcoming her father to notice who she was. For an. instant after she had been torn from those she loved she remained irresolute. Then a vague, indefinite fear took possession of her, and before she could question the motive which urged her on, she turned and fled. Heedless of many falls and bruises, and moved by an impulse which she strove in vain to check,she flew along over the ground with rapidity. She knew that she was not doing right to leave her parent and sis- ter alone in the hands of the murdering band, but she could no more have stopped in her wild» flight than she could have moved the world from its course. The irresistible law of self-presérvation guided her ‘steps, and would not be gainsaid. It was a strug- gle of nature against will, and for the time being the former was triumphant. Half unconscious, yet actuated by the dim terror which had seized her and nerved her on, she sped over the ground with renewed rapidity, Thesounds | of the battle grew fainter and fainter in the far dis- tance, and still Esther plunged ahead, now tripping over some obstacle and falling heavily to the ground, then springing again to her feet, and dashing away at the top of her speed. For an hour ‘her pace did not slacken or her strength abate. But the exertion was so violent that gS) (Efe) cEomicboo