José — page 185: what you’re looking at

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

178 JOSE, was only yesterday we were attacked; so you see it can’t be the trail of the band that pillaged the train! What say, old man?” turning to the guide. Bob raised his head, with a mocking smile upon his face. | _ “ Ay, how is it,” he replied; “that while I was at the fort I knew four or five days beforehand of the coming of the caravan, and made an effort to warn it? The Indian scouts are equally swift, and the band that crossed at this point knew enough to be on hand in time to share in the work of pillage. I think,” he continued with a nod; “we sha’n’t bea day ere we’ll find the other trail merge into this one.” | “T haven’t another word to say!” rejoined the freighter. pushing his hat down over his forehead. “I’m only anxious to begin work in order to do penance for my sins.” After an hour’s lapse, the little band was once more under way, pursuing the trail. The sun. was approaching meridian when Bob, who was in ad- vance, halted, pointing to a broad track in the grass, merging, at an acute angle, into the trail they had hitherto followed. Without deigning a word the hunter marched on, only increasing the scope of his steps. At this point the prairie assumed. an undulating surface. When finally they went into camp at the banks of a shallow brook, winding away between a series of ridges, Bob broke several shady boughs at the sparse undergrowth that lined the shore. “We must be prepared, constituted as the ground is hereabout, to encounter the redskins at almost any time and unexpectedly, and hence it will be prudent to avoid every shade of suspicion while we Eomichooks co m