José — page 253: what you’re looking at

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

246 JOSE. CHAPTER XVIII. EXPLANATIONS. A bright morning was dawning on a green valley, the first real green which the four adventurers had sighted since leaving the Apache village. Many days of privations and fatigue intervened between them and their starting point, during which their march led them through a seemingly endless waste of sand and stone. Not until five days after striking the Santa Fe wagon trail had they fallen in with a caravan, whose owner, apprised of the fate of their own train gave them a warm reception, while the mules were transferred to his keeping, with the understanding that he would dispose of them at Santa Fe in the interest of the robbed caravan own- ers. The following day the four companions, plentifully supplied with all they required, rode away and soon left the wagon train far in their rear. : They had now reached the point where the final promontories of the Rocky Mountains stretched away toward the edge of the trail. <A turbulent little stream shot downward among the crags, ina hidden green valley near which they made camp after a trying night’s ride. Yet despite the fact that they had had no rest, none of the men appeared disposed to sleep. The early meal had been dis- patched, and Dutch Bill with evident satisfaction had lighted a short pipe, while Green was lying ex- tended in the grass but a short distance away. gazing up into the sky that was slowly being illu- Eomicbooks.co m