Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 112: what you’re looking at

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

104 Horse Thieves. They spoke of the future, and Cuthbert even laid plans of how they would tour Europe on horseback some summer when Karl was on his vacation from ccllege. Youth can conjure up such brilliant and pleasant fancies, stepping over years as though gifted with the famous seven-league boots. But at least this exchange of confidences brought the two young friends still closer together, if such a thing were possible. They did not neglect their business, and the horses were carefully guarded each night. Karl never breathed a word of what was said, and it was a mystery just how the news got abroad, but about this time the word seemed to pass among the boys that they had been entertaining an angel un- awares—that the erstwhile tenderfoot, who had proudly earned his right to the title of night- wrangler, herder and cowboy, was a young million- aire of Virginia, able to buy up a dozen ranches with all the cattle then on the ranges, if he chose. Perhaps some lost letter of Cuthbert’s, from his lawyer, it might be, gave the story away. The boys had liked him before for his frank and manly character—they worshiped him now as a young Midas whose touch could turn everything into gold—such is the astonishing power of wealth, even on a lonely cattle ranch. No one could get a word from Cuthbert on the subject—he was annoyed to discover that it had come out, fearing that the old familiar freedom of the happy-go-lucky cow punchers would be dis- turbed by the fact that he was wealthy. . He did not know how utterly independent a cow- boy may be on his native heath, ready to hobnob with prince or Russian Grand Duke, as Alexis found during his buffalo hunt under the guidance of Buf- falo Bill. connicloookks.€©