Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 115: what you’re looking at

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

Horse Thieves. 107 _ At least, Cuthbert was wide awake now—the drowsiness had departed from his eyes. He made a second round. The moon shone brightly, and the horses ap- peared to be clustered together more closely than usual. Occasionally one of them would sniff the air, perhaps strike the ground with his fore foot, and then whinny in a peculiar way, throwing up his head and mane, and pushing into the center of the feeding bunch. Cuthbert figured out that the danger, if there was any, must be to windward, else the ponies would not have scented it. As usual, they had made their temporary camp to leeward of the feeding ground, and Karl lay there now asleep. It was his duty, then, to patrol the side where pos- sible danger might lurk. He knew Indian character well enough to make sure that if red horse thieves were in the neighbor- hood they would approach with all caution. : “Perhaps I had better stir Karl up,” he muttered “Two would be more able to handle the difficulty than one.” Then other thoughts came—possibly pride had something to do with the matter, for Cuthbert was a Virginian, with all the confidence that marks those who claim that State for a mother, and he disliked exceedingly the idea of confessing that, after all, in an emergency he was not able to hold his own. It would have been only prudent had he decided to call Karl. Cuthbert found reason to regret his course when it was too late to remedy the matter. The little rise was just to the windward of his sta- tion—perhaps from that point he could see better what lay beyond, for the grass was as yet not long enough to conceal men and horses. cComiclooks C©