Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 129: what you’re looking at

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

The Sioux Village. 119 darkly at him and probably tried his best to com- prehend it all. Be it said to the Virginia boy’s credit that his own desperate situation did not give him half the anxiety he experienced for Karl. The Indians were not averse to him riding the vic- ious Buckskin nag—perhaps some of them had en- deavored to do so with only a rope hackamore to control the little demon, and speedily found cause to regret their daring, _ The rope was transferred to the neck of the broncho, and during the ride some of the young bucks managed to keep alongside their prisoner. However anxious Cuthbert may have been he dis- guised his feelings admirably, and endeavored to en- ter into conversation with one and then another of the Sioux. Weary as they were, the braves did not seem in a humor to talk, and beyond an occasional “how” or a guttural grunt, he extracted little information from them. The dawn came. Cuthbert found, as he suspected, that their course was generally due north as the crow flies. _ He knew then they were aiming for the far-dis- tant Sioux village by the Sweetwater. Many mysteries would have to be explained be- fore he could understand why these red men wanted to run off with a white cowboy at the time they raided his stock—a dangerous proceeding, since he would be in a position to identify the horse thieves should a force of cavalry be sent in pursuit, as some- times happened. With the rising of the sun the ghostly fears and phantoms of the night fled, and he was able to get what enjoyment was possible out of the situation. Among the braves around him he saw one who appeared better natured than the rest, and at once COmicloOoks C©