Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 156: what you’re looking at

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

144 Taking French Leave. cover the weak point of his adversary, and put him on his back so suddenly that the Indian brave did not know how it was done. After that he had things his own way, but in- stead of lording it over his companions, he con- sidered it policy to seek their friendship. Every day saw some ambitious youngster chal- lenge the intruder to a new test of endurance. Sometimes these were of a character so utterly unfamiliar to Cuthbert that he lost the first round, but took it good-naturedly, and in the return bout was sure to come out ahead. Thus he finally came to the conclusion that de- spite their training from infancy, the young Sioux braves were not equal man for man to many tough cowboys he knew, and that the Indian race was far inferior as a whole to the white in physical as well as mental calibre. He began to despair of gaining their good will. An Indian finds it hard to torgive one who has humiliated him. These successive victories cost him friends, since each defeated competitor nursed the savage desire for revenge. In time Cuthbert would doubtless have had trouble with these fellows, eager to bring about his downfall; but the drama was hastened to a conclu- sion by other events that had not been down upon — the programme. The fact that he was more or less spied upon by some of these disgruntled boys made the task he had set for himself the more difficult. They were apt to discover what he had in mind, and disclose the whole thing to the chief. If Standing Elk learned of his secret preparations for flight, the game would be up. His privileges would be curtailed, and they would make him a prisoner in truth, ConniclooOckks.€©