Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 163: what you’re looking at

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

Taking French Leave. 151 To-night, then, he would, like the Arab, “fold his tent and silently steal away.” Cuthbert would possibly have enjoyed hearing more of the interesting conversation between the two trick conspirators, but he felt that time was too valuable just now to spend any more of it there. Besides, there was always more or less chance that discovery might come. Accordingly, he moved away in much the same style as he had advanced. There was a great deal to be done if he expected to quit the Sioux village in the manner he had planned. First, he must secure his Winchester rifle and what cartridges remained, for Cuthbert knew the perils that might beset him on the great lonely wastes, and would have hesitated to accept his free- dom at the expense of going over that long route defenseless. It was in the keeping of the old medicine man, and Cuthbert had frequently borrowed it for hunt- ing purposes, a supply of cartridges having turned up among other things stowed away in that wonder- ful lodge of necromancy. He found the “doctor,” as usual, at home, and fancied the old fellow’s beady eyes were a trifle more piercing than ordinary when he placed the gun in his hand. The belt, too, was completely filled with shells, a circumstance that made Cuthbert wonder if his old friend half suspected the truth. All doubt was dispelled when at parting the med- icine man gripped his hand and uttered some magic words, as though he would invoke success upon his mission. After all, he was a rare old fraud, and Cuthbert would long remember his friendly ways—what fruit had sprung from his flattering designation of the Comiclooks C@