Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 164: what you’re looking at

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

152 Taking French Leave. ancient quack as a “doctor”—surely it pays to make friends, even with the wizard of a Sioux village. The gun and belt he secreted in a hollow tree, which already served him as a storehouse, wherein at intervals he had deposited such food as dried deer and buffalo meat, to serve him on his expected journey. | The task that next must engage his attention was the securing of his mount. Buckskin must be secretly taken from the corral, and hidden in the woods. This, however, could not be accomplished until the village was wrapped in slumber. He came in late to supper, and purposely avoided the chief’s tepee, where the cowboy still sat, in deep consultation with his willing ally. No doubt it was intended that on the morrow the true state of affairs should be broken to the boy, and the first step taken looking toward the reali- zation of their wonderful plans. — Cuthbert grimly determined that when that mor- row came he would be many miles on the road to Sunset Ranch, and hummed to himself: ‘“ ‘They have fleet steeds who follow,’ quoth young Lochin- var.” Somehow the anticipation of what lay in store . for him aroused Cuthbert’s dormant ambition, and he actually quivered with the eager thought of pit- ting his boyish powers against the much-vaunted prowess of these dusky sons of the wilderness. Standing Elk came several times out of his tepee and looked toward where Cuthbert wrestled with the Indian lads, teaching them some of the tricks he had picked up from the cow punchers and herd- ers, among whom was a professional boxer. Cuthbert dreaded lest the old chief should demand his presence, and an explosion follow, after which COnnicloOolks.€©