Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 211: what you’re looking at

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

All for. Polly. 199 As for her uncle, he threw aside the mask, since a sanctified face would avail no longer, and the look he gave Mr. Kelly and his cowboys was that of an infuriated tiger. “Very good. You win now, but my day will come, as sure as my name is Jasper Hosmer.” He was wise enough to limit his harangue to _ these few words, for the Sunset Ranch boys were in a humor to have ducked him in the mill pond; per- haps even tarred and feathered him, did he go too far. He rode away, boiling with wrath, but wise enough to repress it. A mile away he turned and shook his fist at the ranch, even as Marmion of old did his mail-clad hand when he had cleared the drawbridge trembling on the rise at Douglas Castle, after defying the proud Scottish laird. There was a yelp, as of dogs let loose from the leash, and every eager cowboy sprang for his horse, longing to pursue the fellow and drag him at the end of a rope; but Mr. Kelly sternly forbade the least effort being made to impede Jasper Hosmer’s withdrawal from the scene. “Only remember, that I draw the line there. If the skunk shows up again, he means evil, and I don’t want to know anything about it,” by which he meant they were to have a free hand in dealing with the fellow should he come prowling about with the idea of stealing Polly or doing her protectors any dam- age. This had to satisfy them. Polly was the happiest girl in all the prairie coun- try that night. For some time she had secretly dreaded lest this so-styled uncle might turn up again, since he was a cat with nine lives; and, knowing his unkind treat- ment of old, she shuddered at the prospect of being cComiclboooks C©