Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 227: what you’re looking at

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

Where Karl Went. 215 just when Jasper decided it was time to mount and be off. Grumbling in an undertone at the miserable luck of the thing, Karl was forced of necessity to run back to where Buckskin had been left, so that he might be in a condition to take up the chase. A disappointment ten times as big as this was not going to disconcert or discourage him—indeed, his temperament was such that it really served to strengthen his resolution to keep on to the end. Perhaps Caleb Cross would not be able to quite get out of his mind the fancy that he had seen a face back of the grass. It might make him suspicious and cause him to glance frequently to the rear, so that he would be in a position to discover the boy should the conditions favor his being outlined on a rise against the sky. This was just what did happen. Those in advance, of course, did not know who their indefatigable pursuer was, but took immediate pains to baffle his design. There were various ways to do this, and they neg- lected the easiest, which was for one of them to slip down, hide in the grass, and shoot the horseman as he came up. Karl was compelled to keep so far in the rear that he was unaware of the trick that was being played until an opportunity came to sight those he followed. To his intense dismay, not to say disgust, he dis- covered them to be but three in number, the other couple, together with the girl, had utterly vanished from the scene. Karl knew there was no necromancy about the af- fair; he had simply been outwitted that was all, be- ing utterly unaware as to when and where the divi- sion had taken place. Naturally, he had followed the noisy party, leav- ing the others to slip away unmolested. cComiclbooks C©