Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 281: what you’re looking at

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

The Last Round-Up. 269 exerting herself to the utmost in order to make amends for the past. Little Buckshot, loaded with honors and presents, had departed to his people; a prouder young buck certainly never bestrode a pony than he seemed to be on the morning he left the ranch, turning several times to wave a dignified and graceful farewell to his paleface friends. They would never forget him, and the boys, re- membering the circumstances when they first made his acquaintance and the opinion they had then formed, were prone to believe that even the best judges of human nature may sometimes be mis- taken. Mr. Kelly brought great news one night on his return from Helena, whither he had gone on busi- ness connected with making a heavy shipment of cattle East. At last the Government had been aroused to the fact that the Bad Lands harbored a nest of vipers in the shape of every refugee driven from mining camp, border settlement and cattle ranch within hundreds of miles. A force of cavalrymen had been sent out to break up the gang, and bring a few of the most noted des- peradoes to judgment. The result had been something of a pitched bat- tle, in which the troopers lost several men, but in- flicted terrible damage upon the outcast horde, scat- tering them to the four winds, capturing a few, and leaving others for the coyotes. It was a great day for the cattle rangers when this settlement was utterly wiped out by fire and the sword. Perhaps less damage would be done among the horses and cattle during the winter months, with these thieves scattered through the country. And Mr. Kelly privately told the boys he had COMIC DOO S C©