Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 65: what you’re looking at

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

The Indian Foray. 57 There they were, lodged in two trees with a sav- age and determined foe beneath. Cuthbert was dismayed. Not so his friend—perhaps he had never gone through with this experience before, but others had, and he could profit by their recital of how they outwitted Bruin. Accordingly Karl suggested that the other make a fish-line out of some cord, fasten a fork cut from the tree to one end and angle for the gun, while he pretended to descend and kept the attention of the shaggy monster. All of which Cuthbert entered into with a zest that came of newly-awakened hope and ambition. It was quite a tedious job, and failure stared them in the face, when a last lucky effort served to fasten the wooden fork in the guard of the trigger. After that it was very simple, and old Bruin paid the debt of nature; but he was a stubborn chap, and it took all of six bullets, planted where they were apt to do the most good, to bring him to time. — There was something to admire in his sturdy de- fiance, refusing to cut and run even after receiving such painful wounds, and Cuthbert was really glad when the scene came to its inevitable conclusion. Polly proved a little angel of the ranch, and never a man but who would have laid down his life for her. The sound of her sweet voice raised in song was like the rippling of a cheery brook gurgling over moss-covered stones in the cool shades of the forest, and more than one hardened case bit his tongue to repress the rough oath he had been about to utter. The boys she looked upon in the light of broth- ers—to them she felt she owed her escape from the bad Indians, and in many ways was she enabled to show the deep gratitude that lodged within her gentle little breast. cComiclooks C©