Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 82: what you’re looking at

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

74 A Dakota Blizzard. There was little need of urging Cuthbert to look, since his eyes were glued upon the big gray wolf that had shambled along unsteadily until close up to the buffalo cow. Then up rose the wolf on his hind legs, and seemed to go through some maneuvre as though pawing the air. Karl uttered a low ejaculation, as a sharp “twang” came to their ears, borne by the breeze. At the same time the gray wolf dropped again upon all fours. The bison had ceased feeding and trotted heav- ily toward the remainder of the herd. There was an unsteadiness in her gait that Karl’s quick eye detected. ‘Watch her drop!” he whispered. Sure enough, the big beast seemed overcome with weariness before reaching her companions, she stag- gered, sank to her knees, and then rolled over in a way that was peculiar, to say the least—twice she essayed to rise again, but, unequal to the effort, finally lay still. “Dead,” said Karl, positively. “What ?” gasped Cuthbert, wondering what it all meant, and if he were under a spell. “Watch the gay old deceiver, Mr. Wolf,’ was what the cowboy said. There was a distinct shade of bitterness in his tone, which aroused Cuthbert’s curiosity still more, until it affected his nerves, and he was actually _ trembling with eagerness to discover the explan- ation of these strange things. Nevertheless, he fastened his eyes on the beast of prey, as though the wolf might after all prove the key of the whole puzzle. The wolf was repeating his remarkable actions, creeping up toward a bull that in feeding had left the balance of the herd. connicloookks.conn